INFJ vs INFP

Similarities:

Both are private. Both are idealists. Both can be perfectionists. Both are insightful, analytical, logical, and meticulous. And both are intuitives, preferring the abstract over black and white.

The biggest difference?

INFP is highly in tune with their own feelings 

INFJ is usually oblivious to theirs

INFP’s dominant function is Fi (their own feelings), but INFJ doesn’t even have Fi in their stack. (Same for ISFJ.) Instead, their “F” is extroverted (Fe) — which is other people.

INFP has ever-expanding ideas …inspired by feelings 

INFJ has ever-narrowing “insights” … about people

it’s the INFP who speaks fluent “ideas and dreams”

INFP is inspiration, with insight

INFJ is insight, with inspiration

At their worst:

INFP replays the past to relive emotions, and is sensitive (not critical)

INFJ gets lost in “white noise” / “nothingness,” and is critical (not sensitive)

When desperate:

INFP obliterates their creativity with convention (ending up soul-crushed)

INFJ obliterates their thinking with hedonistic indulgences (ending up ill)

Their insecurity / fear (or: the biggest insult):

INFP — “you’re not special,” “you’re too sensitive/naïve/spaced out”

INFJ — “your insights aren’t meaningful,” or “your life is meaningless”

INFP feels pride from being unique and being seen that way

INFJ feels pain from not being understood or connecting with others

INFJ biggest value isn’t “authenticity” but rather “universal meaning.” They are merely a vessel, and their F is focused on others, not self (their thoughts and insights — not feelings — are what’s focused internally, and sometimes INFJs are utterly blind to their own emotions.)

As Heidi Priebe wrote,

“Because INFPs tend to be highly creative and individualistic, most of them have never met another person quite like themselves (including other INFPs). For this reason, they find it fitting that their type is 1% of the population — they think this explains their individuality, when in reality it is their introverted feeling that sets them apart.”

Deepest desire:

INFJs want universal insight on other people (INFP doesn’t reallycare)

INFP wants unique expression of self (INFJ doesn’t really care)

What is an INFJ?

INFJ is an acronym used to describe one of the sixteen personality types created by Katharine Briggs and Isabel Myers. It stands for Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging. INFJ indicates a person who is energized by time alone (Introverted), who focuses on ideas and concepts rather than facts and details (iNtuitive), who makes decisions based on feelings and values (Feeling) and who prefers to be planned and organized rather than spontaneous and flexible (Judging). INFJs are sometimes referred to as Counselor personalities.

What are INFJs like?

INFJs are creative nurturers with a strong sense of personal integrity and a drive to help others realize their potential. Creative and dedicated, they have a talent for helping others with original solutions to their personal challenges.

The Counselor has a unique ability to intuit others’ emotions and motivations, and will often know how someone else is feeling before that person knows it himself. They trust their insights about others and have strong faith in their ability to read people. Although they are sensitive, they are also reserved; the INFJ is a private sort, and is selective about sharing intimate thoughts and feelings.

What are the core values of the INFJ?

INFJs are guided by a deeply considered set of personal values. They are intensely idealistic, and can clearly imagine a happier and more perfect future. They can become discouraged by the harsh realities of the present, but they are typically motivated and persistent in taking positive action nonetheless. The INFJ feels an intrinsic drive to do what they can to make the world a better place.

INFJs want a meaningful life and deep connections with other people. They do not tend to share themselves freely but appreciate emotional intimacy with a select, committed few. Although their rich inner life can sometimes make them seem mysterious or private to others, they profoundly value authentic connections with people they trust.

How can I recognize an INFJ?

INFJs often appear quiet, caring and sensitive, and may be found listening attentively to someone else’s ideas or concerns. They are highly perceptive about people and want to help others achieve understanding. INFJs are not afraid of complex personal problems; in fact, they are quite complex themselves, and have a rich inner life that few are privy to. They reflect at length on issues of ethics, and feel things deeply. Because Counselors initially appear so gentle and reserved, they may surprise others with their intensity when one of their values is threatened or called into question. Their calm exterior belies the complexity of their inner worlds.

