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How To Get
From The Front Door To The Car
By: Chris McDonough
Somebody (I don’t know
who) said that an INFP is someone who gets lost between
the front door and the car. I am INFP and that statement
describes me very well. An INFP will know that the car
is the goal but will take so many side-trips (physical,
intellectual, and emotional) that the car may never be
reached.
You might expect, then,
that an INFP would be at a total loss for organizational
ability. This isn’t true, because the less dominant
Thinking and Judging functions can be summoned at need
to allow an INFP to perform organizational skills.
Calvin of Calvin and
Hobbes is often given as an example of INFP. Calvin
seems perfectly normal to me. I don’t know why people
think he’s funny. But I recognize Hobbes, the tiger.
He’s the aspect that surfaces to deal with practical
world. The humour is in the extremes. Most INFPs are
somewhere along the middle range of Perception.
It is healthy to summon a
recessive trait, to awaken a sleeping tiger, in case of
need. It is also healthy to restrain this seemingly new
power. Awareness is the key. The business world, in
particular, demands Thinking and Judging organizational
skills. Under this pressure, an INFP can summon the
recessive TJ and place it in the starring role, rather
than its natural supporting role. If the role reversal
becomes permanent, the cost to personal satisfaction is
too high. INFPs in this situation are likely to have
success, money, friends, and misery. They gave the whole
show to TJ, who is exhausted, while poor FP starves.
Is INFP handicapped,
then, in this highly organized world of ours? Not at
all! A good example is my own specialty – what office
workers call “putting out fires.” My INFP plays the
major role, flitting from crisis to crisis in true INFP
fashion, analyzing and solving them, while my supporting
TJ takes notes. I never go anywhere in an office without
a notepad. In truth, INFP carries the notepad; TJ writes
in it. INFP deals with the issues. TJ makes and reviews
the notes, writes the memos, and keeps the records. The
unstructured job kept me happy as INFP. It’s important
to distinguish between the kinds of decisions that I was
happy with: they were based on long experience in a
complicated field with right answers. I knew the right
answers. This isn’t the same as making snap decisions in
unprecedented situations, which would not be ideal for
an INFP at all.
An area where an INFP
needs guidance is setting goals. Goals are often built
into a job description, which can simplify professional
life. On a personal level, however, an INFP might need
prodding to set goals and guidance as to priorities. As
their first goal, for instance, many people would write
“Pay off mortgage.” Mine was “Swim with dolphins.”
Obviously, a nudge from a counselor (or maybe a
recessive trait) would be useful. The Intuitive function
that is so useful to an INFP must be allowed its input
to the goal-setting process. This is why INFP goals may
seem a little odd to people who greet the world in a
more Sensate manner. The same balance should be allowed
in structuring paths to reach goals.
Now that we’ve set goals
and steps to achieve them, we have only to follow the
path to the goals. In other words, we have to try to get
from the front door to the car. It can be done if INFP
is continually hip-checked back onto the path by TJ.
However, completely unrelieved attention to goals will
result in a very frustrated INFP driving a car that she
has come to loathe. No, INFP must take the detours to
meet the world through Intuition, to evaluate by
Feeling, and to exercise Perception. TJ, with the maps,
organizational lists, and pie-charts, must stand aside.
At agreed intervals, TJ can bump INFP back onto the
path. After many happy detours and returns, INFP will
succeed in going from the front door to the car – goal
achieved! |
