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[NF] NF lack of ambition?

mwv6r

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I'm surrounded by a lot of SJs and SPs at work (and throughout daily life for that matter), and I'm often struck by how much more ambitious they are than me career-wise. I work hard, am good at my job, and take my work seriously, but I have zero interest in moving up the ladder because I don't want it to cut into my personal time, which I like to spend with family and friends as well as reading / doing other nerdish pursuits. Many of my girlfriends say they couldn't imagine being a stay-at-home mom, but to me that sounds pretty awesome. Sometimes I wonder if I ought to have more ambition, but moving up the ladder just kind of seems like a rat race to me. Any other NFs experience this? My suspicion is that ENFJs won't because most of the ones I know in real life have insanely amazing resumes and are involved in a million things. But who knows... Let me know if any of this resonates with you NFs... Or maybe I am just unusually lazy ;)
 

Scott N Denver

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I thought lack of ambition was more of an NFP thing and/or SFP thing. I know I've seen plenty of MBTI book references to "lack of work ambition" amongst INFP's. I'd expect INFJ's to more likely have other major interests or goals in life, as you described, than to "have work ambition." Time to go see the INF thread on this topic...
 

mwv6r

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Ps sorry to post this thread twice, not sure how to delete the other one.... :-/
 

kiddykat

movin melodies
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Depends on what the ambition is towards?

If it's to climb up a corporate ladder? I'd rather just bury myself.

If it's to work with improving life in some way? Whether it may be at home, or to work for a greater cause? I'm all for it.
 

kyuuei

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Im not one for corporate ladders either. I don't consider myself extremely ambitious at all, though I hear that I am all the time because, like Viv, my ambition is just set on improving my quality of life. I want X, and I need Y to get there.
 

BlueScreen

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I've got a lot more ambition than most of the people I worked with. Or at least in the sense that things have to be going somewhere. Most seem pretty satisfied to go through the normal process, do a single line of work, advance over a ten year period, retire. It doesn't interest me at all. The fact I prefer to pursue it with care for the work and good relations, rather than image and competition seems irrelevant. I'm sure I come off as laid back rather than ambitious IRL, but if I get stalled for long periods, learn nothing new and achieve nothing of value, I get pretty down and annoyed.
 

Charmed Justice

Nickle Iron Silicone
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I'm pretty ambitious, but not urgently so. If I'm working for someone else, I appreciate challenging and competitive environments that give me the flexibility to manage myself and my time.

I prefer to work for myself, which is what I've done for a number of years. When I want something, I focus on it, and do what it takes to get it. I like to get the fire started, but then I need someone else to tend to it. The thing is, there are times when I don't want much in the material sense. During those times, I'm sure I appear as though I lack ambition. Then again, I've always got a million different projects I'm dabbling in, so no. Maybe it's not that. I think I more often appear lacking direction than ambition.

If I climbed the corporate ladder, it'd probably be just for kicks; as a part of a game, and I'd have to be doing something that felt right to me in the inside and didn't violate my internal compass. I will quit a job if it ask me to go against my value system, no matter how much I'm getting paid.
 

BlueScreen

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I will quit a job if it ask me to go against my value system, no matter how much I'm getting paid.

I'm looking at Journalism and Consulting at the moment, and I already know that if I'm asked to undermine or destroy someone for the job that I'm likely to just walk. In the end it is just a job, you can't weigh it up against destroying a person's life.
 

Charmed Justice

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I'm looking at Journalism and Consulting at the moment, and I already know that if I'm asked to undermine or destroy someone for the job that I'm likely to just walk. In the end it is just a job, you can't weigh it up against destroying person's life.
My thoughts exactly. I wouldn't want to live with myself knowing that I destroyed someone for career gain. I'd be thinking about the person I hurt, their family and how I impacted them, their psychological health,etc...for the rest of my life. Not worth it.
 

BlueScreen

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My thoughts exactly. I wouldn't want to live with myself knowing that I destroyed someone for career gain. I'd be thinking about the person I hurt, their family and how I impacted them, their psychological health,etc...for the rest of my life. Not worth it.

