How To Develop The Functions

How to Develop the Functions

Here are some tips to strengthening each of the eight functions. I would suggest strengthening the weaker functions in your stack primarily, and put less focus in on your shadow functions. If you are in a loop, this can be used to develop your auxiliary function. You can also use it to generally develop your tertiary and especially inferior functions if these are weak. Having a developed inferior function can also help prevent you from falling into “the grip”, so it’s good to try to have a good control over all of your functions.

Extroverted Feeling (Fe): Find a close friend and share how you’re feeling with them. Journal about your feelings and read them over to yourself or someone else. Talk to a therapist if these outlets aren’t enough for you. Reach out a hand to help others out: volunteer, give someone advice, listen to someone talk about their problems. Find groups of people or situations where you can put yourself in the shoes of others so you can develop your empathy skills. Find situations where you are around those you care about. Ask others their opinions on decisions that affect others, and take time before you take action to consider how it will affect the people around you. Ask for affirmation from those closest to you, and remind yourself to give it to others as well. Examine the facial expressions and manners of speaking of those around you and try mimicking them.

Introverted Feeling (Fi): Study an area of morality and ethics that interests you, and consider what your viewpoints on the situation are. Consider why humans as a whole or other people in your life do the things that they do, and how morality as a concept even exists. Consider social justice arguments and find one that you have a strong opinion on. Take time to step back and consider how you are feeling, what values you are exerting, what your likes and dislikes are in a certain situation. Consider yourself as an independent, unique individual with a set of morality outside of society. Journal about your feelings. Think about what is important to you in your life and what motivates you personally.

Extroverted Thinking (Te): Try to develop your ability to be assertive: ask for that raise, propose something ambitious, etc. Formulate your ideas into a concrete plan and share them with someone around you. Use data and facts to back up your assertions. Plan an event or other project and focus on the whole over the details. Remember that external organization and structure is necessary in a society, and try to incorporate your skills and plans into one around you. Develop your aura of confidence and consider how others view you in a professional light. Take charge of a project and lead with self-assurance.

Introverted Thinking (Ti): Find some word game, puzzle, riddle, etc. that challenges your intellect and causes you to think. Find something that interests you and research it until you fully understand its intricate details. Have an intellectual debate or discussion. Apply yourself to some hobby or area of study and try to develop your internal sense of discipline and focus. Look at projects and consider the weak points and areas of improvement. Take time to draw back and consider things in an objective light, understanding the situation instead of becoming emotionally influenced. Develop your sense of independence, and work on projects that allow you to use your personal skills and get a sense of personal achievement.

Extroverted Intuition (Ne): Play games or engage in activities that encourage divergent thinking and creativity. Think about some event (general or specific) coming up in the future and imagine all the great things that could happen during it. Surround yourself with people and pieces of art/literature/movies that are creative and exciting. Look at the future as a place of exciting opportunities, not of possible anxieties. Make a bucket list of things you could do in your life that excite you: the crazier, the better. Think about the things that you would want to change in your life. Brainstorm all the possible ways you could do it. Go on a spontaneous adventure with your friends.

Introverted Intuition (Ni): Watch a stranger out in public and try to paint a picture of what type of person they are from the way that they look. Reflect on the underlying themes or symbolism of a book or movie. Look at the overt facts of a situation or how someone is acting and piece them together to try to understand what is actually going on underneath the surface: how they are actually feeling, etc. Take individual pieces of information and concisely bring them together to form one general idea. Project yourself or a situation into the future and try to understand what will most likely come to be. Reflect on why things are the way that they are, even seemingly straightforward things. Follow your gut belief in a situation.

Extroverted Sensing (Se): Find a hobby such as a sport, artistic endeavor, craft, etc. Work with your hands on a project and try to physically understand how something works. Take a walk somewhere in nature or go to a museum and focus on the specific details of the beauty around you. Listen to music and try to pay attention to the individual sounds. Remember to live in the moment and experience life as it is happening around you. Do something spontaneous and crazy with your friends. Take a step back and remember to take things for as they are, and not to overanalyze anything. Think about the things that you want to or need to do this moment and go do some of them.

Introverted Sensing (Si): Take out old photos and try to place yourself in the emotions and experience of when you were there. Go visit a place of old memories or watch a movie you loved as a child. Re-start up an old family tradition. Create some sort of routine in your life to give you a bit of reassurance and organization. Appreciate the simple things in life and seek the unassuming nature of contentment. Reflect on the lessons you have learned in a situation once it has passed. Realize that not all mistakes need to be made, and that sometimes it is better to stick with what is safe.

Just a question

Seriously, just asking. What do you guys think when Eurus admitted to having had sex with a nurse Sherlock assumes said person to be a "he/him"?

The problem with Intellect

All my life I have grappled with my own self-driven need to acquire more and more knowledge constantly and the consequential spiralling thoughts of worthlessness when I cannot comprehend a theory.

When I was young it was a fairly innocent and vaguely competitive trait. I had to have read the most books out of my classmates. I had to score the highest on my reading comprehensions. And when the row of yellow stars next to my name on the poster hanging from the door of my first grade classroom I would grin with silent satisfaction and return quietly to my seat.

