Things You’d Never Dream of Doing, Based On Your Myers-Briggs® Personality Type

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Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

The ENFP

As an ENFP you love adventure, possibilities, and exploration. You like switching things up and trying them in new ways. You tend to shirk away from traditional, repetitive procedures and prefer having an open-ended schedule so you can innovate and change your plans as the mood strikes. You also have high ethical standards for yourself and hate anything that’s phony, manipulative, or forced. As a result, here are some things you’d never dream of doing:

• Creating a to-do list for the week and following it exactly
• Starting a book at the prologue and continuing it until the end without starting another book or jumping ahead
• Trying to fit into the mainstream channels of life so that you don’t stand out
• Accepting rules from an authority without question
• Creating a 10-year plan for your life and following it to a tee
• Following a recipe exactly without adding new ingredients to it

Read This Next: 7 Reasons Why You Need an ENFP Friend in Your Life

The ENTP

As an ENTP you love challenging the rules and looking at things in new, innovative ways. Where someone else might look at a bit of information and see it as bulletproof, you can question it in dozens of thought-provoking ways. More than anything, you can’t wait to realize the dreams and visions that constantly grow and expand in your mind. You enjoy a certain amount of chaos in life because in that chaos you can concoct creative ideas or solutions. Spontaneity, freedom to innovate, and lots of exposure to new ideas and novel situations stimulate you. Knowing this about your personality, here are some things you’re unlikely to ever consider:

• Immediately stopping a task or argument when someone says “You can’t do that.”
• Holding in the truth to spare someone’s delicate feelings
• Saying “because I said so” when someone challenges your argument
• Giving the silent treatment and acting passive-aggressive when something is wrong
• Trusting your heart over your head with conviction
• Ignoring the elephant in the room
• Looking for a job that is predictable, routine, and has no risks involved

The INFP

As an INFP you live your life with conviction and purpose. You want to improve the world, live in alignment with your deeply-held values, and create new possibilities. You have a fertile imagination that guides you down many novel paths and causes you to question things that many others see as “basic.” Rather than take your rules for life from a pre-established authority without question, you’re likely to do a lot of internal processing and questioning to make sure you feel right in your heart about every decision. Knowing this about yourself, here are some things you’d never dream of doing:

• Deciding that soul-searching is pointless and giving it up
• Throwing away old photos of friends or partners dispassionately
• Watching a movie without empathizing with every single character (even the villain)
• Confronting a service worker harshly because they messed up a tiny detail of your order
• Forcing your children to fit the stereotype of their gender (“Boys don’t wear pink! Girls don’t have short hair!”)
• Saying something is too childish for adults (especially along the lines of anime, manga, fantasy novels, fairy tales, etc,.)

Read This Next: 3 Weird and Wonderful Secrets of the INFP Personality Type

The INTP

Analytical and skeptical, you yearn to find truth in a world overwhelmed by irrationality and inconsistency. You feel energized when you have a lot of unstructured time to process information, come up with new ideas, and challenge and perfect data that was once incomplete. One moment you may be playing a video game and the next moment you may be pouring over books, strumming on a guitar, or conducting a science experiment. One activity inspires another and then another and you live for the discoveries that happen along the way. With that in mind, here are some things you’d never dream of doing:

• Subscribing to the New York Times only for their celebrity gossip section
• Announcing “It’s my birthday today” to the waiter at the restaurant you’re eating at
• Needlessly invading someone else’s personal space
• Making extended small talk because you want to
• Getting offended and shutting down when someone tries to debate with you
• Micro-managing a co-worker or partner
• Throwing a large party on a regular basis

Read This Next: The Childhood Struggles of INTPs

The ENFJ

As an ENFJ you seek to understand the dynamics that go on between people. You naturally get a sense of what people need and where they’re at emotionally. You’re also someone who likes having a plan, vision, or dream of the future that you can strive for. Harmonious connections between people, long-term goals, and the ability to consider the deeper questions of life are things that make you deeply content. Knowing this about yourself, here are some things you’d never dream of doing:

