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[MBTI General] ENFP's don't even have a clue what they want (Those Dang Hedonistic Utilitarians)

Angry Ayrab

New member
Joined
Mar 31, 2008
Messages
600
MBTI Type
ENFP
WARNING: Holy Wall of Text Batman!

Ok you have been warned.

"This is my first exposure to personality tests so I have no clue what an ENFP is but they tell me I am one. A friend suggested that it would be very interesting if I wrote a self analysis of myself and then read the description of what an ENFP is so here it goes, I hope someone finds this usefull and not just a waste of valuable bandwidth."

Well, I said this earlier but here I go again; I am a first year medical student (hoping to save the world as a family practice physician), and my program decided it would be a good idea to give us this personality test based on Meyers-Brigg/Jung. I personally have never heard of this exam in my life (yeah, I know, I guess I have been living under a rock) but everyone else seems to have taken it before. Anyway, after doing a 250 question survey prepared by the department of psychology at our university, and then answering questions for half an hour about my behavior to three of our new psychiatry residents. They gave me a folder with a sticker of my name on the front and four letters printed on it.

The folder stated in bold ENFP. I was intrigued by this but didn’t care too much because I saw the name of this girl I had a crush on as next in the pile of folders and the letters INFJ written on it. I quickly jotted those letters down on my PDA (my hand and a pen, so what, I’m poor) and then kept that in my mind for later. Anyway that is neither here or there. One of the psychiatry residents provided me with a quick debriefing after-words and the results of that meeting went as follows:

Resident: Um… well you seem quite different than the general population of our class.
Me: Go on…
Resident: Well, out of the 70 students in the class you are the only one with your personality type.
Me: So…
Resident: Well you are an extreme ENFP, scoring over 80% on all your category preferences.
Me: Anyway doc… what are you getting at? Do I have cancer or something?
Resident: All we are getting at is that your personality type does not really do well in area’s that require lots of commitment and hard work.
Me: (Choking, trying to hold back a laugh) I could have told you that Dr.
Resident: Well Angry Ayrab, I recommend you read up on the profile and meet with us tomorrow for a detailed discussion.
Me: No problem, thanks doc… um… can I get that paper from you that tells Dr. Hamilton that I finished all this stuff?
Resident: Oh yeah, here you go, just read your profile please and you will see why I am a little intrigued at how you made it here.
Me: Sounds great (holy crap this guy is weird and offensive is all I can think).

Anyway, now that the conversation is over and I spent half the day reading everything I could find about INFJ’s I decided to write an un-adultered analysis of what my personality type is before reading any ENFP personality profiles which may make my analysis of myself even more bias than it already is.

Sorry for the rambling but here I go:

Hmm… Well first off, I am very people oriented, and extremely social. That is why I chose the medical field. This sounds crazy, but give me five minutes with almost anyone and I can tell where they are coming from. I think this ability has developed over the years as a child that used to have his feelings hurt by insensitive people. I decided that I would be very keen of the emotions of others and take care of them as best as I could (sounds gay for a dude, so what, bite me). This was the first aspect of my development that I remember.

Anyway, when I got to high school, I found out that I was really good at making friends and had a pretty witty sense of humor. This was good and bad at the same time. For instance it was good because I believe it is what allowed my strong social skills that I possess now to develop. Bad in the sense that during those years I was very immature and acted like a maniac. Anything stupid/funny you could think of I would do. I made people laugh a lot and was very good at it, but I eventually realized that I wanted more than just making people laugh. Even though I was happy making people happy, I realized that no one took me seriously. This second piece of social development lead me to my third.

I realized that more than anything I wanted people to like me for who I am and not for what I do. Sure making people laugh and having fun was great, but it was not fulfilling. I needed to learn things that would make me more interesting to people so they would want to like me (please note that I am still in high school and very immature at this phase in life). So I started picking up hobbies like a maniac, I learned a crap load of programming and became really good at C++ then got bored with it, I got decently good at chess then got bored with that. I made websites and did photoshop and eventually got bored with that. I got into computer repair, and then car repair, then guitar, then piano, then magic and performing, then extreme sports and then shooting and gunsmithing, and the list goes on and on. As you can see here, I tend to get bored very easily with stuff, 6 months to one year in hobby and then I just calm down about it. I did learn fairly quickly though so I was decent at all of these things but never mastered them.