As I got older however, this constant need to accumulate more and more knowledge became a sort of complex. No matter how much I succeeded, it was never good enough for myself. Often times I found I couldn’t internalize my own successes or realize that they were direct products of late nights spent studying and days spent agonizing over a single page essay. In my own mind, I am consistently inferior to my peers.

And so, as I have grown and matured, I have become nothing more than my intellect. Without it I have nothing, I am nothing more, and so here lies the root of my problem with intellect. Perhaps these are the very reasons as to why I sympathize so much with the likes of Sir Arthur Canon Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and other idiosyncratic minds. Just as the great detective said in The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone “I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.”

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erkology

9 years ago

When you go to an interview and your brain is like figuring out every answer to every question and you think you’re so confident you’re gonna get that job then the manager asks you a question but you’re like “uhm, uhm, I uhh”.!! Like why can’t I just deal with other people. Seriously!!?

MBTI Flavored Advice

One of the main downsides of typing is that many people, once they read about their type, stop developing upwards. They use their type to excuse bad behavior. Don’t take the stereotype that INTJs are often sarcastic or blunt as a reason to freely make mean comments, or put people down. It’s important to remember to always stay on the up-and-up, keep improving yourself, recognize and work on your flaws, regardless of whatever negative trait your type is listed to naturally have. Take the best qualities of every type and work hard to meet them to become the best version of yourself you can be. So, this advice is for everyone.

ESTP: Exercise until you sweat out the bad feelings. Run until there’s no negativity left in you, and channel frustration into sports. It’s cathartic.

ISFJ: Go out of your way to remember the little things. Remember more birthdays, more favorite foods, more little details about people that they would expect you to forget. Put the effort in.

ISTJ: Write things down. Write things down even when you think you’ll remember. Get a little notebook, get a pack of different color highlighters, and make a list. Prioritize. Keep it tidy.

ESTJ: Set goals, but make them actionable. Make a step-by-step plan, then actually follow through. Determination and discipline is key.

ISTP: Depend on people less. Know that you are an entire person by yourself, and you have all the tools you need to get the job done. Talk less, think more, listen to music, work with your hands, stay mysterious.

INTP: Stay inquisitve. Approach everything with keen eyes and an open mind, and never take things at face value. Everything’s a puzzle, and you want to leave with the biggest knowledge base you can get. Absorb everything.

ENTP: Try everything once. Approach life like a game, and you’ve only got a short time to play, have the best time you can, before it ends too soon. Don’t take anything too seriously, don’t let anything weigh too heavily on you. When bad things happen, and they always do, sometimes the best thing you can do is shrug and say, “Fuck that.” and move on.

ENFP: Don’t be ashamed of enthusiasm. Don’t let negative people make you feel like you’re being silly or childish for liking the things you like. Be as radiant and as energetic as you are, love things unabashedly, and never water yourself down to please wet-blanket people who don’t matter at all.

INFP: Stay soft. A tender heart is the most underappreciated and wonderful quality you can have, and don’t buy into people who think it’s cool to be emotionally detatched and cold. Feel things completely and intensely, cry when you have to, and know that it’ll never make you weak. Protect yourself, but don’t shut people out.

INFJ: Be objective. Approach problems from all perspectives, and always look for the bigger picture. Don’t get caught on pettiness, don’t let others get caught on pettiness. Help people where you can, offer insight where you can, and ultimately let things go.

ISFP: Be present. Notice the small things. You only live in this exact moment right now, so take a second here and there to stop and look around. Find comfort and beauty in how warm your mug is in your hand, how nice the light looks on your friend’s face, and how lucky you are to exist in peace at this very point in time.

ESFP: Friends are the most valuable commodity you can have. Befriend everyone. Build your network. Nobody thinks you’re lame. Let people be drawn to the energy you give out. Embrace the spotlight when it comes around, but don’t push people aside to get in it.

INTJ: Stay cerebral. Your mind is your most important tool, and it’s awesome. Take it out for a spin as often as you can. Seek intellectual challenges, embrace chances to prove yourself, don’t dumb yourself down to accomodate other. If you know a billion facts about sharks, and it happens to be Shark Trivia Night at this restaurant you’re at with your friends, don’t turn it down for fear of seeming weird. Get your shark on, but remember: there’s a fine line between pride and arrogance. Stay on the right side of it.

ENTJ: Don’t be afraid of your own potential. Know you’re smart enough, strong enough, tough enough to attain absolutely any goal. Ambition is not a bad thing to have. Embrace your ambition, and do what it takes to get where you need to be.

ESFJ: Don’t underestimate the value of people. It’s tempting to cut yourself off from the world because it’s comfortable there, but teach yourself that when you extend a hand to others, you’ll get many hands back when you yourself need help. Remain socially conscious, remain respectful, and remember that “what goes around, comes around” applies to both cruelty, and kindness.

ENFJ: Balance working smart with working hard. Don’t treat other people like tools, but don’t let other people walk over you. Find the midpoint in everything, and build your house there. Be diligent, but don’t be obsessive. Be friendly, but don’t be passive. Get what you deserve.

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erkology

6 years ago

There’s probably a German compound word for that feeling you get at 2am when you’re single in your mid twenties and the creeping doubt that you’ve somehow missed your only chance at love because you didn’t meet someone in college and now it’s too late

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