[Fi] Motivation from Fi: Is that possible?

[Vendrah]

Through my reads along the internet, and watching fictional stuff, I noticed that it is incredibly easy for fic characters to get driven by Fi and get motivation and fuel from it.
However, when we see the forums, specially INFP type, a mass lack of motivation is observed. It seems that most Fi users feels that their values/ideals will never gain traction in real world (I do).
It seems that for some, or better, the realistic majority (sadly, for me) Fi contributes more against motivation than a fuel, while there are some few who manages to use Fi as a way to get to action.
So, it leads me the question: How do we get motivation from Fi? Anyone heavily motivated by it? Really, knowing how to use Fi as a key motivator would be quite helpful.

EDIT: SFPs are fairly welcomed to answer too, but I didnt want to create two threads.

 

[Earl Grey]

I think this can be answered more generally, but I'll entertain it through an MBTI lens. First off, though, I do not think such motivation is tied to Fi and Fi only, that implies that the other axis (Fe-Ti) have difficulties with motivation, or lack the driver for motivation. I think in high Fi, it is just more readily observed, because of the nature of Fi being in tune with themselves as well as generally valuing the emotional impulses within them, gathering and personalizing the things that evoke feelings of satisfaction and value.

I think it is less that Fi has trouble with motivation or is good with motivation, and more that they generally have trouble consolidating that with what they should do (should do as in; planning things out, sticking to them, organizing them) into something they can actually pursue, act upon. There is a severe imbalance somewhere there, there is the stereotype of the I-FP being 'hippie passionate idealists' who'd starve on the streets with their passions rather than conform. The fuel itself is there, but high Fi, low Te are more of lofty idealists than mechanics, all this fuel and not much to actually run them.

For I-FP specifically, I think acting on Ne-Te helps in putting those motivations out there in more tangible form and to do so sustainably. The question is how much each I-FP has learned to built (or find) a car to match their fuel, and learn to drive it. If you want to hike a mountain, hiking skills and hiking gear are needed, failing and getting beaten down by the elements are a natural consequence of being unprepared. The issue is when the Fi starts taking this personally and moralizing it (high Fi, low Te, especially coupled with the impressionistic intuitive Ne), and the harder they push to be the way they are the harder the elements wear on them, and the lower their motivation eventually becomes. Identifying with the 'identity' that comes from a person who'd rather be beat by the storm than conform and learn to balance their approach is good and all, but the Fi needs to ask themselves if that's really what they always wanted- at the end of the day, someone beaten by a storm, is just that- someone beaten by a storm.

The core message really is simple, that your emotions (or passions, or whatever it is) are good, but not enough- not in the sense that they are lacking, or bad. Not enough- in that they need to be matched with gear as powerful as the storm they want to travel into, and no matter what people say, at the end of the day all those skills and gear are yours and your own.

 

[Luminous]

I think this can be answered more generally, but I'll entertain it through an MBTI lens. First off, though, I do not think such motivation is tied to Fi and Fi only, that implies that the other axis (Fe-Ti) have difficulties with motivation, or lack the driver for motivation. I think in high Fi, it is just more readily observed, because of the nature of Fi being in tune with themselves as well as generally valuing the emotional impulses within them, gathering and personalizing the things that evoke feelings of satisfaction and value.

I think it is less that Fi has trouble with motivation or is good with motivation, and more that they generally have trouble consolidating that with what they should do (should do as in; planning things out, sticking to them, organizing them) into something they can actually pursue, act upon. There is a severe imbalance somewhere there, there is the stereotype of the I-FP being 'hippie passionate idealists' who'd starve on the streets with their passions rather than conform. The fuel itself is there, but high Fi, low Te are more of lofty idealists than mechanics, all this fuel and not much to actually run them.

For I-FP specifically, I think acting on Ne-Te helps in putting those motivations out there in more tangible form and to do so sustainably. The question is how much each I-FP has learned to built (or find) a car to match their fuel, and learn to drive it. If you want to hike a mountain, hiking skills and hiking gear are needed, failing and getting beaten down by the elements are a natural consequence of being unprepared. The issue is when the Fi starts taking this personally and moralizing it (high Fi, low Te, especially coupled with the impressionistic intuitive Ne), and the harder they push to be the way they are the harder the elements wear on them, and the lower their motivation eventually becomes. Identifying with the 'identity' that comes from a person who'd rather be beat by the storm than conform and learn to balance their approach is good and all, but the Fi needs to ask themselves if that's really what they always wanted- at the end of the day, someone beaten by a storm, is just that- someone beaten by a storm.

