When I go for a walk, as I do about 3-4 times a week, I find that there are two broad “types” of activity during the walk. I divide them into “Perception and Execution” but you might also call them “Perception and Judgment” if you’re familiar with Jungian personality type theory.

Perception

This is really common for INTJs who are out walking. You might even do this during the entire walk. You’re looking around, taking in the sights, sounds, smells, and enjoying being out. Or you’re flipped into the opposite perceptive mode, a more intuitive mode where you’re imagining things that might happen in the future, like maybe you’re listening to some music and imagining yourself being applauded as you graduate with high honors from a technical certification program of some sort.

Like I said: This is really common for INTJs. It’s there for you and will happen automatically.

Execution

This is less common for INTJs. INTJs are really Perceptive—first and foremost, we perceive. But our secondary, saving action, the thing that really puts us back on track, is this concept of execution. Here’s how I execute when I’m out on a walk:

• I gradually start to bring my mind around to what I’m going to do after my walk. Usually this starts with a mental image. “Oh, I’m sitting on my office couch, taking notes and organizing my tasks.”
• I try to discuss, out loud if possible, what is on my mind, and what’s passing through it. Sometimes I’ll just put my phone to my ear and take a fake phone call—it just depends on whether there are other people around! If I’m really desperate to talk about something that’s uncomfortable, I’ll do it in third person: “He said he thinks that work today is going to be really hard. I told him to be sure to schedule in some breaks to do things he enjoys. For example…”
• If I can, I get as much into the details as possible. I might even sit down on a park bench and take notes for a few minutes, getting things really organized.

The goal here is to never let the Perception hog the entire stage while I’m out getting exercise. I’m good at Perception. But this exercise session hasn’t done its job until I have done some Execution. It’s that Execution phase that really clears out my mind. If I haven’t gotten that far, the exercise might even feel like it’s increased my stress, as my psychological distance from engagement with my stressors has increased.

So: Next time you’re out doing physical stuff, give it a try—take some time to talk or sort out what’s next. Get a list together. Aim for clarity and see if the physicality makes it easier to approach some of the more easily-avoided decisions.

Filed in: Anxiety /32/ | Fitness /31/ | Thinking /70/ | Therapeutic Practice /144/ | Sensation /40/ | Productivity /119/

It’s been quite a month here, with both businesses getting super busy all of a sudden. So: My apologies for the lack of blog posts recently.

Coaching Business

In the coaching business, I’ve had the opportunity to try some different types of coaching, including observing and interacting with children to help parents better understand the personality types of their children.

One parent checked her kids into a STEM-oriented exploration center while I attempted to understand them better. I was so blown away by how cool this place was that I could barely focus on the kids! Still, this particular client has made leaps and bounds of progress just based on the knowledge she’s gaining. It breeds a new form of familiarity with all of the least-favorite parts of her interactions with her family members. The thing that used to be a big suprise—as in, “surprise, I’m not acting like you would Mom!” is now something she is able to put into a more helpful context.

I can’t stress how helpful it is to know your children as well as you can. Personality type gives one possible in-road to that understanding. There are many forms of personality type theories, from Big Five (trait-oriented but still really helpful) to MBTI to Temperament and Interaction Styles and Socioncs and DISC and more. Use them all if you can—each model has its own form of leverage.

Going a bit beyond this, one of my goals with any client is to deepen the type knowledge into an individualized type-trait identification system. Something that we can both talk about from an external perspective when needed.

Outside all of that, I’m probably going to move away from “personality type coaching” as a descriptor of my “thing,” since my coaching style has really become fluid and so individual-focused at this point that I don’t believe the “personality type” part is really useful as a descriptor anymore. I’m a life & career coach, I’m pretty good at it, end of story, now I want to hear about you. ;-)

Webdev Business

In my web development and tech consulting business, I’ve had the opportunity to apply my coaching experience while helping clients navigate really difficult changes in their plans. One of the simplest manifestations of this help is “support,” which is probably a core service that’s familiar to a lot of INTJs, and good support always seems to be in high demand.

Providing good support from a technical standpoint is one thing, but providing good psychological support is another. Coaching has helped me understand that while I was previously technically prepared to steer clients this way or that based on what I thought was the “right” answer, I was doing so based on my own psychology, and largely in ignorance of their individual or group psychology.