• Answering with a simple “fine.” when someone asks you how you’re doing
• Refusing to smile at anyone for a month
• Not giving a second thought to a co-workers snub
• Repeatedly bringing up someone’s past mistakes to prove to them that they’ll never change
• Laying in bed at night and falling right to sleep without imagining a future scenario, vision, or possibility
• Judging someone for being “overly nice”
• Taking life as it comes without making plans or to-do lists

The ENTJ

You’re someone who lives life with a vision and plan for the future, and you don’t want to waste time achieving it. When it comes to your interactions with people, you prefer it when people cut straight to the point and can give logical reasons for their viewpoints and decisions. You dislike dealing with a lot of mundane details and quickly tire of repetitive tasks that don’t seem to have a long-term benefit. People see you as blunt, rational, and ambitious. Knowing this about yourself, here are some things you’d never dream of doing:

• Walking slowly in front of other people on the sidewalk
• Engaging in small talk willingly for a long period of time
• Holding in your opinion for fear of hurting other people’s feelings
• Saying “whatever will be will be” instead of making a decision
• Showing up late to an important meeting
• Listening to someone vent without offering practical advice
• Talking about your feelings to someone you just met

The INFJ

As an INFJ you are interested in understanding why people are the way that they are. You easily shift perspectives to get into another person’s shoes and see things from their perspective. When it comes to your personal life, you like to have a lot of quiet and tranquility. Getting ample time alone helps you to recharge and get in touch with yourself and your intuition. Your intuitive side gives you a curiosity and insight into patterns, possibilities, and symbols. You like having a plan, living with a purpose, and foreseeing the likely effects of things. However, you get stressed when you have to dig into a lot of technical details. Knowing this about yourself, here are some things you’d never dream of doing:

• Attending a raucous party once a week
• Talking on your phone whenever you’re home alone
• Harshly demanding to speak to someone’s manager
• Dismissing someone’s perspective without imagining what it would be like to be them
• Parallel parking in front of a bunch of people without feeling queasy
• Getting in someone’s personal space without asking
• Having an awkward conversation with someone and not replaying it in your head later
• Giving tough criticism without feeling apprehensive or guilty

Read This Next: 24 Signs You’re an INFJ, the Mystic Personality Type

The INTJ

As an INTJ, you consider yourself a futurist of sorts. You enjoy tinkering with ideas  and studying emerging technologies or scientific discoveries. Knowing where the world is headed and finding a way to make a difference is crucial to you. Forecasting the future and dealing with abstract ideas is fun for you; you also enjoy making those ideas a reality by using your resources, formulating strategies, and managing any external factors that need to be organized. You prefer communication that is straightforward and rational and have little patience for manipulation or beating around the bush. With that in mind, here are some things you’d never dream of doing:

• Telling your life story to someone you just met
• Jumping headlong into a project without mapping it out in your head first
• Making trivial small talk just for the fun of it
• Avoiding being alone because it’s “boring”
• Cheering loudly and doing a happy, cutesy dance when you see someone you like
• Becoming a used car salesman
• Believing something just because someone in authority said it
• Fishing for compliments or sympathy
• Reading someone’s diary or journal when they left it out

Read This Next: 24 Signs That You’re an INTJ, the Strategist Personality Type

The ESFP

As an ESFP, you have a need for an exciting, friend-filled, adventurous life. You enjoy being spontaneous, getting to know a variety of people, and experiencing new sights, sounds, and cultures. As a Feeling-Perceiving type you care more about being authentic and real with people than doing what’s socially appropriate, but you’re also tactful and considerate and can usually sense how people feel by reading their body language. As a Sensing-Perceiving type, you’re highly aware of your surroundings and dislike it when people absent-mindedly get in other peoples’ way. Knowing all this about your type, here are some things that would be completely unnatural for you:

