As an ENFP, your primary mode of living is focused externally, where you take things in primarily via

your intuition. Your secondary mode is internal, where you deal with things according to how you feel

about them, or how they fit in with your personal value system.

ENFPs are warm, enthusiastic people, typically very bright and full of potential. They live in the world of

possibilities, and can become very passionate and excited about things. Their enthusiasm lends them the

ability to inspire and motivate others, more so than we see in other types. They can talk their way in or out

of anything. They love life, seeing it as a special gift, and strive to make the most out of it.

ENFPs have an unusually broad range of skills and talents. They are good at most things which interest

them. Project-oriented, they may go through several different careers during their lifetime. To onlookers,

the ENFP may seem directionless and without purpose, but ENFPs are actually quite consistent, in that they

have a strong sense of values which they live with throughout their lives. Everything that they do must be

in line with their values. An ENFP needs to feel that they are living their lives as their true Self, walking in

step with what they believe is right. They see meaning in everything, and are on a continuous quest to adapt

their lives and values to achieve inner peace. They're constantly aware and somewhat fearful of losing

touch with themselves. Since emotional excitement is usually an important part of the ENFP's life, and

because they are focused on keeping "centered", the ENFP is usually an intense individual, with highly

evolved values.

An ENFP needs to focus on following through with their projects. This can be a problem area for some of

these individuals. Unlike other Extraverted types, ENFPs need time alone to center themselves, and make

sure they are moving in a direction which is in sync with their values. ENFPs who remain centered will

usually be quite successful at their endeavors. Others may fall into the habit of dropping a project when

they become excited about a new possibility, and thus they never achieve the great accomplishments which

they are capable of achieving.

Most ENFPs have great people skills. They are genuinely warm and interested in people, and place great

importance on their inter-personal relationships. ENFPs almost always have a strong need to be liked.

Sometimes, especially at a younger age, an ENFP will tend to be "gushy" and insincere, and generally

"overdo" in an effort to win acceptance. However, once an ENFP has learned to balance their need to be

true to themselves with their need for acceptance, they excel at bringing out the best in others, and are

typically well-liked. They have an exceptional ability to intuitively understand a person after a very short

period of time, and use their intuition and flexibility to relate to others on their own level.

Because ENFPs live in the world of exciting possibilities, the details of everyday life are seen as trivial

drudgery. They place no importance on detailed, maintenance-type tasks, and will frequently remain

oblivious to these types of concerns. When they do have to perform these tasks, they do not enjoy

themselves. This is a challenging area of life for most ENFPs, and can be frustrating for ENFP's family

members.

An ENFP who has "gone wrong" may be quite manipulative - and very good it. The gift of gab which they

are blessed with makes it naturally easy for them to get what they want. Most ENFPs will not abuse their

abilities, because that would not jive with their value systems.

ENFPs sometimes make serious errors in judgment. They have an amazing ability to intuitively perceive

the truth about a person or situation, but when they apply judgment to their perception, they may jump to

the wrong conclusions.

ENFPs who have not learned to follow through may have a difficult time remaining happy in marital

relationships. Always seeing the possibilities of what could be, they may become bored with what actually

is. The strong sense of values will keep many ENFPs dedicated to their relationships. However, ENFPs like

a little excitement in their lives, and are best matched with individuals who are comfortable with change

and new experiences.

Having an ENFP parent can be a fun-filled experience, but may be stressful at times for children with

strong Sensing or Judging tendencies. Such children may see the ENFP parent as inconsistent and difficult

to understand, as the children are pulled along in the whirlwind life of the ENFP. Sometimes the ENFP will

want to be their child's best friend, and at other times they will play the parental authoritarian. But ENFPs

are always consistent in their value systems, which they will impress on their children above all else, along

with a basic joy of living.

ENFPs are basically happy people. They may become unhappy when they are confined to strict schedules

or mundane tasks. Consequently, ENFPs work best in situations where they have a lot of flexibility, and

where they can work with people and ideas. Many go into business for themselves. They have the ability to

be quite productive with little supervision, as long as they are excited about what they're doing.

Because they are so alert and sensitive, constantly scanning their environments, ENFPs often suffer from

muscle tension. They have a strong need to be independent, and resist being controlled or labeled. They

need to maintain control over themselves, but they do not believe in controlling others. Their dislike of

dependence and suppression extends to others as well as to themselves.