Yep, knowing that in everything else I'm trying to make things better, help people live more to the full. If it's the one time I have the power to really change where someone's life goes and I know the best option. I couldn't look myself in the eye again until I reversed it.
 

entropie

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Can someone live my beer to the full ?
 

entropie

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I can brew beer on my own, but we need to steal some stuff from the apothecary
 

Yloh

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I'm surrounded by a lot of SJs and SPs at work (and throughout daily life for that matter), and I'm often struck by how much more ambitious they are than me career-wise. I work hard, am good at my job, and take my work seriously, but I have zero interest in moving up the ladder because I don't want it to cut into my personal time, which I like to spend with family and friends as well as reading / doing other nerdish pursuits. Many of my girlfriends say they couldn't imagine being a stay-at-home mom, but to me that sounds pretty awesome. Sometimes I wonder if I ought to have more ambition, but moving up the ladder just kind of seems like a rat race to me. Any other NFs experience this? My suspicion is that ENFJs won't because most of the ones I know in real life have insanely amazing resumes and are involved in a million things. But who knows... Let me know if any of this resonates with you NFs... Or maybe I am just unusually lazy ;)

To me, it doesn't sound like you are not ambitious. It sounds more like you place your values on other things. Moving up the career latter isn't important to you, but having free time is.

I too place more value in free time. I could never see myself becoming a manager or accept any position where it would require me to work more hours.
 

Clonester

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I have a lot of ambition. But for NF's I think it just depends. Sometimes NF's have ambition for some areas of life (like social contacts or causes) but not so much for things we might consider mundane and lacking in purpose. A lot of S types are in the moment type people, and if they have a lot of energy and determination it leads to a strong work ethic and drive to succeed. I admire an SJ who works hard, or an ESTP who naturally does things I struggle with. Good on them.
 

Southern Kross

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I'm ambitious but not in the usual way. I don't want more power and responsibility. I just want to have more freedom to do the sort of work I want to. Success and more money would be nice but these are secondary to actual finding fulfillment in my work - being continually intrigued and challenged by it
 

bighairything

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As others have already alluded to, NF's are probably the most ambitious of all types, it's just that ambition for them is not necessarily aligned with the career ladder, which most of the time is basically all about bullshit (nb, bullshit is not so easy to climb, a point not lost on most mature NF's).

EDIT: Climbing bullshit? Hmmm... What interesting metaphors you get when posting while drunk.
 

sunshinEnfp

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I'm ambitious but not in the usual way. I don't want more power and responsibility. I just want to have more freedom to do the sort of work I want to. Success and more money would be nice but these are secondary to actual finding fulfillment in my work - being continually intrigued and challenged by it

This!
 

phoenix13

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I'm surrounded by a lot of SJs and SPs at work (and throughout daily life for that matter), and I'm often struck by how much more ambitious they are than me career-wise. I work hard, am good at my job, and take my work seriously, but I have zero interest in moving up the ladder because I don't want it to cut into my personal time, which I like to spend with family and friends as well as reading / doing other nerdish pursuits. Many of my girlfriends say they couldn't imagine being a stay-at-home mom, but to me that sounds pretty awesome. Sometimes I wonder if I ought to have more ambition, but moving up the ladder just kind of seems like a rat race to me. Any other NFs experience this? My suspicion is that ENFJs won't because most of the ones I know in real life have insanely amazing resumes and are involved in a million things. But who knows... Let me know if any of this resonates with you NFs... Or maybe I am just unusually lazy ;)

I don't experience this, but I don't think there's anything unusual or wrong about your vision for yourself.

Let me tell you about my INFJ mother: She has a STRONG drive to nurture her family, and family is the TOP priority. Outside of work, she only socializes with family. "Success" as measured by status, money, and objective accoplishments mean very little to her. Her greatest pride is in her children. Having said that, she is a physician and overcame a lot to get there. Most people would consider her ambitious career-wise, but for her the end point is about healing people. IOW, her ambition isn't in her carreer, but in her effect on others. I imagine that distinction is similar for a lot of Fs.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to talk about meeeeee :alttongue:. I'm ambitious career-wise, but it's a matter of fulfilling my potential. That Fi introspective "who am I and what can I do" thing is behind it. Oh, and there's always a little bit of that "Don't limit or underestimate me just because I can't match my clothes, and am slightly socially awkward, and definitely weird, and clumsy, and apparently completely disorganized, and don't freak out over tests like everyone else even when I fail them, and, and, ...SCREW YOU!!!!!" motivating me to keep pushing.
 
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