Even though I never mastered anything, all these hobbies made me into a very well rounded individual by the time I got to college. I was able to chat it up with the philosophy majors and duke it out with the best of them. I was also able to program like a nerd (mind you all this stuff was with other freshman/sophomores) and I was able to discuss most things with anyone. I guess my third piece of development was eventually recognizing that I was very good at learning things and pretty creative, but not really good at sticking with things. I call this my lack of commitment and it drives me mad in other ways that I will explain as the story goes on.

Anyway, before I continue is this interesting to anyone or should I just shut up? If it is, I will continue, but if not I will save my energy and go read more about INFJ’s. Let me know? The story is one fourth done.
 

ferrisbueller

New member
Joined
Dec 27, 2007
Messages
53
MBTI Type
ENFP
I don't really have much to say other than, yeah, you really sound like an ENFP, welcome to the club. Good at lots of things, lots of new interests that are dropped later, quick inherent understanding of those around you, yep, you're one of us. When you get out of med school you should seriously consider psychiatry. I once went to a really terrific ENFP shrink (he was also a myers-briggs fan) and I think we are naturals in the field.

Also PURSUE THE INFJ. I've been dating an INFJ for about half a year and it's been awesome. The emotional connection and mutual understanding are seriously intense.
 

CzeCze

RETIRED
Joined
Sep 11, 2007
Messages
8,975
MBTI Type
GONE
Wow, you freakin' aimless slacker. If you didn't say you got into med school I would say "hurry up and stick to something!"

Hahahaha, I kid. Yeah that sounds very ENFP. I'm a little insulted the other residents said our personality type is unsuited in area’s that require lots of commitment and hard work...

:yim_rolling_on_the_:

:wipes tears from eyes from laughing so hard: Actually, no I'm not.

I am also getting into web development and artists' software tools like Photoshop next quarter. I've also bounced from sports like scuba diving and rock climbing and equestrian riding (but no guns, just bows and arrows :D)and I've jumped from language to language picking up smatterings. I'm good at picking up the "feel" for the language, but not so good at mastering particulars of grammar (which alright, alright, is the building block of language dang). And I move approximately every 8 months.

I agree, you would rock as a therapist if you can get the 'sticking to something' down and also possibly keep from getting burned out or bored.

BTW, I guess this is your first post in lieu of a proper intro thread?

Welcome! :hiya:

I look forward to posts, especially as a vocal ENFP who is new to the whole MBTI thing.

(If it makes you feel any better, I know of one or two probably INFX therapists who don't do MBTI either)
 

Ghost of the dead horse

filling some space
Joined
Sep 7, 2007
Messages
3,553
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Man, that's incredible. I could've literally wrote that self-analysis of myself, with a bit of ENTP stuff added. After 5 years of study I've got as far as to tell I'm an EN*P, occasionally deciding I'm one of the other for a few months at a time.

I'd say that's a great self-analysis and very ENFPish to me. It's a bit bad to put a person's hopes down by the "incompatibility" of their personality type. ENFP can do some things year after a year, if he plans not on the new skill remaining "new" for eternity, but on the new skill bringing more and more new experiences for him as he becomes proficient.

I haven't yet solved how to do one thing longer than about 1-1,5 years, and I'm 30. I was 5 years in a lowly job, tho, but it made me miserable - rotting away in a stagnant job doesn't really seem to be my thing. I did a lot of side projects by the job I had, so no year was the same.

That job is a bad example, as it didn't lead to much anything quite as fast as I wanted. Still, it lead to some good things and it was good to keep it that long.

First year I just wanted to know the job, professional telephone interviewing for governmental statistical studies. Second year I was trying to become more hardworking and precise, as those had been my problem areas. I did it for personal development and I learned a bit.. but I couldn't program all my randomness away. There was yearly reviews of job performance, and the supervisor found out that I did very professional job and was absolutely great at getting the interviews, but I was often late for 5-10 minutes, which somehow erased my professional merits :rolleyes:

So then I tried to get a promotion, and failed. Those being promoted were a bitch ISTJ (no offense to that type, but all the offense for the bitch) and an idiot ESXP (no offense to type either).. Third year I started planning a business as a side project (it failed), fourth year I did nothing, fifth year I was planning to enter some ICT job, which I did.

Ok that was long. Just some experience about how an ENXP have been able to stick to a job for 5 years. Not that it was entirely good experience, but an experience nevertheless .
 

Mikesen

New member
Joined
Mar 23, 2008
Messages
27
The interesting thing I get out of your self-analysis is your need to make people laugh. I'll be the first to admit I love seeing people laugh, but for some reason I could never do it myself. I'd drop a funny remark here or there and get huge laughs and be proud of it, but I never went out of my way to be a class clown. I actually got my "laugh-requirement" out by showing different stand-up routines to everyone.