Because INFJs are such complex people, they may be reluctant to engage with others who might not understand or appreciate them, and can thus be hard to get to know. Although they want to get along with others and support them in their goals, they are fiercely loyal to their own system of values and will not follow others down a path that does not feel authentic to them. When they sense that their values are not being respected, or when their intuition tells them that someone’s intentions are not pure, they are likely to withdraw.

Who are some famous INFJs?

Famous INFJs include Mohandas Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Emily Bronte, Carl Jung, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Florence Nightingale, Shirley MacLaine, Jimmy Carter, and Edward Snowden.

How common is the INFJ personality type?

INFJ is the rarest type in the population. It is the least common type among men, and the third least common among women (after INTJ and ENTJ). INFJs make up:

2% of the general population

2% of women

1% of men

What do INFJs like to do?

Popular hobbies for the INFJ include writing, art appreciation, cultural events, reading, socializing in small, intimate settings, and playing or listening to music.

Infj

Sensitive, empathic, and insightful, you care deeply about people, wanting to accommodate them on the one hand, and having strong visions that you desperately want to turn into reality on the other. Often preoccupied with mulling over your personal thoughts in your own head, others are likely to describe you as tolerant, courteous, and appreciative, but also a bit remote and dreamy. Thoughtful and caring, you have a well-developed facility for putting yourself in another person’s place and an instinctive understanding of how people work. Though you tend to spend considerable time fantasizing about how society could be improved, you typically refrain from arguing passionately in favor of your solutions. Instead, you prefer to influence others by gently letting them know how their individual contributions would be invaluable in the greater scheme of things.

What are tell-tale signs you are an INFJ?

19 Signs That You’re an INFJ

1. From a young age, you felt different from the people around you

When you were young, you had plenty of friends but you never felt like you truly fit in. Sometimes you faked being more like them so they would accept you, but deep inside you felt that it’s not right.

2. You want to know what’s really going on in people’s lives

Not just trivial stuff like what they did this weekend or what they bought on their latest shopping trip. You want to dig deep and get at the things that no one else sees. What does the person in front of you really think? How does this person really feel? The fake facade they put up for other people doesn’t fool you.

3. Plans

You feel more comfortable having a loose plan for things than you do completely winging it.

4. You’re social, but you are not really social

You can be both incredibly shy, quiet, and withdrawn, as well as charming, fun, and hilarious. It’s all about the situation, your mood, and energy levels, and most important, the people you’re with.

5. How you handle problems

When someone comes to you with a problem, you usually don’t give them advice or your opinion unless they ask. Instead, you ask them questions to help them better understand the situation and their own feelings about it. Sometimes you tell a story of a time when something similar happened to you, in the hope that they’ll draw their own lesson. You feel like you can usually see the path they should take, but you don’t want them to do it just because you told them to. You want it to be their decision.

6. There are limits to your introversion

You are an introvert and you like alone time, but you can’t be alone for too long. Eventually you need to reunite with your people. “Your people” are a handful of good friends who truly get you. It can be just one person as well. Deep conversations with these people are priceless, and hanging out with them can actually boost your energy.

7. The door slam

You’ve been known to suddenly cut people out of your life when they’ve hurt you one too many times. It’s not that you enjoy cutting people out, rather, you do this simply to protect yourself. Even though you may look like you have it together on the outside, you’re extremely sensitive inwardly, and you’re especially sensitive to other people’s words and actions.

8. You can be a people-pleaser

Sometimes you try so hard to make other people happy that you forget to make yourself happy.

9. Empathy

You often feel like you see precisely what someone else is feeling, and you believe you know what they need deep down. You’re not always right, but you tend to be more perceptive than most.

10. You have a destiny

You feel like you’re destined for so much more than just dragging yourself to your 9-5 job to pay the bills. You want to help people and change the world & not just get a paycheck. The problem is you either don’t know what your “glorious purpose” is, or you have an inkling, but you don’t know how to achieve it.

11. Always striving

You almost always have this sinking feeling like you could be doing better with your life. This results in you constantly have secret self-improvement projects going on, like learning how to cook healthy meals, setting better boundaries, or getting better at articulating yourself. Sometimes you push yourself too hard as you attempt to achieve your “perfect” life.

