ENTPs and Developing One-Pointedness

[Samuel De Mazarin]

To all ENTPs (and others with a similar problem),

How do you attain focus? Or, as it was put in a famous scripture, one-pointedness?

I was told in high school by a teacher that I was constantly juggling so many interests that I was bound to drop them all and be left with nothing... I've found he was dead on.

Back in the day, I'd decide I liked a sport, practice for six months, and join the varsity team in school, then quit forever after the season and never look back... I'd like a certain author or philosophy, and would learn enough about it to enthuse even experts (many professors have tried to 'take me under their wing') and then I'd forget about it for the next new idea... I'd audition for an improv group in the village, make it, and drop out... I'd join a firm and take up a job in finance, just get to the point where I was earning some good money, and drop out... etc. etc.

So I rarely get myself to stick to one thing...

From what I've read, the best single practice seems to be building up focus through meditative techniques... Frost had his forest walks, Yehudi Menhuin had yoga and, of course, his violin... and so on...

But what works for you all? How have you managed to stick your noses to the grindstone and commit to one specific task at hand and see it through to the end? How do you get to the end of a sentence without using ellipses...? (yeah yeah, it's about the journey)

As I wrote above, this is not necessarily just for ENTPs... a lot of people of all types have difficulty figuring out what's right for them... but even when I know that I love something, it's difficult for me to focus focus focus... go through what I like calling the "donkey work" that's indispensable to achieving something in anything...

[Oberon]

I am highly interested to see what, if any, effective answers you receive.

[Shadowrose]

I wish I could help, here, but my single largest failing is that I can't finish projects. The closest I've ever come, I managed to get it into a state of being reasonably complete.. I did that by essentially chopping off the last quarter of what I had to do. Luckily, I had planned it out in such a way that it'd be acceptable without the rest of the work done.. if that makes sense. If you plan the abstract finish line farther than the concrete one, it's easier to cross the concrete one before you decide the abstract one isn't worth your while any longer.

Aside from that.. I really wish I knew. It's frustrating how often projects just get set aside, inadvertently, because of something new.

[spirilis]

Heh, on a side note, as an INTP I sound like that too--juggling lots of things at once, the difference is my "projects" end up happening on a more geologic timescale because I have neither the energy nor the motivation to hurry on anything after its immediate allure or usefulness has left me. But I don't necessarily scrap it either.

The pure, raw "focus" you seek only happens to me when a task or project bears a very, very REAL sense of urgency. Meaning, serious consequences if it's not done. The moment I find out the so-called "urgency" is contrived from someone pushing my buttons my mental focus starts to cloud with static.

[The_Liquid_Laser]

As an ENTP the way to finish what you've started is basically to let thinking come in and slap intuition around whenever it wants to start a new project or just give up.

What I've found works for me is to start with something small. Like my mind gets me really excited about something, and it immediately imagines some huge scale thing. Well take that and break it off into one part or just downscale it a lot. Or maybe choose some activity with a definite time commitment (3 months or 6 months or something). The idea is to have the end clearly defined from the beginning, and to be fairly easy achieve. Limit yourself to just one project or activity. Don't commit yourself to anything else until that one thing is done.

Now here is the hardest part:
Stick with it until the end and don't give up.

"Hey wait something really cool just came up, and I want to do that too." No! *smack* Don't do that. Don't give up your goal. Even if you aren't interested in it anymore don't give up. Even when it gets painful don't give up. Let me tell you it will get painful. Don't...give...up!

This is why it's important to focus on only one project at a time. It would be too stressful to try to do this for more than one thing. You've got to focus on that one thing and don't give up.

That is also why thinking is important. Your intuition is impulsive. Thinking will remind you of the reward at the end of the project. It may not feel fun anymore, but thinking can tell you that you'll actually get something by seeing it through til the end. Thinking is ultimately what lets you finish projects.

[ThatGirl]

I have found that the best way to do this to forget thinking in terms of a means to an end. In fact forget the end completely. Nothing is ever finished because with each step the information changes and new possibilities present themselves in which one thing can lead to another. However if you stop something before it is finished you gained nothing and the possibilities for growth are limited.

After years of feeling like I kept repeating life with no growth, except maybe a reasonable knowledge, to show for it I began to focus on the levels of actualization. By keeping the bigger picture in mind it has helped me to realize that all the things I must complete now are not indefinite but necessary. Without an immediate end in sight my goals have become larger and my interest necessary for the bigger picture.

I get shit done.

[ThatGirl]

On sencond thought you get to a point where you know how stuff works and you start to focus on where this goes.

[entropie]

Very interesting topic and I will have to think about it before I will give you a good answer.

I quitely have developed in that field and do not have the same issues with dropping things, like I had some years before. Today I mainly try to stay focussed by destroying my world. If there is an important thing to be brought to an end, I firstly measure, how good I am at it, in comparing me to others. On this part I was not really good, cause I have always thought of me being just not good enough. Some day that changend and I lost track of the others. Pretty entered some world of my own. Today there are only few times, I get to compare with others and mostly it is by accident or because it is not avoidable. To say the least, I have grown independent from people's opinions. That firstly sounds bad, but it helped me in getting down with my goals.

The second thing I do, when faced with too much input, I go crazy about it. I cut everyone unnecessary off and pull off everyone that wants to get near me, to start lamenting about my lone existence. When then I reach the point, I get bored of lamenting, I start focussing on the things I do under the tragic premisse, what other things are left ?

That only happend once though.

About the rest I have to think

[Ilah]

I am INTJ and I have problems with this too.

Two issues are trying to do to many different things at one time (starting new projects before old ones are due) and not sticking with things very long.

Sometimes I will try to do several different hobbies at one time, with the result that some of them I do so infrequently, I don't build up much skill at them.

Generally something will keep my interest for about a year, possibly as long as two years, maybe as little as 6 month. I have a habbit of building up a fair amount of art or craft supplies before my interest turns to something else.

I have started making committments to myself - I will study this area for at least 2 years, I will stick with learning to improve my drawing and art for at least 4 years. I actually broke it down a little bit with my art, made a list of specific things I would do with 1 to 3 months listed for specific things. Art is such a broad area. I have been doing it for around a year, but I have been pretty unfocused experimenting with different subject matter, media and artistic styles. I have tried to make it more focused by picking one thing to work on for a year and one thing to work on for three years.

One thing I have done is to tell myself that I can still do everything I want to do. I have a couple little note books and when I see new things that interest me, I write it down and tell myself it is on the list of things to do or study. Even though it may be years before I get to it, telling myself later, rather than no, makes it easier. I don't know if I will get to everything on my list. I started it this month and there is already about 10 to 20 years worth of stuff on it.

I also allow myself small exceptions to the keeping focused. For example, I choose personality types as the 2 year focus for my study. So all the non-fiction books I read in the next 2 years will be on this subject. However, I still read internet articles on various subjects that catch my interest. If it looks intreging I will put it on my list of things to study more in depth.

Ilah

[entropie]

Since when you are iNTj @Ilah ?

You are so iNFj and what have we talked about not thinking too much about oneself, if not wanting to become crazy ?