Negative bias and an antagonistic relationship towards Introverted Sensing can be your detriment as an ENFP or ENTP. In this article, learn ways to improve your relationship to your inferior function and how you can learn to act as an ISTJ or ISFJ to become more successful.

One big revolution for enfps is recognising its ok to feel sad for the right reasons and you cant maintain a Ne state of inspiration forever. In fact Ne requires an insane amount of Si to stay on track. For every Ne idea you need a ton of Si self discipline and grit.

This is called the pendulum effect

The more you swing into any one trait the more you need to swing into its opposite. This means you need to allow both sides to flourish and flow naturally. ENFPs and ENTPs tend to hold resistence against Si and preconceived negative notions about it.

Thinking of it as something limiting, thinking of the familiar as boring or seeing Si and the old and reliable as wrong and outdated. In many ways an enfp will attain enlightenment the day they learn to make peace with boredom

Sitting with that feeling and being ok builds grit and character. And if you can master that you can jump more into Ne and with less resistance from Introverted Sensing.

You might not even have noticed, but whenever you get excited or enthusiastic about a project or new idea, your Introverted Sensing is sitting there in the back. It’s thinking: “Well, well, well, who do you think is going to make this all happen?”

Turns out, tons of work and planning and preparation is necessary to make your ideas come to reality. Translating your iNtuition to the world of the Sensory is your mission as an ENFP or ENTP, but without making peace with Sensing, it is not going to happen.

So how can ENFPs and ENTPs learn to harness Introverted Sensing?

Learning to make peace with your enemy

Many ENFPs and ENTPs have a rivalling relationship to Introverted Sensing. They think it is something bad or wrong or limiting. But it’s really important to make peace with Introverted Sensing. Just as it’s great to embrace your enthusiasm and excitement for novelty as an ENFP, it is important to learn to be okay being bored. You don’t always have to be cheerful or optimistic.

The most important thing is that you learn to sit with and honor every feeling. Everything has a purpose and a function and nothing is inherently good or bad. Introverted Sensing is the shadow cast by your dominant personality trait, for every idea you conceive, there is a need for closure, grit, and self-discipline. The more you rush ahead towards the future, the more unconscious, unresolved anxiety will rule you from the dark. But if you think that it’s bad to sit down and be bored – to concentrate on a task – or to discipline yourself, you will never get anywhere.

The truth is your body can’t tell if you are running towards something or away from something. It just thinks you’re running, and so, you may experience nightmares and fears of being chased or becoming trapped. This can make you run faster – but it can also invite the very failure you are running from. If stress or anxiety ever takes over, you might crash – and invite the very problems you were avoiding to work on in the first place.

It’s never wrong to take your time at a task. To be patient, diligent, and responsible. Meditation, and a slower pace, can help you make sure that you stay true to your core intentions. If you make sure you’ve covered your tracks before you leap, you’ll be much less likely to trip. You don’t need to account for everything, just enough to make sure that there’s not too many obstacles waiting for you.

Tips to connect with Introverted Sensing

But how do you actually connect with Introverted Sensing? You’ve tried in the past but you become bored. Get impatient. Lose track. You want to get started, but whenever you try, you become overwhelmed. You feel like there’s so much to do that it simply becomes overwhelming. To manage this, recognise that:

• Your brain will try to make your problems seem bigger and more dramatic than they are so to discourage you from taking action
• Your brain may push for unrealistic goals. Perhaps you can keep up with it for a while, but slow and steady improvements drive more consistent and long-term progress
• Remember who’s in charge: Extroverted iNtuition

Extroverted iNtuition has to lead Introverted Sensing for an ENFP. Not the other way around. You convince yourself to pick up Introverted Sensing by recognising the values it will drive for your Extroverted iNtuition. You build up energy and enthusiasm with Extroverted iNtuition and you later convert this energy to Introverted Sensing. Here’s some tips:

• Instead of enforcing a set routine, constantly develop new routines and processes to keep things fresh and interesting. Redecorate your room. Change up your recipes. Come up with new ways to do things.
• Practice free self-discipline. Do it because you’re a free and independent person and in order to protect your freedom and self-sufficiency.
• Go from the many to the few – start with broad tasks, and then gradually increase specificity.

Once you’ve started to master the process, there are a couple of principles you can add:

The Pareto Principle

• For every idea, take one specific, small-scale action that will get you on the way to your idea. If you have an idea to learn a language, sign up for a day course in your local city to try it.
• If you want to travel to a new country, open a savings account for that, and set a small savings goal of 50$ a month. You’ll get there sooner than you think.
• The pareto principle means using 80% of the energy generated by the dominant function into 20% in the inferior function.

The Pendulum Effect

• For every trip or event you plan, also plan for rest and downtime to process your experiences.
• If you start a new project, also plan in some time in the morning to clear your head before you get to work – by taking a walk or sitting outside in the sun.
• The pendulum effect references the importance of moving from the dominant to the inferior and back. It shows that life is a dance and that we are supposed to account for our shadow by planning for and accounting for its needs. The more you are able to go into your shadow, the stronger you stand in the light. Notice the positive returns that come from time spent on the inferior – and how it supports your dominant function.

The inferior function is ultimately not your enemy. It’s your friend. If you can turn this rival into a sidekick, you’ll have a mighty ally on your side to accomplish your goals in the future. Best of luck!