12. Your defence mechanism

Sometimes you turn to people-pleasing to protect yourself. You’re sensitive, so you can get really bothered when someone criticizes you or is disappointed in you. They can’t criticize you if you make them happy.

13. You sense things

You often immediately sense the mood of a room when you walk into it. Likewise, you often absorb the feelings of the people around you. If they’re excited, you get excited. If they’re anxious, you get anxious, too. You tend to gravitate toward calm, centered people so you don’t have to deal with as much emotional garbage.

14. Nothing but class

You’re drawn to high-quality things, like good food, nice clothes, and anything else that has good craftsmanship. As much as you hate to admit it, the way things look is important to you. You like being surrounded by beauty, and you tend to have sophisticated, refined tastes. But you’re a minimalist at heart. You’d rather have one or two really nice shirts than ten mediocre ones.

15. Your secret feelings

You care deeply about the people in your life, but they’ll probably never know just how much you care, because you keep your feelings mostly to yourself. You can have trouble articulating your emotions, even though you feel them intensely.

16. You care a lot

You’re usually thoughtful, conscientious, and considerate. Other people who are not as conscientious can seem callous and even cruel.

17. Books

You love learning, especially when it comes to psychology, self-improvement, spirituality, and certain sciences.

18. Your head is way beyond the clouds

When everyone else is gossiping, discussing celebs, or talking about other trivial things, you often find yourself thinking about outer space, time travel, human nature, the meaning of life, and other more epic topics like entrepreneurship. You rarely try to steer the conversation in that direction, though, because you don’t think other people will be interested.

19. You didn’t ask to be like this

Other people see you as wise, insightful, and almost spiritual. They often come to you for advice and emotional support. You relish your role as the “wise one,” and you like being needed. But sometimes it becomes too much. You’re an introvert, for crying out loud, and sometimes you just wish everyone would solve their own problems and leave you alone for a while.

Source:@6ejt

To which MBTI type are INFJs drawn to?

INFJs (NiFe) are a rare breed of individuals who possess both the insatiable thirst to know the unknowable and a level of compassion arguably only rivaled by a SiFe or FeSi. This explains why INFJs are referred to as the best thinkers among the feelers of the spectrum. When healthy, they can temper their emotions with logic and sound reasoning.

There’s a flip side to this, however. When left unchecked, INFJs tend to hold out judgment on people because their extraverted feeling (Fe) tells their introverted intuition (Ni) that “there are more than meets the eye.” This makes INFJs unwitting lovers of enigmatic people. They are easily drawn to people from extreme opposites: Those who make them better, and those who frustrate them. Whether or not they’d admit, they simply love reading people who aren’t easy to understand—or even worse, those who don’t wish to be understood.

Generally, INFJs are attracted to people who:

Can challenge their values and beliefs and encourage them to evaluate their emotions and decisions (ENTPs -> NeTi)

Are notoriously as introverted and private—if not more—as them, but leaps and bounds harder to read (INTJs -> NiTe)

Are generally considered dorky when with the INFJs (INTPs -> TiNe)

Look and view life with positivity and brimming optimism seen in the opening of any vivacious musical film (ENFPs -> NeFi)

Share the same values and tendencies as them (fellow INFJs -> NiFe)

Why is everyone so obsessed with INFJs?

INFJs are natural masters of mirroring emotions (that is, they shadow your subconscious in a way that disarms you because you see your feelings mirrored in them) . They are introverts, but come across extraverted in individual exchanges for this reason (warm and inviting). They don’t directly challenge people, but instead get people to challenge themselves. That is, they are disarming due to their ability to quickly read others body language, emotions and genuine feelings about, well anything. In this, they are adept at getting others to feel comfortable — opening up.