• Spending six months on a silent retreat
• Making a detailed plan for every day of your vacation and keeping it
• Moving into an apartment and leaving it undecorated and generic
• Encouraging someone to cover up their pain with fake enthusiasm
• Asking someone what their ten year plan is
• Talking about an unrelated subject during a pivotal scene in a movie
• Taking up two spaces in a parking lot
• Stopping abruptly in front of people in a grocery aisle and standing in the middle of the aisle while perusing the shelves

The ESTP

As an ESTP, you enjoy the high-energy, adventurous life. You’re highly aware of your surroundings and enjoy being immersed in them. Whether you’re doing cartwheels across a field or driving a motorcycle down a busy street, your life is fuller the more you interact with your environment in a tactile sense. As a Perceiver, you enjoy a flexible, spontaneous lifestyle; being roped into a lot of commitments and schedules can make you feel listless and depressed. As a sensing-thinking type you appreciate a logic-first approach to problem solving and excel at troubleshooting and working with facts. Knowing all this about yourself, here are some things you’d never dream of doing:

• Driving slowly in the left-hand lane
• Talking about something philosophical or unrelated during a sporting match
• Creating a to-do list for the week ahead and following it to a tee
• Being melodramatic about minor inconveniences
• Spending eight hours listening to a friend unload her problems and talk about herself
• Playing a ping-pong match with someone and not trying your hardest to win
• Posting a vague, passive-aggressive status update on social media

The ISFP

As an ISFP, you’re someone who craves inner authenticity and congruency. You want a purpose, meaning, and direction for life and you want the conviction to live alongside that purpose. That could mean helping the planet, performing as a musician, or going after any other dream that lies close to your heart. You don’t like to be tied down to other people’s agendas and rules; rather you march to the beat of your own drum and enjoy having control over your own life. While you can be quite a hard worker, you prefer a life that is flexible and where you’re free to follow your passions. As a sensor, you are typically grounded in the real world and enjoy facts over theories. Knowing this about yourself, here are some things you’d never dream of doing:

• Working for a corrupt organization because the money looks good
• Making a big scene at a party in order to get attention
• Bringing up a bunch of hypothetical questions in a conversation, just for fun
• Passing by an injured animal without feeling utterly tormented inside
• Blurting out all your feelings as you’re feeling them without taking time to process first
• Living in a generic, undecorated apartment and having no desire to enhance it with your style
• Being asked what your favorite songs are, shrugging, and saying “I like anything, I don’t really have favorites”

Read This Next: 24 Signs That You’re an ISFP, the Virtuoso Personality Type

The ISTP

As an ISTP, you want to know how things work and how to work with the tools and resources in your environment. As a child you probably enjoyed taking things apart and putting them back together just to see how all the pieces fit together. It’s crucial for you to have a well-organized mind where every bit of data fits together seamlessly. It’s also vital to you not to have any irrational biases or faulty logic. You appreciate arguments that are rational and don’t mind a good debate. When it comes to your lifestyle, you dislike being under someone else’s thumb. You prefer a flexible, autonomous lifestyle and probably dream of working for yourself if you don’t already. Knowing this about yourself, here are some things you’d never dream of doing:

• Calling your friend for a heart-to-heart chat whenever anything goes wrong
• Waiting in line for 20 minutes at Starbucks, and still not knowing what to order when you get to the front of the line
• Saying “OMG” in a real-life conversation
• Watching “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” all weekend long
• Playing a strategy game with friends and not really trying because you’re only there for the company
• Giving up on a debate even though you have good arguments because you don’t want to offend anyone
• Filling up your after-work time with social engagements for a whole week

Read This Next: The ISTP – An In-Depth Look

The ESFJ

As an ESFJ you crave a harmonious life filled with warm connections and meaningful bonds with others. You often think of your social responsibilities and don’t mind a busy life if those responsibilities are being fulfilled. You enjoy being with people and naturally tend to think about what they need and how they’re feeling. Even when you’re alone you may find yourself talking out loud to keep yourself company! When it comes to your lifestyle, you enjoy having a schedule and plan and get stressed if life seems too disorganized or spontaneous. Knowing this about yourself, let’s take a look at the things you’d never dream of doing:

• Ordering food at a restaurant without saying “Please” or “Thank you”
• Not finding out where everyone else wants to eat before deciding where to go for dinner
• Telling your friend you can’t give them a ride to the airport without explaining why or giving any excuses
• Seeing a partner or friend look tense and moody and not asking “What’s wrong?” or “You okay?”
• Ignoring your to-do list and just winging it all week long
• Leaving the dishes in your sink unwashed for three days in a row

The ESTJ

As an ESTJ you like a well-organized, busy life where you have a sense of control and consistency. You strive for competence in all you do and appreciate people who do their best and carry out their responsibilities in the same way you do. Keeping life planned, organized, and consistent is crucial to you; you don’t like feeling out of control or unfocused. You pride yourself on being down-to-earth and you enjoy working with facts rather than people’s emotions because those seem undependable or fickle to you. Knowing this about yourself, here are some things you’d absolutely hate doing:

• Not stating your opinion when you strongly disagree with what is being said
• Stepping down as a president or leader of a company because you think somebody else could do it better
• Seeing things being run inefficiently around you and not saying anything
• Leaving the big decisions up to somebody else
• Making a list of goals and then throwing it away and deciding to wing it
• Showing up late for work because you had to finish binge-watching your favorite show
• Procrastinating an important job by talking to your friends about your feelings

The ISFJ

As an ISFJ you enjoy getting in touch with the beautiful and meaningful details of life. Life ebbs and flows through different seasons and changes, and you enjoy the little traditions that give it a sense of beauty and consistency. This can mean watching the sunrise with a cup of hot tea once a week, ending the night with your favorite tv show, or picking apples every fall. Whatever it is, you enjoy the little rituals that mark the passage of time and help you appreciate fully the experience as well as the memories that they bring. As for your lifestyle, you enjoy having a plan and routine to follow because it helps you feel secure. When it comes to your relationships with others, you are typically empathetic and warm and detest conflict or unnecessary criticism. Knowing this about yourself, here are some things you’d really hate doing:

• Forgetting a partners birthday because you were too wrapped up in your own life
• Painting your bedroom bright orange, red, or yellow
• Calling up an aggressive talk-show host and getting into a shouting match
• Purposefully trolling everyone at a family gathering
• Saying “I don’t want to talk,” when a friend calls up who is going through a hard time
• Not watching your favorite movie because you’ve already seen it once
• Sleeping with crumbs on your sheets because you’re just too tired
• Accidentally offending someone and not apologizing profusely and replaying the moment over and over in your head

The ISTJ

As an ISTJ you enjoy having a calm, consistent life where you can easily meet your responsibilities. You often have a few very deep interests, so lots of quiet time to yourself is crucial. During these quiet moments you can tinker with your favorite hobbies or learn about subjects that interest you. When you’re not enjoying your free time you strive to be responsible and keep up with your obligations. You like having a sense of structure and can easily organize and delegate in a work setting so that projects are being completed efficiently. You have an eye for detail and quality and can easily sense when things aren’t as they should be. When it comes to communication, you prefer people who are straight-forward, down-to-earth, and logical. Knowing this, here are some things you’d never dream of doing:

• Remembering that you left your doors unlocked but going to sleep anyway
• Ordering a new computer without reading reviews or researching the hardware and features
• Making lots of trivial small talk with strangers on an elevator
• Filling up your weekend with raucous parties and clubbing
• Completely re-decorating your bedroom with a new style every few months
• Making large, flashy purchases without checking your budget (“You only live once!”)
• Saying you’ll be somewhere at a particular time and showing up late

What Are Your Thoughts?

Did you enjoy this article? Are there any other things you’d never dream of doing? Let us know in the comments!

Find out more about your personality type in our eBooks, Discovering You: Unlocking the Power of Personality Type,  The INFJ – Understanding the Mystic, The INTJ – Understanding the Strategist, and The INFP – Understanding the Dreamer. You can also connect with me via Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!