The outward focus of Extraversion, combined with Judging’s desire to plot a course in advance, yields a powerful attention and aptitude for taking deliberate, decisive action.  You look outward and set goals for what you’d like to see happen, and then you stride forward to make it happen.  Perhaps without you even realizing it, nearly everything you do and think is goal-oriented.  Not only do you get a thrill out of completing checklists, you find it straightforward and simple.  That’s not to say you can always keep up with everything, but you find it remarkably obvious and fulfilling to try.

In fact, you may have trouble understanding why not everyone can step up and follow through on goals the way you do.  It’s simply the most natural way for you to accomplish things, the most clear and basic way for you to tackle anything.  But since that clearness and ease is a result of your Extraverted Judging, looking outward to chart a path, you must always remember that people of other cognitive types don’t work the way you do.  While plans and goals are a powerful, necessary tool that you use to cut through opposition and make life better, so too are the strengths of the other cognitive types equally effective, when used in their own ways.  Other types would in fact be less efficient if they tried to do it your way, just as you might have trouble being effective without your way.

Since Extraverted Judging works with plans that are focused outward, EJs naturally end up focusing on others.  This causes EJs to think in terms of particular groups of people, like family, clubs, church, political parties, or any sort of group of any size that brings together people of shared interests and ideals: in other words, people with a shared plan.  Those who share your purpose are like your loyal team, and you will do anything to help them, keep them safe, and care for their needs.

However, anyone who appears to be a threat to your team may seem to you to be an enemy.  Anyone who seems to make your team members unhappy, ineffective, or who in any way stands between your team and its needs, may become quickly demonized in your mind.  Some people may indeed oppose your team’s needs and goals, while others may be perfectly well-meaning while only appearing to be a threat.  In either case, be very careful of the natural impulse to go to war.

Beware of dividing people too strictly into friends and foes; not only does this rob you of the benefits you could gain from those you consider to be enemies, but it also blinds you to the faults or even dangers of those on your team.  As an EJ, focused on deliberate plans, you naturally have difficulty with drawing correct conclusions from the nuanced details of a situation.  Some of those you consider to be enemies may be the best help you could imagine, while some you consider friends may be the real cause of your team’s difficulties.  The solution is to remember that others’ desires are not only valid, but may be of great benefit to your own desires in ways you’d never have foreseen.  Be cautious about caring only for your team’s needs, and you’ll avoid the trap of becoming your own worst enemy.

It’s natural for EJs to forget that there are entirely different ways of thinking; all the types tend to forget that.  Learn from others, especially from IPs who excel in drawing correct conclusions from the nuances of situations.  Seek out the zoomed-out perspective of IJs, and the people-focus of EPs who use action least of all.  As you do, you can mitigate the dangers of rushing headlong into planned, deliberate, yet unwise courses of action.  It can be tempting for EJs to hurtle forward half-cocked, wanting to just reach their goal as quickly as they can, but such eager haste can overlook errors, dangers, or others’ feelings without ever meaning to.  Efficiency is powerful, but there’s no problem so bad, no crisis so dire, that swift, decisive, wrong action can’t make worse.

Be proud of your capacity for tenacity, the in-the-moment decisiveness of Extraverted Judging.  Don’t demean or lose patience with those who approach life differently; learn from them instead, yet always take joy in your unique power to get things done.  “Just do it,” is a perfect EJ mantra; plot the course, and do whatever’s necessary to reach your journey’s end.  This is how you add to the world, how you understand it, and how you take the most joy in everything.

EJs are sometimes maligned for being too focused on the little things, too wrapped up in accomplishment that they lose perspective on everything that really matters, but in truth you’re supposed to enjoy getting things done!  Yet antagonism frequently arises when EJs suggest that everyone should be like them, which induces those of other types to strike back.  Keep learning more and more about other types, more and more about other ways of approaching life, see that there are numerous ways to be responsible, effective, and decisive, and as you do, you’ll feel freer to be happy, decisive, and at peace in your EJ way.

You don’t need to get irritated when others choose wrong action, or no action at all, for no apparent reason.  Some types are needed to be explorers, triers of new things, or perhaps just have priorities you may not see.  Embrace your EJ ability to scorch through life like a lightning bolt of accomplishment, and others will appreciate you and find shelter under your reliable actions.  As you value others for their strengths while boldly exercising your own, others will feel freer to openly value you and support you, happy to fuel you as you blaze on.