ENFPs are charming, ingenuous, risk-taking, sensitive, people-oriented individuals with capabilities

ranging across a broad spectrum. They have many gifts which they will use to fulfill themselves and those

near them, if they are able to remain centered and master the ability of following through.

Dominant: Extraverted Intuition

Auxiliary: Introverted Feeling

Tertiary: Extraverted Thinking

Inferior: Introverted Sensing

towards it

ENFPs are lucky in that they're good a quite a lot of different things. An ENFP can generally achieve a

good degree of success at anything which has interested them. However, ENFPs get bored rather easily and

are not naturally good at following things through to completion. Accordingly, they should avoid jobs

which require performing a lot of detailed, routine-oriented tasks. They will do best in professions which

allow them to creatively generate new ideas and deal closely with people. They will not be happy in

positions which are confining and regimented.

ENFPs are motivated in everything that they do by a desire to understand the world around them. They are

constantly searching about. Mentally and physically, for input that will help them to better understand the

Big Picture. They are open-minded to new people and new experiences; they’re eager for the opportunity

to understand what the new people and experiences are all about. ENFPs use their understanding of the

world to serve the agendas of their value systems. An ENFP’s value system often includes respect for the

needs and desires of individual people over the needs of a social group. Their respect for the individual

makes them dislike controlling others, and being controlled by others. ENFPs are passionate about their

beliefs, whatever they may be. They often stubbornly adhere to their value system regardless of threats to

its validity. They are more concerned with keeping true to what they believe than they are with

expectations or demands from the social group that they function within. ENFPs dislike personal criticism,

because it threatens their validity as an individual and the validity of their value system. ENFPs may

internalize anger rather than express it; their respect for other individuals makes it difficult for them to hurt

others. An ENFP’s feeling of success depends upon the availability of opportunities to grow their

understanding of the world, upon feeling that they’re living true to their personal value system, and upon

the condition of their closest relationships.

As an ENFP, you have gifts that are specific to your personality type that aren't natural strengths for other

types. By recognizing your special gifts and encouraging their growth and development, you will more

readily see your place in the world, and be more content with your role.

Nearly all ENFPs will recognize the following characteristics in themselves. They should embrace and

nourish these strengths:

accurately assess where someone is coming from.

individuals have the right to be themselves, and are very tolerant and accepting of most people.

They’re wired to look for connections in the external world, and so they may mentally put things

together more easily than others.

acceptable and what isn’t. This may help them to be popular and likeable.

ideas and new ways of thinking.

of their perceptions will enjoy these very special gifts:

“bad”, rather than accepting everything without question.

and process information internally will make them more capable on many levels.

put their understanding to use in some way.

With any gift of strength, there is an associated weakness. Without "bad", there would be no "good".

Without "difficult", there would be no "easy". We value our strengths, but we often curse and ignore our

weaknesses. To grow as a person and get what we want out of life, we must not only capitalize upon our

strengths, but also face our weaknesses and deal with them. That means taking a hard look at our

personality type's potential problem areas.

Most of the weaker characteristics found in ENFPs are due to their dominant Extraverted Intuition

overshadowing the personality to the extent that they don’t apply judgment to anything. Or, they may use

their primary judging function (Introverted Feeling) to support the agenda of Extraverted Intuition, i.e. to

rationalize and support the idea of welcoming all experiences and accepting all individuals. In such cases,

an ENFP may show some or all of the following weaknesses in varying degree:

their understanding, and not willing to apply judgment to anything.

unable to express the anger. Left unexpressed, the anger may fester and simmer and become

destructive.

world.

perceive have been oppressive to them.

and sensations.

Nearly all of the problematic characteristics described above can be attributed in various degrees to the

common ENFP problem of wanting to understand and experience everything at any cost. If the ENFP does

not learn how to discriminate things and people in their external environment, the ENFP will begin to use

their judging function (Introverted Feeling) as solve a “rubber stamper” to support their agenda to seek out

experiences. This is a natural survivalist technique for the ENFP personality. The main driver to the ENFP

personality is Extraverted Intuition, whose purpose is to understand the world as one Big Picture, seeking

connections and meaning in everything. If their ability to seek understanding is threatened, the ENFP shuts

out the threatening force. This is totally natural, but unfortunately the individual who exercises this type of

agenda protection regularly will become more and more unable to apply judgment to anything. When the

unbalanced ENFP does apply judgment, it will generally be skewed to support their subjective agenda.

