Here’s What It’s Like Inside the Mind of an ISFJ, ISTJ, ESFJ or ESTJ
Sensing-judging personality types have a unique and very personal way of looking at the world. They see the world around them as if filtered through layers of past experiences and impressions. They are in touch with the natural world, in touch with their inner bodies, and are skilled at storing sensory references and facts. Each of these personality types uses a mental process called Introverted Sensation (Si). Carl Jung said of Si that it, “Apprehends the background of the physical world rather than its surface….Introverted sensation transmits an image which does not so much reproduce the object as spread over it the patina of age-old subjective experience and the shimmer of events still unborn. The bare sense impression develops in-depth, reaching into the past and future.”
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Here’s What It’s Like Inside the Mind of an ISFJ, ISTJ, ESFJ or ESTJ
The ISFJ
You may be quiet and composed on the outside, but inside you are full of deep thoughts, passions, and rich memories. When you go through life you overlay your current experiences with vivid pictures and details from your past experiences. This makes it easy for you to notice patterns, changes, and nuances that others miss. You might be the first to notice when a room is re-decorated or when someone’s feelings about something are changing or shifting. You are also very aware of nuances in flavor and inner-body health. You might be the first to notice when an ingredient is left out of a dish or when you’re dehydrated or getting sick. You enjoy creating comfortable experiences, whether that be through preparing food, decorating your home, or organizing a steady routine that allows for security and tranquility. You enjoy creating and being in atmospheres that are harmonious and pleasant. Taking care of people’s physical and emotional needs is something you prioritize, and you tend to have a quiet, warm and steady presence. The only downside to your empathy is that you can become so fixated on taking care of other people that you disrupt your own comfort and needs in the process. You enjoy (and need) to get away from it all and let yourself rest, reflect, and process the day’s events. After a day around people, you tend to mentally take apart all the interactions you experienced and figure out what they meant to you. Post-processing your experiences allows you to remember them more accurately, and also helps you to feel more comfortable when similar situations present themselves in the future.
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The ISTJ
Reserved and pragmatic, you are someone who likes to know all the facts of a situation before moving forward. Being realistic and prepared is vitally important to you, and because of this, you like to learn as much as you can about a situation or scenario before jumping right in. You’re the person who reads the Amazon reviews before buying an item, studies a map before making a road trip, and organizes a to-do list at the beginning of your workday. You like certainty, structure, and organization. It bothers you when people leave you guessing or surprise you at the last minute with an unexpected job or event. Mentally you like time to prepare and get in-synch with what’s going to happen. After an event, you need time to unwind and analyze or reflect on what has happened. Your dominant mental process, Introverted sensation (Si) needs time to organize experiences to understand what they mean. Quiet time after socializing is essential so that you can regain your energy and get in touch with your inner needs and priorities. Overall, you’re somebody who likes to improve things and make them more streamlined. Making things effective and efficient gives you a sense of satisfaction. You automatically prepare outlines for everything so that you can organize how to tackle a problem and get all your specifics and facts lined up correctly. You hate it when people make extrapolations or guesses based on “hunches” or gut feelings. You consider yourself reasonable, someone who trusts what they can see, touch, taste, and smell. You look for evidence and proof before you believe in something and people count on your for your steady-headed outlook on life.
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The ESFJ
As an ESFJ you feel compelled to take on the emotional and physical burdens of the world. Your life is shaped by your values, and you are constantly reminding yourself of what you “should” or “should not” do. You place high importance on being pragmatic, reasonable, and compassionate. It bothers you a lot when people make decisions without regard for others. You feel like all decisions should be assessed in terms of how they affect other people. Sometimes this is strength and you are able to meet the needs of others in an organized, empathetic way. Other times you can feel stuck when you don’t know how to maintain harmony or there are a lot of conflicting opinions and needs. You can feel pulled between making other people happy and standing up for what you personally need. Because of your need for harmony, conflict is anathema to you, and you might find yourself unable to sleep as you try to sort out why someone is displeased with you. As you grow through life you start to become more at peace with the world and not having to have perfect harmony at all times (even if you’d prefer it). You want to be at peace with yourself and others. You enjoy being in nature, revisiting favorite places, and creating calming rituals throughout your year. A comfortable life for you means happy friends and family as well as a routine, stable lifestyle. While you enjoy planning the occasional vacation or adventure, part of you is always anxious for a sense of “home”. You spend a lot of time tailoring your home, filling it with beautiful details, memories, and ways for people to be comfortable. Your home is a haven for you and for others and you like to keep conflict, anger, and disorder outside of your doors as much as possible.
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The ESTJ
As an ESTJ you feel an urgent need to analyze and organize the world around you. You crave efficiency and seem to instinctively know how to create that. You believe there’s always an order, law, or rule that would make things easier. This doesn’t mean you want to micro-manage everyone around you, but it does mean that you like having a clear direction and a clear set of standards that everyone can agree on. Fairness and justice are vitally important to you, which is why you may fight to dismantle laws that you feel are persecuting others unjustly. You also may fight to instate rules that would better everyone’s lives. Your community is important to you and you tend to provide for your community by creating a sense of structure and security. You want people to know that they can count on you to be fair and depend on you to keep your word. You have a gift for planning and you thoroughly enjoy organizing all the details of a plan so that everyone’s goals are met. In decisions, you like to be logical and pragmatic. Facts and evidence are the basis for your claims and you get irritated by people who make “leaps” in logic or decide based solely on emotional whims. In everything you do you try to maintain a level head, trusting what you know through real-life experience. Your down-to-earth, friendly demeanor paired with your logical outlook on life makes you a trusted friend and advisor to many.
Read This Next: 10 Things You Should Never Say to an ESTJ
What Are Your Thoughts?
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