How Good Are You?

Following are some practical exercises for experiencing the functions.  Which ones seem easy and natural to you?  Which ones make you uncomfortable?  These may provide you with some powerful clues about your type preferences.

First, some definitions. 

Intuition:

Feeling:

And now the exercises.  If you believe you could execute them equally well, I challenge you to actually do them and discover whether that's true.  (Substitute a person or situation wherever needed.)  Rate your success as you complete each one.

Extraverted iNtuiting:

• List recurring patterns in the way you interact with your significant other

• As you drive your car, pay extra attention when you are aware that "something is wrong here," even if you don't know what specifically is different.

• Think of at least ten different solutions to a problem.  For example, how can you avoid spilling coffee while you drive?

• List several oral habits a friend could take up as an alternative to smoking.

• Take an idea you have about where you would like to go on vacation and another idea about what you would do "someday" and combine them.

• Read a book or go to a movie.  Then ask yourself three ways it could have been written or produced differently.

• Think of new ways to do something routine in your life and try them out.  For example, consider ways to get to work, your bathroom routine when you arise, or where you sit to eat meals.

• Find what's good about discovering at the last minute that you are missing an ingredient for the dinner you are cooking.

Introverted iNtuiting:

• Spend some time in a quiet place allowing ideas to come into your consciousness.  Do not control the focus of your mind.  Write down some of the ideas so you can focus on them later.

• Name an animal that seems to be like you, one that you identify with.  What does this animal symbolize about you?

• Write down what the Mona Lisa would say about how well you are doing your job.

• Consider your life.  Where are you out of integrity?  Envision taking an action that would restore one aspect of integrity.  What would taking that action lead to?

• Identify and get in touch with the thing inside you that realizes when you have found your true life partner.  How does it communicate with you?  Explore what gives it confidence.

• List all the things that a star can symbolize.  Which meaning holds the most energy for you and why?

• Just before going to sleep, ask your unconscious to solve a problem.  In the morning, ask your unconscious for the solution.

• Consider a major holiday in the future.  Predict how the day will unfold.  What do you "know" will happen?

• Visualize your own inner child.  How old is he or she?  What is she or he wearing?  What expression is on his or her face?  She or he has a message for you -- what is it?

Extraverted Feeling:

• List the ways that people in your home interact with each other.

• Recall the people in your life to whom you are grateful and then the people you believe have hurt or offended you. What values did each support or violate?

• Congregate a group at a restaurant where every single person will enjoy eating the fare.

• Invite someone new to lunch today.  Find out what makes the person "tick."  Tell the person what you really like and don't like about whatever it is that you have in common.

• Call, write a letter, or use email to let people know about what is going on in your own life and invite them to reply with their experiences.

• Instead of getting the same little items for all the people at work for a holiday treat, get each one of them something that you know each specifically will appreciate.

• Focus on how your work will directly benefit others.

• Determine what emotional state a person is in and take an action to help them deal with the emotion.

• Take it upon yourself to apprise others about a special friend's birthday.

• Reflect on the values you are conveying to your children that they should hold, especially those you are teaching by example.  Are these values ones that you were taught by your parents or teachers?

• When you see someone violate a social norm, figure out how to explain what the norm is and ask the person to conform to it without damaging your relationship with them.

Introverted Feeling:

• Pay attention to your emotions. Stay with them. Name the emotions. See if a value is involved.

• List five things that other people have told you are very important but you don't see the value of.

• Identify the beliefs you have that you think every human being should hold.  For example, do you believe that no human should deliberately harm another human being?

• The next time you are asked what you want to do, say "I want to X."

• Before you make your next decision, check that it is ethical and consistent with your values.

• When someone comes to you with a problem, actively listen with the hope of helping them identify what values are involved. After identifying the applicable values, help them determine what actions would be consistent with those values and still solve the problem.

• If you believe someone is in need of support, move to sit by them and just be there with them without doing anything.

• Consider someone you know who has proposed an idea that violates one of your deeply held values. What is your judgment of their idea? What is your judgment of the person?

• Challenge a friend's action that violates your values.

If you do perform these exercises (highly recommended!), come back and re-read the description to see if you executed it exactly the way it is written.  For instance, if you challenge a friend, is it because they violated your values, or because they violated a group norm?  It's important to be aware of the distinction in order to relate it to the correct function.  You need to check back because our minds trick us and skew the exercise so it is re-routed through functions we're comfortable with.  (Folks with iNtuiting preferences are notorious for this!)

Now rate yourself as to which exercises come easily to you and which ones are hard.  Which ones create resistance in you, and which ones are you drawn to?  Which ones make you feel weak and cringy, and which ones make you feel strong and competent?

I suggest you not read this page superficially and write it off casually as more "ideas."  If you interact with these suggestions, you will gain powerful insights about yourself and how you prefer to be in the world.

TRADEMARKS