ANOTHER UNPOPULAR MBTI RANT AHEAD
Heads up, I’m very aware that I will probably offend someone with this. MBTI has to do with your personal identity and people do not accept anything that threatens that very easily.
That being said, this is another intuitive/sensor rant. You have been warned!
Something that I would like to point out, is the popularity of the INFJ type online. Supposedly the rarest type, the INFJ, is actually the most common type if you listen to people online. There’s absolutely right nothing wrong with INFJ’s! However, one of the big attractions about the type is that it’s incredibly rare.
Something in this picture ain’t right.
So out of the however many thousands of people who think that they are INFJ, chances are, and I’m so sorry for saying this, chances are about 90% of you are wrong.
This is such an incredibly sensitive topic because being a rare type feels really really good. It validates you, it gives you something to point to and say hey look I’m special.
I am very very aware of this. I spent a lot of my life looking through different systems and concepts, looking for that one thing that would tell me that I was special, that I was enough.
Funnily enough, the only thing I found was that I am special. And it has nothing to do with my temperament. So keep that in mind the next time you are wondering what your temperament/type/personality archetype is. You’re already special.
So what if we start from this point. If I’m already special, then it doesn’t matter if I am a rare type or not.
It’s easy to say that “Every type is equal, and every type is special,” it’s harder to actually see that when we look at the different types.
For instance, since I used it earlier I will use the INFJ as an example. A main part of the INFJ that people are so attracted to, is that INFJ’s often feel like a fish out of water. There is a feeling of being misunderstood, like your brain just works differently than everyone else and no one gets you. It validates your worldview by saying that people just aren’t smart enough to get you, not deep enough to get you etc. The thing is, that feeling is not unique to the INFJ, or even the N.
Everyone feels out of place, misunderstood, lonely, and isolated. That is a fact of human existence. What differs is why you feel that way. Chances are, you are being misunderstood. It takes a lot of work and a lot of determination to really understand someone. That level of knowing someone doesn’t happen very easily unless you do the work.
 On the sensor side of things, I will use the ISFJ as an example. The common stereotype of the ISFJs is that they are stable, loyal, boring, hate change, constantly mothering everyone, love tradition, have a great memories, and are basically your 50s housewife with no greater ambitions than to serve cookies every time family stops by for a visit.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of things about that that are genuinely good and worth aspiring to. But as a young teenager, learning about my temperament, this was possibly the least exciting, least desirable thing for me to aspire to. And yet, I am an ISFJ.
Let me tell you a little story. When I was learning about temperament, and learning it from an intuitive type, my greatest desire in the world was to become an actress. I wanted to be exciting, charismatic, competent, passionate, intelligent, deep, intuitive, artistic, visionary, compelling, etc. Contrast that to the description of the ISFJ, and there is absolutely nothing about that that I was able to identify with.
Now let me let you in on a little secret. I am already all of those things that I wanted to be. I am very charismatic, I am incredibly passionate, I am very intelligent, I am intuitive, artistic, compelling, exciting, and many many more things. And yet I am an ISFJ.
What does that tell you? About how temperament is seen on the Internet and in the world in general, and about what that means for people? I still struggle sometimes with being an ISFJ, because there’s a part of me that still thinks that it means that I’m boring, and I’m doomed to a life of mediocrity, that all I’m meant for is to be somebody’s caretaker.
I’ll tell you what it does mean. Being an ISFJ to me, means that when I have clarity or once I’ve decided some thing, I have a little bit of extra oomph that keeps me from being easily swayed by other peoples opinions. It means that I am naturally caring and compassionate, that I care about the people around me and want to see them happy. It means that in some situations it is easier for me to see solutions to problems than people around me. People come to me for advice because I have a no nonsense and practical way of looking at life. It means that when I grow and transform and change, that those changes are stable which means that I’m not constantly fighting to retake ground I’ve already traveled. It means that once I create a framework for my art, for my performing, for my spirituality, then I completely let go and surrender within the context of that framework. When I do that, I am completely safe and can explore that world that I’ve created. it means that my charisma has an edge of kindness to it, it means that I am compelling because I care, because you can see my heart. It means that my intelligence is grounded in reality and that I can apply what I see and come up with.
There are so many gifts of the ISFJ, and more generally sensor types, and J types as well, that I am still discovering. There is so much more to it than I ever learned from reading books or articles, or the general consensus on the Internet. Rather than looking at it as, how am I like an ISFJ, I can look at it as, how are ISFJ’s like me.
