According to the Myers Briggs Personality Indicator, I am an ENFP. This means that I’m extroverted, intuitive, a feeler, and a perceiver. ENFPs are often described as bubbly, optimistic, passionate, and disorganized, and while these stereotypes often prove true, the mind of an ENFP goes beyond those qualities and has a depth that most people are unaware of.
Generally, our biggest priority is genuineness. It is so important to us that others acknowledge that we are genuine and transparent. In friends and partners, we look for this quality as well. We strive to form deep and significant relationships with others. We dislike small talk and everyday conversations. While we are socially equipped for these kinds of communications, we would rather dive deeper sooner, and explore what bonds we are able to form with other people. We fear being viewed as insincere or shallow. Human connection is our main source of fulfillment, and we feel truly completed when we are connected on a deep and spiritual level with another person. Because of this need for connection, we often idealize people and try to form this bond with anyone we can. We therefore get easily and deeply hurt when we are disappointed by others because they do not live up to our expectations.
We are idealists; we want to see the best in the world. We see the big picture, and innately imagine what could be. We see the possibility of things, no matter how unrealistic, versus the reality of what is possible. Our minds are visionaries and live in a world that we’ve created based on our own heavily valued morals. No matter how impractical, we believe that change is possible, and we believe that we can create that change.
We are natural born leaders. We ache to achieve the possibilities that we’ve imagined, yet we are often limited by our own lack of consistent motivation and willingness to work hard, paired with our disorganization and tendency to procrastinate. This creates an immense inner conflict for us. We struggle with the fact that we often are not able to fulfill our unrealistic goals.
We hate conflict. We do our best to avoid confrontation at all costs, and will only confront someone when extremely provoked. Conflict in general makes us uncomfortable, probably because it goes against our instincts of love and passion. If we could mend relationships with everyone we've had conflict with, we would almost always do it. A negative confrontation will shut us down, and we generally do not respond well to any type of pessimistic communication.
We are creative. We strive to be unique, and often are. Most ENFPs find their passions in the arts and humanities; music, fine art, and anything creative tend to be what we are most drawn to and best at. All of these passions coincide with our ultimate goal: to discover a connection that makes us feel fulfilled. We are constantly searching for this connection.
We have a love and a passion for life that we feed through spontaneity and adventure. While we are nostalgic and value things that remind us of the past, we are always ready for a new experience and adventure, especially if it involves human connection and authenticity.
We lead with our hearts, and make decisions not logically, but based on our emotional desires and intuition. We are hungry for love, hungry for passion, hungry for whatever we envision. Bubbly, optimistic, passionate, and disorganized, yes. But we are not the unaware hippies that we are often made out to be. Our inner minds are constantly at work and searching, searching for something to belong to.
