MBTI's Concrete Impact on Your Life | INFJ Forum

MBTI's Concrete Impact on Your Life

Ren

Ren

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Oct 10, 2017
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Hi guys,

I've been thinking recently that consciously or not, my knowledge of MBTI and types informs my decision-making in many areas of my social and professional life.

So I was wondering if you had examples, from your own life that is, of your knowledge of MBTI impacting the way you dealt with certain people, the approach you took to resolving a particular problem or tricky situation; or anything else.

I have lots of examples in mind but I'll give a very simple one. I have established that my manager is ENTJ. Well, I think that prior to becoming familiar with MBTI, if I had had her as my manager, I would perhaps have struggled with her very matter-of-fact feedback and short, efficiency-oriented meetings, feeling that I needed a bit more emotional support and questioning myself as a result. But instead, I feel like knowing that she is ENTJ has allowed me to be completely comfortable with her managing style and even to appreciate it. After all, it's quite nice to have a boss who doesn't beat around the bush and doesn't ramble on for no reason. Lastly, I can even detect the manner in which she shows care and I believe this is partly thanks to knowing about Fi.

This is an example of a concrete (and clearly positive) impact of MBTI on my life. What about you, my friends? :)
 
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@Pin

Any thoughts on this excellent ENTJ manager of mine? Am I approaching her correctly? :innocent:
 
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Ren said:
@Pin

Any thoughts on this excellent ENTJ manager of mine? Am I approaching her correctly? :innocent:
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Yeah, just do what she says. Don't ask too many questions or she'll think you're either stupid or challenging her authority.

Also, if she pees on you she's just marking her territory and designating you her bitch. :laughing:
 
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Not really, but similar knowledge about the different neurochemistry of extroverts vs introverts (e.g. dopamine-seekers vs acetylcholine-seekers) made me more accepting of behaviours which I used to find vulgar or tasteless.

For example, my niece (my age, raised together - she's like my sister) has a wall display in her spare room dedicated to her expensive handbag collection. It's not an aesthetic or artistic thing, it's literally a trophy wall of things she's proud of (we've talked about this because I literally couldn't fathom the purpose behind the thing). Now, because I understand just how much more powerful the hit of 'reward for social success' neutransmitters are for extroverts, it makes total sense to me and seems pretty forgivable.

It's like, oh I get it now, having a big car or house and lots of cool stuff just feels better, by an order of magnitude from what I might understand. This also explains why they couldn't understand my actions in jeapoardising my career for 'justice' - they don't understand the rewards I get from that, and they wildly overestimate the value of social-success symbols to me.
 
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dragulagu said:
So...where can I find these elusive female ENTJ?
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My beautiful, blonde SIL is an ENTJ.

Ren said:
've been thinking recently that consciously or not, my knowledge of MBTI and types informs my decision-making in many areas of my social and professional life.

So I was wondering if you had examples, from your own life that is, of your knowledge of MBTI impacting the way you dealt with certain people, the approach you took to resolving a particular problem or tricky situation; or anything else.
Click to expand...


Hi Ren,

I'm not sure MBTI plays a concrete part in my life but knowing people's type, or being able to make an educated guess about their type, does help me understand how people operate, how to mesh with them, what upsets them and why, what they value and why, etc, especially with family. It helps that both my brother and my SO's sister are interested in MBTI, too, so the desire to understand and accept each other based on understanding how we are "wired" goes both ways. In the end it doesn't matter to me whether MBTI is "true", just that there is a core understanding that people are wired differently and those differences can be categorized.

It helps with my approach, with the advice I give, and with how I support others, too. For example, many people who live in their heads may not care that you're not physically present when they need mental or emotional support. Other types need their support systems to be there "in the flesh". Knowing another person's needs, especially based on type, can be important and help avoid strain on relationships.

I was listening to an interview with an athlete recently and within a few minutes I could tell that she was a Sensor. She talked about needing to do physical activities (her sports) to be balanced and "meditate" and she also talked about how when she hit middle age she had new experiences of deeper thought that she hadn't experienced before. This was when her inferior function started to develop. (Much the same as how I'm in my 40s and all of a sudden I love the sensory explosion of video games.) I didn't relate to her at all, but I understood how she ticked. INFJs like physical activity in general. (We do have inferior Se, after all.) BUT it isn't my life and it isn't a core need to feel balanced and whole, while being alone to think and explore my mind is a necessity for me.
Later in the interview she talked of meeting someone and asking him, "Did you know I was coming?" and he replied, "Yes, I dreamed about you coming here."
I thought, "OMG, she met an INXX, maybe an INFJ." It was interesting to listen to the story of someone so different than I and her encounter with someone I thought was relatable.
Of course she did not mention her type, but it was easy for me to figure out that she was a Sensor. I would have thought the interview was a little boring, but it turned into an opportunity to study a Sensor.
...Long story short, MBTI can be a bridge to understanding others, even when people have little in common.
 
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It brought me to this place... and I definitely think it has some merit, as I've met a lot of like-minded individuals united under general grouping of type.

But I can’t say MBTI has had much of an impact on how I interact with people offline or even how I view myself.

Having lived among highly contrasting personalities for most of my life, I’ve always had an intuitive sense that different people think differently and I've always been a natural at building rapport with others without having to think too hard on it (especially when I started breaking out of my shell in my teens). And even after learning about the different types and playing in the sandbox of theory, I can't say I've ever consciously applied the system to any of my clients or coworkers in real time. And when I did, it didn't actually give me anymore insight than what I would intuitively gleaned. In fact, sometimes I caught myself overthinking things and it made the connections much more stilted-- and operating from a type bias could've easily had me missing other vital information about the person. I've come to the conclusion that knowing how people process and order information and figuring out their 'type' isn’t as important as being able to quickly thin slice what people value (and to that end, I find the enneagram infinitely more useful. Even with character-creation. It's just a system that just feels more loose and organic).

The same could be said about using MBTI to understand my person. Even after all these years, I'm still partially undecided on my type. I think that's because typing yourself is a lot like tickling yourself; you're aware you're doing it. The ego is involved and it's impossible to be impartial... and the more you stretch out the theory, the more you stretch out yourself and the more you can see shades of yourself everywhere you look.

I personally benefited more from the journey of self-examination that MBTI requires than MBTI itself.

And of course, the real treasure was all the friends I made along the way.
 
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sassafras said:
I've come to the conclusion that knowing how people process and order information and figuring out their 'type' isn’t as important as being able to quickly thin slice what people value
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This.

sassafras said:
(and to that end, I find the enneagram infinitely more useful. Even with character-creation. It's just a system that just feels more loose and organic).
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This made me chuckle as it reminded me of a system of 'character creation' I used once for my worldbuilding where I had a whole bunch of characters and then just randomly generated them a 'competence score' out of 100... and apparently this told me everything I needed to know about them. On reflection, it's like the most INTJ approach ever :laughing:

'Hmm, and who is the prince? As a human being? As a man? As a leader?'
':neutral: 63'
 
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In my past life as a manager I found it very useful to explain to others that there are things that interfere with effective communication. you will get farther if you understand the person you are working with and treat them in accordance with their MBTI. . .For those that understood it was very helpful.
for me, it has helped me understand the messes I get into, mainly in relationships. .
 
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Pin said:
Yeah, just do what she says. Don't ask too many questions or she'll think you're either stupid or challenging her authority.

Also, if she pees on you she's just marking her territory and designating you her bitch. :laughing:
Click to expand...

Long story short, you'll never ever date another ENTJ.
 
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