INFP Personality Type Secret

JOEL MARK WITT: Hi. Welcome to Personality Hacker. My name is Joel Mark Witt.

ANTONIA DODGE: And I’m Antonia Dodge.

JOEL MARK WITT: Today we’re talking about the personality type in the Myers-Briggs system, INFP, or in the Genius System, Authenticity Exploration.

ANTONIA DODGE: Yeah, so we have gone more granular in some of our content. What we’re going to do with this particular type, but what we’re going to do today is we’re going to do a little bit of a riff on this personality type. Just sort of some of our impressions and maybe some of the things that we’ve picked up about them, and maybe some of the things that maybe other people don’t know about the INFP, maybe something that they’ve … things that they’ve tried to keep under wraps from others.

JOEL MARK WITT: Yeah, and so when we’re talking about this personality type, they are leading with a cognitive function that we’ve nicknamed authenticity, meaning they’re making decisions based on what feels authentic to the core value, the deep core part of their heart, and this is really what informs everything they make decisions about, is what resonates. What’s in alignment with them at the core of their heart?

ANTONIA DODGE: Yeah, authenticity is the process that we use when we create conviction. I’ve noticed that people of this type will say that they are totally, completely unmotivated and cannot do a single thing until their conviction mechanism gets triggered, and then they are truly unstoppable. They will not let anything get in their way when they are trying to accomplish their goal, once that part of them, all the little parts get sort of in alignment with this goal.

When they really feel it truly down deep in their gut, once they get that triggered, then suddenly they move hell and earth to get things accomplished. But until they feel that, until they feel sort of that inner fire, that inner passion about something, they’ve … I’ve had a lot of INFPs tell me that they just kind of don’t care. It’s really hard for them to get motivated or care about things.

JOEL MARK WITT: Yeah, when it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter, but when it matters, it matters.

ANTONIA DODGE: Mm. Absolutely.

JOEL MARK WITT: It matters big.

ANTONIA DODGE: I think that’s one of the reasons why this type can move mountains. There’s a sense of idealism, and I don’t use that in a condescending way. There’s a sense of idealism that this process of authenticity gives them that makes them sort of blind to all of the things …

JOEL MARK WITT: Obstacles.

ANTONIA DODGE: Yeah, all the obstacles that are getting in their way. It’s not that they’re truly blind, it’s just that they just don’t care. They are not going to let anything get in their way, and I think that’s one of the reasons why this type has accomplished incredible things in the past. It always makes me think of Joan of Arc, right? Like this concept of the hero and in particular the archetype of the …

JOEL MARK WITT: Reluctant hero.

ANTONIA DODGE: … reluctant hero, that gets these insane things happening, just because they felt it so deeply, and they just really couldn’t care if something got in their way.

JOEL MARK WITT: Yeah, actually, in popular media, you’ll see this character pop up a lot, this reluctant hero character that is kind of going through life, and all of a sudden, there’s this challenge or this thing that they feel convicted about solving or doing, and they grab the sword or they grab the shield, whatever it is, and they go into fighting this or achieving this or whatever. You’ll see this come up over and over again, this archetype, in popular media.

ANTONIA DODGE: Yeah. One of the important things for this type to remember though is that they have a tendency to cloister themselves off from the world if they’re not feeling particularly convicted about something. So it’s really important for them to make sure that they’re focused on exploring as much of the world as possible.

Their co-pilot process in the Genius System, when we use the Car Model, their co-pilot process is a process called exploration, which is all about getting out into the world and exploring the world as much as possible, and really interacting with the world, like discovering new things by … We call it pushing buttons, pulling toggle switches, and just having new experiences over and over and over again. The more they do that, the bigger their frame gets, and the more likely they are to stumble upon the thing that really means something to them and get them into action.

When that happens, again, they’re truly unstoppable. But if they stay home, if they only allow themselves to explore through, say, books or other mediums, they’re probably not going to find the thing that really hits their core identity, and so their ability to positively impact the world will be neutered. That’s sad, because we all benefit when an INFP just completely goes like Lancelot, Sir Lancelot of the world.