The core message really is simple, that your emotions (or passions, or whatever it is) are good, but not enough- not in the sense that they are lacking, or bad. Not enough- in that they need to be matched with gear as powerful as the storm they want to travel into, and no matter what people say, at the end of the day all those skills and gear are yours and your own.

Excellently said.

 

[Venus Rose]

Through my reads along the internet, and watching fictional stuff, I noticed that it is incredibly easy for fic characters to get driven by Fi and get motivation and fuel from it.
However, when we see the forums, specially INFP type, a mass lack of motivation is observed. It seems that most Fi users feels that their values/ideals will never gain traction in real world (I do).
It seems that for some, or better, the realistic majority (sadly, for me) Fi contributes more against motivation than a fuel, while there are some few who manages to use Fi as a way to get to action.
So, it leads me the question: How do we get motivation from Fi? Anyone heavily motivated by it? Really, knowing how to use Fi as a key motivator would be quite helpful.

EDIT: SFPs are fairly welcomed to answer too, but I didnt want to create two threads.

I didn't personally read your post as implying "lack of motivation" in other types; I personally read it as motivation wrt how well your ideals are reflected in society, since Fi types like it when their environment is harmonious with who they are internally. I could probably approach it through several lenses, for instance, in enneagram 4, 6 and 9 are apparently common types for INFPs, not the only type obviously, but they are common. 4 and 9 share a core feeling of "not mattering" in some way, and 6 can bring fear where it's hard to trust your own mind, wrt whatever your worst fears are. In Socionics, the Delta Quadra complex specifies that Deltas can retreat, having grown weary, seeing that the world cannot live up to their pure and good ideals (and honestly, it probably cannot, in an ultimate and broad sense anyway. Human beings can be really mean and ambitious and may not care about anyone else to get what they want) but that doesn't mean "all hope is lost" (if it did, people would sink into depression). If Fi wasn't actually valued at all, the Fi lead would become neurotic because the products of their ego function does not matter, and is not being appreciated by a callous world. But this is not entirely the case (barring extremely abusive environments), and as Jung said, the introverted feeling type is focused on this "primordial image that it has seen in kind of a vision," and that this type is unfortunately "easily misunderstood because the emotions are not expressed outwardly, and the extrovert only trusts what he can clearly see" (paraphrasing) but that despite the subjective nature of Fi, all human beings have access to their inner subjective feeling and the power of Fi is that this is exactly what they are speaking to. EIIs are specially good at grasping the inner "essence" of a person (Ne is responsible for intuiting what is not immediately perceivable, of seeing the potential in something or someone, and Fi is excellent at cutting deeply and analytically into the inner human subjective experience).

That being said stuff like abuse or trauma can really jar a person and demotivate them (anyone of course, but point being Fi types can also fall prey to this). I think it helps to surround yourself with people who value you for who you are.

 

[Vendrah]

Anyone else with more opinions?

 

[Peter Deadpan]

Fi serves me in the moment more than anywhere meaningful long-term, and I feel that is because society doesn't value what I value, so the avenues are painfully limited. This also causes me to feel like I done fucked up somewhere, but probably realistically, several somewheres.

 

[Vendrah]

Fi serves me in the moment more than anywhere meaningful long-term, and I feel that is because society doesn't value what I value, so the avenues are painfully limited. This also causes me to feel like I done fucked up somewhere, but probably realistically, several somewheres.

Fi may not serve in long-term for you, but in society its likely different.

There's also an indirect effect that Fi-doms tend to have on groups. There's a passage from Jung's Typology, by Marie-Louise von Franz and James Hillman that, despite being far too positive and affirming, does capture a certain dynamic (non Fi-doms feel free to roll your eyes):

They also generally exert a positive secret influence on their surroundings by setting standards. The others observe them, and though they say nothing, for they are too introverted to express themselves much, they set certain standards. Introverted feeling types, for instance, very often form the ethical backbone of a group: without irritating others by preaching moral or ethical precepts, they themselves have such correct standards of ethical values that they secretly emanate a positive influence on those around them.