The Flow Functions
Functions that work like the gas in the car. Functions that push you forward and serve as intrinsic motivation sources. Functions you naturally manifest without thinking about it. Functions that give you energy and control. This function is best represented by the picture of a hero or a fighter.
Introverted iNtuition, always there when you need it. Comes without being asked. Takes you over and possess you. You enjoy going down the rabbit hole and gaining insight into things from a distance..
Introverted Thinking, that idea of perfect vision. You naturally see where everything should be and how everything would work if it was linear, perfect, and rational. Frustrating when things are out of place, incredibly satisfying when everything is perfect.
iNtuitive Judging to an INTJ is an image that possess you and shows you what things could become. It tells you always where you should go next. It fears being ordinary. It tells you to be brave and to aim as high as possible. It tells you you’re a coward if you settle for anything less.
Finally, Thinking Judging is your need to control everything or at least to feel like you’re in control or can control things if necessary. It fills you with pride whenever you’re able to manage the system and keep everything proceeding smoothly. It makes you feel ashamed if you lose control of something or fail to take responsibility for a situation.
The Weakest Functions
Functions that represent weak points and stressors in your life. Functions you conscientiously work hard to develop and use carefully. Restraints and brakes that tend to slow you down. As an archetype, this function is represented by a rival, demon or oppositional force in your life.
Extroverted Sensing, never there when you need it. You try your best to pay attention to your surroundings and you feel anxious when you miss or fail to pay attention to the situation, missing something important.
Extroverted Feeling is like that feeling of what you should have said or what you should have done in a certain situation. It can be that reminder that you did something immoral or didn’t meet your parents or friends expectations on you. It’s that conscientious desire to fit and meet social expectations.
Sensing Perceiving, this one represents your reflexes and instincts about a situation or your environment. It’s that reminder to try to be normal and to try to adjust to any situation, no matter what happens.
Feeling Perceiving is often revealed as the true self you forgot about. You struggle to let loose and be yourself because you always need to be controlled and to take responsibility for everyone and everything. You try really hard to just be yourself but your mind is very hard to push back and your head wants a say in everything.
The Inspirational Functions
These functions serve as challenging pressure points in your life. Things you fear to do that would inspire or push you out of your comfort zone. They can also represent dreams or ideals you fantasise about yet rarely dare to reach for. Archetypally, the inspirational functions are represented by a parental figure or a mentor.
Extroverted iNtuition is that desire towards what you really want, what would be so great. But your mind tends to always overthink these things. You can see so many potential problems and issues with a new idea or a possibility, and you can delay in action for too long, so long that the opportunity closes.
Extroverted Thinking would be great. Sometimes you dream of having more power and being better, stronger, more successful, and having more power and resources. You’re always striving towards this one, but you could always have more of it. You’re so perfectionistic though, you don’t just want to win, you want to win right. It’s not enough to be faster than anyone else, introverted thinking flow types aspire towards 100% excellency.
iNtuitive Perceiving: We see this function in INTJs as that annoying distraction, that other perspective, that question that pokes a hole in your plan and your own idea about something. You want to use this one to improve your planning and to give you a more complete idea about something.
Thinking Perceiving. If you could be just a little bit more flexible and could adjust your course just slightly, you’d perhaps have a more optimal result. Things are not always like you plan. Let’s be honest, you can get a bit set in your ways at times. Sometimes it’s more important for you to stick to a logical plan than to have the most fun possible. But be wary not to get too much in your own comfort zone. Sometimes you have to try new things and learn new skills, and that could help you succeed more in your plans later on.
The Stress Relief Functions
As an INTJ, you can see these functions as bad habits or tendencies to avoid responsibility or change. These functions can appear lazy, but also a sign of your sense of humour. People who use these functions frequently can appear more sanguine, open, and relaxed. This type of person can appear archetypically as a childish, blissful archetype.
Introverted Sensing is that annoying tendency you have to repeat and go back to the same answer or viewpoint, over and over, rather than conceptualise or expand your awareness of something. Your mind gets lazy sometimes, and will rather stick to what you already know than what you could learn.
Introverted Feeling shows up in an INTJ as a tendency to take relief in pain. Sometimes, INTJs make the mistake to assume pain is gain. If they can make a situation as miserable as possible for themselves, they can also get some kind of peace and enjoyment from this. But it’s not actually peace, it’s more like temporary feeling of relief.
Sensing Judging shows up as the INTJs tendency to walk mentally in circles around something. INTJs can easily get stuck inside their own mind if there’s no new input and no process of opening up or trying out new things. Rather than slowly expanding, which is iNtuitive judging, you can find yourself slowly retracting and scaling away more and more layers from something, making something increasingly simplistic and rigid. More positively, routine can be relaxing and a way to take it easy, when change can be overwhelming.
Feeling Judging can be the tendency to pressure forward harmony and to control people too tight. It’s not enough for people to go along with and follow your plans, but you may also want them to refrain from questioning you or in other ways complaining or showing discontent with you. Harmony is when you can relax and take it easy. Just make sure you can accept disharmony and discontent when it is necessary. More positively, you can use this function to laugh when it is inappropriate and to be playfully rude to others. Sometimes, playful conflict can be fun too.
