Now, we can combine all your letters to find your full cognitive specialty: INFP! By combining the four Scopes—IP, IJ, EP, and EJ—with the four Objectives—NF, NT, SF, and ST—we derive the sixteen different facets of cognition, each with its own unique strengths and specializations, which all the other types depend on. And each comes with its own particular weaknesses as well, needing the support of other types who are strong in those areas. Only with all sixteen types combined can we enjoy and benefit from the entire spectrum of zoomed in and zoomed out perspectives, collective and individual focuses, usefulness and meaning, things as they are and things as they can yet become. A deeper understanding of each type leads to better use and appreciation for all types of cognition.
As an INFP, your entire cognition revolves around your unique combination of these cognitive variables: the IP Scope focusing on the details of situations, and the NF Objective seeking the meaning of things as they could be. This unique combination prompts every thought, motivates every action, counsels every judgment and inspires every worldview. It sums up the end goal of everything you pursue, the result of the things that matter the most to you in your most private heart.
Every time you’re faced with any decision, any thought or feeling, any experience or person or anything, your mind naturally races through four cognitive steps. The order of these cognitive steps depends on your unique Scope and Objective, as you subconsciously focus first on the things that matter the most to you. You’re probably so used to thinking in your own order, all the time, that it may seem like the only natural way to think. This makes it all the more amazing that people of differing cognition approach the same world so differently, each offering something unique and powerful to share.
As an INFP, your first cognition step is to examine the specific details of a situation, because that’s what matters most to you! You turn inward to consider situational details in your mind, in order to draw conclusions about their meaning and value in the context of everything else (Fi, or introverted Feeling).
Secondly, you take that meaningful Data and draw conceptual connections in order to Observe the motives, desires, and character of people (Ne, or extraverted iNtuition).
Thirdly, based on who you’ve decided to trust as sources of information, you decide on Action and form opinions. You test them out in your head by playing out specific scenarios of experiences to see what seems like the best option (Si, or introverted Sensing).
Fourthly and finally, you watch the results of your Actions and opinions in order to better understand the workings of the world and the universe as a whole. You form an overall worldview based on Principles you’ve deduced by looking outward and seeing how the world seems to work in a repeatable, reliable, useful way (Te, or extraverted Thinking).
And then the cycle starts over: Your understanding of principles illuminates new details, whose profound implications of meaning give you more to mull over (Fi, or introverted Feeling), your fourth step feeding back into your first, over and over. You may go through this entire cycle of cognition many times in a single second without even noticing.
Universal Principles are your fourth and final cognition step because they’re what you focus on the least. This makes Principles the weakest of your cognitive steps. As you focus on all the numberless details of each situation, it can be mind-boggling to try to zoom out and find the universal rules that apply without exception to every situation of every kind, ever. And when you try, it’s hard not to end up with oversimplified generalities that don’t really apply in many situations. This is nothing to be embarrassed about. Every type has a weakness, just as every type has a strength that may appear almost superhuman to other types.
Healthy IPs are naturally able to delve deep into probing questions that others might never even think to ask. Healthy IJs, on the flip side, can provide complex and comprehensive answers to even the most baffling of those questions. EPs see right to the core of people with speed and surety that might seem reckless to others, while EJs accomplish long lists of tasks with precision while other types would struggle to even get started. All the types need each other; this is why we call them the Type Heroes! Each approaches the same world from such a different angle, and each supports, guides, and teaches every other. By seeking out and learning from other types, especially types that think very differently from you, you can grow stronger in all your cognition steps.
And usually the best way to grow more reliable and strong in all your cognitive steps is to focus on your first step. This is the step that your mind naturally prioritizes first anyway; it’s what you care about the most, even when you might feel like you shouldn’t. As you focus on paying attention to your first step, you’ll find that all your other cognitive steps grow sharper and stronger as a result, almost automatically. When it comes to cognition, play to your strengths and your weaknesses will grow to keep up.
It’s when people focus too much on trying to improve their fourth step directly that they tend to become defensive, depressed, and discouraged about it, often neglecting their strengths and falling into denial that they even have a weakness. Some such people try to cover their weakness by inadvertently posing as a different cognitive type, in order to act like others who don’t share their weak area. Yet this usually results in only a parody of the type they’re trying to become, attempting to gain the strengths of another type without first mastering their own. You can develop all the strengths of all the types, but you cannot do it by trying to fight or suppress what you naturally want most. Let your first cognitive step be your focus, let yourself be you, and then you’ll be free to grow to become everything you want to become.
Focus on your strength of seeing and understanding the details of situations; as you do, your weakness in comprehending universal principles will grow stronger of its own accord. And remember, if an attempted principle turns out to be a flawed generality, then that just gives you more data to work with! Beware of getting down on yourself about principles and worldview; enjoy eating up the details of each situation in life, and then you’ll learn how to better delve deep into edifying questions of heart, soul, and mind.
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