AN ENFP

Thursday, May 3rd, 2:33 pm

This entry, and the previous one (Concerning Siddhartha) were college-essays that I wrote over a year ago. They got me into William and Mary. In lieu of writing a newer one (I promise I am writing a new entry, and it's a doozy), I'm posting them because they're interesting and insightful... or at least they are to me. Enjoy

I was working on an AP Government essay and it was going as well as it could be. But then, for a reason still unknown to me, I remembered something in which I had been interested several years ago, the Myers-Briggs types. Anxious to find any respite from the monotony of the essay, I began to do some more research.

Back in the early twentieth century, psychologist Carl Jung identified 8 characteristics, four sets of opposing qualities, used to describe people. These are whether one is extroverted or introverted, whether one senses or intuits, whether one thinks or feels, and whether one perceives or judges. Later, Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother Katherine Briggs worked to turn the different qualities into types (e.g. Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging, or ISTJ) and set up a test to determine what personality type an individual has, referred to as a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test.

Since the way we operate affects how we act and react, the descriptions of people based on the Myers-Briggs types are usually very accurate. I remembered from a few years ago that my particular Myers-Biggs type is ENFP, which stands for Extroverted Intuiting Feeling Perceiving. I began to read over the descriptions of people who have my type again, sharing some of the striking parallels with my friends. In fact, such sharing is consistent with the ENFP’s character: we are global learners and love to share knowledge.

I found that ENFPs are fun, enthusiastic people, often becoming extremely silly at any random moment. We are generally bright and full of potential. Everything is a possibility to us and we become very passionate about the things that inspire us. This passion often leads us to inspire other people. Influencing others seems to be a key trait of ENFPs; we have an ability to talk our way into and out of just about anything.

The ability to convince others is held near and dear to many ENFPs on account of another trait we possess. Each ENFP has his or her own specific worldview. Although the worldview is not necessarily consistent, especially if a better philosophy comes along, each ENFP is consistent in the fact that they have a worldview. It dictates how we act and how we perceive the things that happen to us. For a group of extroverts, we spend a surprising the amount of time alone recharging, making sure that each of our actions is not in violation of our worldview.

One of my teachers, whom I respect, once said to me; “Andrew, I am scared. Your worldview is so off.” I haven’t clearly yet defined my worldview, so it always surprises me when people say things like; “I don’t agree with you but I understand how you think.” It is more than a little disconcerting that other people seem to know how I think, when I have not yet fully figured it out. So far I have determined that I am a pacifist who believes in compromises in almost all situations. I believe people should speak and act honestly for two reasons: to avoid the stress of lying and to clearly determine who is or is not friendly. I believe decisions about oneself should be left completely to oneself. I believe a pretty subjectivist philosophy, and use it in the application of my rules. For example, I may be dishonest if it helps me find a compromise to avoid a pointless fight.

The most important characteristic of ENFPs is that we are project-oriented people. Our passion leads us to be single-minded when it comes to the things that interest us. We will think of nothing apart from the project until a new project comes along. To an outsider, ENFPs would appear to move from project to project, job to job, paramour to paramour, without any reason or organization. This is not necessarily the case; to ENFPs the movement is the reason and organization. It is essential for an ENFP to learn to focus on the project until it is complete, though, or he will leave a trail of unfinished projects lying around, each abandoned as soon as the next one comes along. This was the case on that fateful day when I procrastinated on my AP Government essay. I knew I should have been completing the last few paragraphs, but I moved on to research personality theories instead. Here is more of what I found:

This tendency to have projects means that most ENFPs have acquired many skills over the years. I have found that I do indeed have a broad range of skills and talents. I consider myself to be well-read; I write poems, short stories, and a little drama; I edit HTML, play saxophone, compose music, conduct the marching band, work with leather, camp often, garden, and run. I spent a short time working on the revival of a certain type of medieval armor, have been trying my hand at photography, and am making my best effort to return Latin to the list of commonly spoken languages; I even spent a few months working on my own language. Each of these things was a project at one point or another, and several of them are projects in which I am still immersed.

My new project is college, and it is more important than any of the other projects I have had before: this project will allow me to do as many other projects as I wish, with new relationships, classes, and clubs to be a part of. I can explore and be passionate to my heart’s content for four years. I can think of no better use of my time and nothing else I would rather do.

Love and kisses,

Andrew