It might just be because I'm so hard to figure out on the E-I spectrum, but it sounds like acting foolish for a laugh is a very ENFP trait, and I might just be the odd one out. I'm reading a biography on Che Guevara, who I've typed pretty easily as an extreme ENFP, and he did the exact same thing all his life. Maybe the reason I never did it was because I was introduced to stand-up fairly early and found it much more effective. But I always felt a tad "fake" when I was acting obnoxious.

But yeah, you sound like one of the more ENFP persons I've ever read.

If you're anything like me, and I think I can assume you are, the writings on ENFP's and love will particularly intrigue you.
 

Butterfly

New member
Joined
Mar 5, 2008
Messages
201
MBTI Type
ENFP
Hi AngryAyrab, welcome :)


If you're anything like me, and I think I can assume you are, the writings on ENFP's and love will particularly intrigue you.

Hi Mikesen, Do you mind sharing what those 'love' writings are please?? Thanks :)
 

SillySapienne

`~~Philosoflying~~`
Joined
Jan 14, 2008
Messages
9,801
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
4w5
Wow!!!!!

You are awesome!!!!

And I sooooooooooooooooooooooooo feel you!!!

Especially about reading up on the person you have a crush on, lol!!!!

And an enthusiatic WELCOME!!!

:)
 

Xander

Lex Parsimoniae
Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
4,463
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
9w8
ENFP.. lacking devotion to a cause they give a hoot about? Did this guy get struck by lightning on his way home?

Really need to sort that out.. the lightning thing.

ENFPs may be a little fried between the ears on some occasions but one thing I have never seen is an ENFP with no get up and go.

Well that's in comparison to this INTP... I guess my results may be skewed slightly here and there... :thinking:

Still ENFPs are very fiery IMHO. As long as the fire doesn't go out or out of control then it's perfectly fine for long term dedication... I think.
 

Ender

Large Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2008
Messages
1,090
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
2w%
lol, now I understand your comment about assuming I had a larger list of hobbies when we were talking lastnight about hobbies etc I'm pretty much the same, get bored of stuff way too fast.
 

targobelle

~*taaa raaa raaa boom*~
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
2,584
MBTI Type
enfp
k

here I am out of my self induced coma to say

I like you! :wubbie:
 

Griffi97

New member
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
124
MBTI Type
INFJ
My best friend is an ENFP and from your description it sounds like you fit the bill. She also tested 80 to 90% on all 4 preferences. FWIW, she is a general practice veterinarian and she loves it. We went through vet school together and while she partied pretty hard at times, she had no trouble applying herself when it was necessary. I think general practice provides enough daily stimulation to keep any ENFP happy. :yes: You're always meeting new people, solving medical mysteries, and really contributing to your patients' well-being.

Also, ENFP plus INFJ is a great combination. ENFP's are pretty seductive to us, with their fun-loving nature, boundless energy, and adaptability. And NF with NF usually means there will be a great emotional connection. Good luck, and welcome to the wild, wonderful world of MBTI! :D
 

Mikesen

New member
Joined
Mar 23, 2008
Messages
27
Hi AngryAyrab, welcome :)




Hi Mikesen, Do you mind sharing what those 'love' writings are please?? Thanks :)

A lot of the stuff online is pretty good, like personality pages and the few paragraphs on Keirsey's website, but if you have the book, or if you feel like dropping 15 bucks to learn about yourself, flip to the section in Please Understand Me II entitled relationships. The way it described NF's and what their looking for in relationships is what really sold me on Keirsey's stuff.
 

Butterfly

New member
Joined
Mar 5, 2008
Messages
201
MBTI Type
ENFP
A lot of the stuff online is pretty good, like personality pages and the few paragraphs on Keirsey's website, but if you have the book, or if you feel like dropping 15 bucks to learn about yourself, flip to the section in Please Understand Me II entitled relationships. The way it described NF's and what their looking for in relationships is what really sold me on Keirsey's stuff.

Thanks Mike. Will check it out :)
Edit: It will be a great idea if maybe you can start a thread on what NFs want from kierseys point of view? Till I or others get that book, it will valuable insight i think. Unless there are stuff online which im not aware of yet.
:)
 

CzeCze

RETIRED
Joined
Sep 11, 2007
Messages
8,975
MBTI Type
GONE
You know, I think I might check these (and other) titles out during spring break. Go Borders! (And Barnes&Noble) --> The new free libraries!
 
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