What does Success mean to an ENFP?
ENFPs are motivated in everything that
they do by a desire to understand the world around them.
They are constantly searching about, mentally
and physically, for input that will help them to better understand the Big
Picture. They are open-minded to new
people and new experiences; they're eager for the opportunity to understand
what the new people and experiences are all about.
ENFPs use their
understanding of the world to serve the agendas of their value systems.
An ENFP's value
system often includes respect for the needs and desires of individual people
over the needs of a social group. Their
respect for the individual makes them dislike controlling others, and being
controlled by others.
ENFPs are passionate about their beliefs, whatever they may
be. They often stubbornly adhere to
their value system regardless of threats to its validity.
They are more concerned with keeping true to
what they believe than they are with expectations or demands from the social
group that they function within.
ENFPs dislike personal criticism, because it threatens
their validity as an individual and the validity of their value system.
ENFPs may
internalize anger rather than express it; their respect for other individuals
makes it difficult for them to hurt others. An ENFP's
feeling of success depends upon the
availability of opportunities to grow their understanding of the world, upon
feeling that they're living true to their personal value system, and upon the condition
of their closest relationships.
Allowing Your ENFP Strengths to Flourish
As an ENFP, you have gifts that are specific to your personality type
that aren't natural strengths for other types. By recognizing your special
gifts and encouraging their growth and development, you will more readily see
your place in the world, and be more content with your role.
Nearly all ENFPs will recognize the following characteristics in themselves. They should embrace and nourish these strengths: |
ENFPs who have developed their Introverted Feeling to the extent that they apply judgment to all of their perceptions will enjoy these special gifts: |
Potential Problem Areas
With any gift of strength, there is an associated weakness. Without
"bad", there would be no "good". Without
"difficult", there would be no "easy". We value our
strengths, but we often curse and ignore our weaknesses. To grow as a person
and get what we want out of life, we must not only capitalize upon our
strengths, but also face our weaknesses and deal with them. That means taking a
hard look at our personality type's potential problem areas.
Most of the weaker characteristics found in ENFPs
are due to their dominant Extraverted Intuition overshadowing
the personality to the extent
that they don't apply judgement to anything.
Or, they may use their primary judging function (Introverted Feeling) to
support the agenda of Extraverted Intuition, i.e. to rationalize and support
the idea of welcoming all experiences and accepting all individuals.
In such cases, an ENFP may show some or all
of the following weaknesses in varying degree:
Explanation of Problems
Nearly all of the problematic characteristics described above can be
attributed in various degrees to the common ENFP problem of wanting to
understand and experience everything at any cost.
If the ENFP does not learn how to
discriminate things and people in their external environment, the ENFP will
begin to use their judging function (Introverted Feeling) as a "rubber
stamper" to support their agenda to seek out experiences. This is a natural
survivalistic technique for the ENFP personality.
The main driver to the ENFP personality is
Extraverted Intuition, whose purpose is to understand the world as one Big
Picture, seeking connections and meaning in everything.
If their ability to seek understanding is
threatened, the ENFP shuts out the threatening force.
This is totally natural, but unfortunately
the individual who exercises this type of agenda protection regularly will
become more and more unable to apply objective judgment to anything.
When the unbalanced ENFP does apply
judgement, it will generally be skewed to support their subjective agenda.
They will always find justification for their
own inappropriate behaviour. They will
be unable to finish anything that they start, and generally wander through life
from experience to experience.
It's very common for ENFPs to resist applying
judgement until they feel they truly understand a person or situation.
However, part of the understanding process
includes using discernment to classify qualities.
If the ENFP shuts judgment off entirely, he
or she will not achieve their ultimate goal of understanding; rather they will
jump from experience to experience in a purposeless fashion. Anger can be a problem for anybody, but may be especially so for ENFPs
who have not sufficiently developed their Introverted
Feeling. The desire to keep everything
non-judgmental, combined with the tendency to use Introverted Feeling as
justification rather than true judgement is a recipe for suppressed anger.
These are very contradictory forces.
"I hate you for judging me" is an ironic
feeling, but is unfortunately common. The
inability to apply judgment, or to accept negative judgment, makes it difficult for the
ENFP to express anger, as anger often comes with negative judgment in tow. Therefore,
the ENFP stews in their anger, rather than dealing with it.
Solutions To grow as an individual, the ENFP needs to focus on applying judgement
to all of their perceptions. This means they need to decide how they really
feel about people, places and things, rather than allowing their feelings to
hang open indeterminately. The ENFP
needs to understand that developing their ability to discern qualities does not
threaten their ability to understand the world, but rather enhances it, and
enhances their personal changes for achieving a measure of success in their
lives. The ENFP concerned with personal growth will pay close attention to
their motivation for making a judgment. Are they trying to really determine
the objective value or merit of something, or are they trying to defend their
individual right to not be judged or controlled?
The goal when judging something is to not let your life experiences cloud your opinions.
Obviously, this is not entirely possible, but it is the exercise to keep
in mind. You want to open your mind to
judgment without feeling threatened, and without using your own judgement in a
defensive, rationalizing mode. Living Happily in our World as an ENFP As can be seen from the above, some ENFPs can
have difficulty fitting into society. Their problems are often due top feeling
different from others because of their dominant Intuition, and being unable to
stick to anything long enough to feel a sense of accomplishment.
They feel like they don't fit in, and can't
find the place where they belong in the world.
The ENFP who consistently makes decisions and applies classifications to
their ideas will be able to turn their ideas into reality, and experience the
feelings of accomplishment and success that accompany being effective. The key to personal growth for the ENFP is competent execution of
Introverted Feeling. It's difficult for most to understand what this means,
much less incorporate that directive into your life. I have created some action-oriented
suggestions that will help lead you down the path towards more effective use of
the Introverted Feeling function. Specific suggestions:
Ten Rules to Live By to Achieve ENFP Success
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