Talking with an INFJ for a short period of time leaves me feeling comfortable communicating about all kinds of things I wouldn’t normally share with a stranger (that is, I quickly feel understood where few understand me). The exchange is one direction, by design, and that’s not really on purpose but just a natural process of INFJ exchange. For when you step back and think about it you realize that the INFJ hasn’t really shared much of their own feelings, but rather they created a very safe non threatening place for you to express your own - and in the moment you feel on the same page as them. This is what intrigues me most about INFJs, they have very strong values and opinions but often don’t share them out of respect for a deeper and stronger desire to allow people to be authentically themselves - that is, they don’t want to poison other’s natural opinions by injecting their own that may conflict. In this regard, the INFJ feels connected to a human and they are driven to understand and help others feel understood. This culminates in their desire to help people help themselves and become more full. The paradox here is that the INFJ wants to be understood too, but they are guarded (I suspect out of a human state [or projection] of feeling others can read them the way they read people so well — as an INFJ it must be scary to think someone could look into their soul and see so transparently how they really feel about the world, it’s easier to keep that hidden so that it doesn’t disrupt the harmony they’ve created with the other). It takes a lot of connection and a long time for an INFJ to really trust themselves to share their true feelings (the deep dark sides of their soul) with others.

What this does, is it creates this mysterious draw towards the INFJ who can quickly clam up and withdraw from exchanges when the world bares down on them (which it does often). This leaves people (particularly other deep, intuitive types) wanting to understand them. I have yet to meet an INFJ that I wasn’t intrigued by. They are deep and caring souls, who often take on the weight of the world for those they mentor and care for. The best I can articulate it is to assign them the title sherpard of souls - to those fortunate enough to be in their world. It’s only natural to want to return the favor, in trying to understand them better.

Before I Found Out I Was An INFJ

I felt… alone. Like no one can ever understand me… heck, I couldn’t really understand myself. It was weird because, I could understand most people, what they go through, but I always felt no one will understand how I go through things, how my mind thinks, so forth.

I loved my unique self, don’t get me wrong. When I was little, I was proud to stand out from the other kids at school, but I also hated it. Because I thought it made me feel this way, a way why no one in my family can understand how I feel or how I think differently.

I never showed that I felt alone. Because I didn’t want to be a bother. And so many problems came in our family’s life, I didn’t want to become another one. So, I just helped fix problems and pushed my feelings aside, just to focus on my family’s feelings.

One day, my friend and I were hanging out, and she told me about a quiz. This quiz determines your personality. So, I did it, not really understanding what I was getting myself into.

After the test, I saw the words INFJ-T. Then, after reading about it, I felt a relief in my whole life. Because after reading this, I felt like there was a reason, a reason why I was like the way am and that I wasn’t alone. There are others like me. Of course, there was a small number, but there was still a number of them.

So, I asked myself where I’ll be able to find ones who are like me, the community of INFJ who probably felt the way I felt. Then, it hit me. Tumblr. So, I looked on Tumblr and found lots of INFJs. Ones like me. My other friend, she encouraged me to make an INFJ blog, to post things ones will relate to. I thought on it and eventually, @just-an-infj-girl was born.

That was years ago (don’t ask how many because I still don’t know to this day) and now, here we are. I hope you enjoyed my story. What is your INFJ story?

My Thoughts When Meeting People

I don’t know how to communicate. Sure, some people think it’s easy and all you have to do is go up to someone and introduce yourself but, it’s not that easy.

You see, going up means walking up to them. As I’m walking to them I prepare a scrip I am rehearse in my head, my legs are getting weaker, my brain starts to freak out. By the time I get to the person, I forgotten my own name as I’m sweating a storm and hope my breath doesn’t smell bad as I try to speak. In the end, if that person is kind, they would tell me it’s okay and immediately would become a friend but, if not, I try to forget the existence as if it never happened… that’s why I don’t walk up to people.

No, instead, I stay away from introducing myself. Rather, I feel more comfortable if someone came up to me and introduced themselves. It makes me feel like it’s not a bother that I’m in their life, rather, they chosen me to be in it.

I guess what I want to say is, if you are reading this, and you have no problem introducing yourselves to other people, and you see someone alone, talk to them. Become their friend. Maybe it may start an amazing friendship, and make the other person a bit more comfortable with their environment.

“I think of life itself now as a wonderful play that I’ve written for myself, and so my purpose is to have the utmost fun playing my part.”

— Shirley MacLaine

I want to try doing this but, I have stage fright… in life…

— quote by Dia Reeves

“Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.”

—Bertrand Russell

I need to make a t-shirt with this