They will always find justification for their own inappropriate behavior. They will be unable to finish

anything that they start, and generally wander through life from experience to experience.

It’s very common for ENFPs to resist applying judgment until they feel they truly understand a person or

situation. However, part of the understanding process includes using discernment to classify qualities. If

the ENFP shuts judgment off entirely, he or she will not achieve their ultimate goal of understanding; rather

they will jump from experience to experience in a purposeless fashion.

Anger can be a problem for anybody, but may be especially so for ENFPs who have not sufficiently

developed their Introverted Feeling. The desire to keep everything non-judgmental, combined with the

tendency to use Introverted Feeling as justification rather than true judgment is a recipe for suppressed

anger. These are very contradictory forces. “I hate you for judging me” is an ironic feeling, but is

unfortunately common. The inability to apply judgment or to accept negative judgment prevents the ENFP

from expressing negative judgment, and therefore causes them to stew in their anger, rather than deal with

it.

To grow as an individual, the ENFP needs to focus on applying judgment to all of their perceptions. This

means they need to decide how they really feel about people, places and things, rather than allowing their

feelings to hang open indeterminately. The ENFP needs to understand that developing their ability to

discern qualities does not threaten their ability to understand the world, but rather enhances it, and enhances

their personal changes for achieving a measure of success in their lives.

The ENFP concerned with personal growth will pay close attention to their motivation for making a

judgment. Are they trying to really determine the objective value or merit of something, or are they trying

to defend their individual right to not be judged or controlled? The goal when judging something is to not

let your personal agenda influence your opinions. Obviously, this is not entirely possible, but it is the

exercise to keep in mind. You want to open your mind to judgment without feeling threatened, and without

using your own judgment in a defensive, rationalizing mode.

As can be seen from the above, some ENFPs can have difficulty fitting into society. Their problems are

often due top feeling different from others because of their dominant Intuition, and being unable to stick to

anything long enough to feel a sense of accomplishment. They feel like they don’t fit in, and can’t find the

place where they belong in the world. The ENFP who consistently makes decisions and applies

classifications to their ideas will be able to turn their ideas into reality, and experience the feelings of

accomplishment and success that accompany being effective.

The key to personal growth for the ENFP is competent execution of Introverted Feeling. It’s difficult for

most to understand what this means, much less incorporate that directive into your life. I have created

some action-oriented suggestions that will help lead you down the path towards more effective use of the

Introverted Feeling function. Specific suggestions:

When you feel angry or resistant towards someone who you feel is criticizing you, take this as a cue that

you are not judging effectively. When that happens, take a step back from your anger and try to really hear

what the person is saying objectively. Rather than expending mental energy in defining how the other

person is wrong, try to judge what the person is actually saying.

Periodically make lists of goals and accomplishments. Revisit your goals and accomplishments as often as

you’d like to maintain a sense of direction.

Spend time alone regularly for the purpose of thinking through issues in your life.

1. Feed Your Strengths! Make sure you have opportunities to have new experiences to feel your

quest of understanding the world.

2. Face Your Weaknesses! Realize and accept that some traits are strengths and some are

weaknesses. By facing your weaknesses, you can overcome them and they will have less power

over you.

3. Express Your Feelings. Don’t let anger get bottled up inside you. If you have strong feelings, sort

them out and express them, or they may become destructive!

4. Make Decisions. Don't be afraid to have an opinion. You need to know how you feel about things

in order to be effective.

5. Smile at Criticism. Try to see disagreement and discord as an opportunity for growth, because

that’s exactly what it is. Try not to become overly defensive towards criticism; try to hear it and

judge it objectively.

6. Be Aware of Others. Remember that there are 15 other personality types out there who see things

differently than you see them. Most of your problems with other people are easier to deal with if

you try to understand the other person's perspective.

7. Be Aware of Yourself. Don't stint your own needs for the sake of others too much. Realize you

are an important focus. If you do not fulfill your own needs, how will continue to be effective and

how will others know you are true to your beliefs?

8. Be Accountable for Yourself. Don’t waste mental energy finding blame in other’s behavior, or in

identifying yourself as a victim. You have more control over your life than any other person has.

9. Assume the Best. Don't distress yourself by assuming the worst. Remember that a positive

attitude creates positive situations.

10. When in Doubt, Ask Questions! Don't assume that the lack of feedback is the same thing as

negative feedback. If you need feedback and don't have any, ask for it.