JOEL MARK WITT: Yeah. Yeah, so if you come over to the Personality Hacker site, and you take the Genius Style Assessment, you can get your free results or you can get the premium results, doesn’t really matter, but if you get the premium results, it will really deep dive into some of the aspects of your personality and how you can grow what Antonia is talking about, the secondary process of your exploration, what we’ve called exploration, your co-pilot.

As you do that and your frame expands, the world will see you light up for things that matter to you, and you can make a big change, a big impact, and we need you to do that, because you have some of the most… How do I say it? You have the ability to inspire through conviction and through attention to something that matters to you, unlike I believe any other type has the ability for. I think the world needs you to show up in that way, and we’d love to have you come over and take the test and find out more about yourself and how you can grow as a person.

ANTONIA DODGE: Yeah. I also recommend the premium content, because I think people of this type really want to make an impact, but it’s hard for them to really know how they want to go about that. I think the premium Genius Style Assessment is 1 piece of them trying to … sort of figuring out how to get closer to that endgame of being able to make a big impact. If you were going to say 1 thing about this type that is a secret, that most people don’t know about this personality type, what would you say?

JOEL MARK WITT: Wow. I would say that this personality type has a desire to lead in a way, like lead from a structural standpoint, like they have a desire, kind of in their gut, to be that CEO, management leader. I think that’s something they really resonate with. They kind of have a desire of that.

My experience is that, instead of thinking of it in terms of a management leader, think of it in terms of an inspirational leader. Someone who can inspire through their own action and their own vulnerabilities to help motivate people. It’s not just about structure and things like this, because this is something that I think you aspire to as an INFP, but I don’t think it’s necessarily one of the skill sets you bring. But I think that the skill set you do bring is inspiration, which again the INFP personality type is, I believe, one of the best types in inspiring others into action and leading through inspiration.

ANTONIA DODGE: Can I make just a little bit of like a …

JOEL MARK WITT: Sure.

ANTONIA DODGE: … slight …

JOEL MARK WITT: If I say no, will you say it anyway?

ANTONIA DODGE: I just want to give a little nuance to what you said.

JOEL MARK WITT: Of course. Yeah. Help me refine what I’m saying.

ANTONIA DODGE: I actually think the males are more interested in that. I think the females are less like … because most INFPs are actually going to be females.

JOEL MARK WITT: That’s true.

ANTONIA DODGE: There’s a smaller percentage that’s going to be male. I think the males …

JOEL MARK WITT: …INFP males right now.

ANTONIA DODGE: I know, right? That’s why when you were saying that, I was like, I don’t know if the females feel that strongly about that, but I do think that there is a secret desire for them to lead. I do believe that. I think they’d love to be inspirational and a lot more inspirational than they’ll let on. I think maybe people of this type feel like it would be wrong for them to put themselves in that position, like they don’t want to be over anybody else or keep anybody from being able to state whatever is authentically true for them.

I think they have this push-pull relationship with leadership, where they definitely want to be leading a cause or a mission, but they don’t want to stamp anybody down. I think that push-pull relationship that they have with leadership has them even denying how much they want to be leading. I think that’s the secret. The secret is that they want to be leading.

I think the men will probably have an interest in almost infrastructural or organizational leadership in this really weird buried way, but I think INFPs in general want to be leading a cause. I think they’d love being missionaries of some sort, right? It doesn’t have to be religious missionaries, but just being on a mission is so interesting to them. I think that’s something that they don’t really let on about as much.

JOEL MARK WITT: Yeah, I could definitely see that.

ANTONIA DODGE: Yeah. Thank you very much for joining us on this riff of the INFP personality type or the Authenticity Exploration type in the Genius Style Assessment.

Want to learn more?

Discover Your Personal Genius

free-personality-test-myers-briggs-300x72

We want to hear from you. Leave your comments below…

1 comment

  • Vlad
    • Vlad
    • January 8, 2016 at 8:34 am

    Well… childhood dreams were to be immortal by 30, and rule the world eventually. Then I figured out that when I go all out some people can get really really hurt sometimes.
    Still want to. Just more… gently.

Leave a comment

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.