One outcome of this new outlook has been a certain flexibility and boundary-setting capacity that I never had before. This has both lightened my load at work and allowed me to take on more challenging projects than I’ve ever taken on before. While it seems a contradiction to take both of those advantages at the same time, this path has opened because I’m no longer fighting others’ input or psychology the way I was before. Instead, I’m supporting them, making plans that are obviously beneficial to them, and doing this while protecting and contextualizing my own perspectives.

This “self-protection” aspect is absolutely necessary and takes many forms, but it’s not really a strongly outsider-resistant form of protection, so much as a “well, no matter what we do, I’m going to enjoy it, and the reasons why are detailed in the specific approach I’m taking” sort of thoughtful self-protection. For INTJs, doing interesting things usually ends up being fun, so I try to make things interesting at as many junctions as possible, for one.

The opportunity to just focus on this business or that one is always in front of me, and we INTJs will as a type generaly converge toward “pick one.” But I’ve always felt that the opportunity for variety here is a huge reward on its own. These businesses support me, in providing relief from one another, but also in helping me understand that I am really in control of how they operate, and not the other way around. I can apply lessons back and forth, and I can also ask myself “what’s the real essence of what I’m doing for people, and how can I best do that,” rather than engaging in all of the waste to which I had previously committed myself.

Many of you who read this are really, really hard workers. So I just want to conclude with this: If you’re in a situation where you’re probably a workaholic and that’s it—that’s all there is—well, you’re stuck and things need to change. I’ve been there. “Was today fun? If not, how can tomorrow be more fun?” is a good line of inquiry with which to start on important and necessary changes.

Personal Life

I recently bought some war games, getting back into this old hobby a bit more. On my previously “all business” second office desk is now spread out a huge Ogre game board, and I’m playing…mostly against myself, though I let my kids take turns when they stop by my office.

I also picked up a new camera, a Canon PowerShot. It’s funny to realize how nice it can be to just take some simple—yet “nice”—photos without lugging a larger camera around. It’s like a really fun in-between area that’s more capable than my phone camera, yet more compact than a DSLR. Taking photos on vacation recently, I shot the picture above and it really reminded me once again how important it is to get out and do fun & interesting things—keep the energy up (even if it’s the more introverted form of mental engagement), and keep the batteries recharged.

Another thing I do a lot lately is carry around a little bluetooth MP3 player and some headphones. I put new music on the MP3 player about once a week (I didn’t expect it, but this new-stuff part is really, really proving to be helpful). I put the headphones in when:

• I need to corral my energy resources into one area and really attack it
• I need to work on a sensory task, especially something small and fiddly and difficult
• I’m starting to feel irritated
• I need to do some exercise and move around a bit
• I’m out on a walk and I want to feel better before I start the “executive” portion of the walk’‘

So: Kicking out the jams is really beneficial—great. What I’m doing is treating it like a vitamin pill—maybe more like a prescription. Something needed. Maybe my first cyber-enhancement, simply because of the way it fits just right and really seems to click in there and help without being in the way. :-)

Probably the biggest change for me recently has been sleep experimentation. My wife bought me a FitBit for Christmas, and I immediately found that I was averaging about 5-6.5 hours of sleep a night. Since I already knew that sleep was super helpful in mitigating depression and anxiety symptoms (like really helpful), I decided to up the average.

My current 4-week sleep average after 2 months of trying to increase this is 7 hours and 45 minutes. Please note that this accounts for waking-during-sleep time, as the FitBit tracks actual sleep / wake time. Also, the average would have been over 8 hours, except for a really stressful week followed by a vacation weekend which didn’t provide that much sleep. Most weeks I’m sleeping 8-9 hours on average. The results have been really huge and I hope to get into that in future posts. For now it should suffice to say that not only do I not suffer from the depression or anxiety which took a huge toll on my life in past years, but quite the opposite—I’m able to engage in more intense projects and really commit myself to stressful undertakings in a smarter way when needed.

As a final note, this measurement aspect is really important for INTJs. If you’re guesstimating, make plans to increase your level of control by taking actual hard measurements. Again and again this aspect (which is really a form of informational extraversion) turns out to be beneficial.

Filed in: Therapeutic Practice /144/ | Productivity /119/ | Coaching /27/ | Energy /120/ | Careers /40/ | Relationships /78/ | Parenting /5/ | Interests /111/ | People /74/

Some time in my mid-‘30s I started allowing myself to harbor serious regrets about things. Prior to that time I think I was mostly a “no-regrets” kind of guy.

After hearing someone reject the idea of taking a time machine back in time to reverse regrettable decisions, I had to reconsider my position: Yes, I would definitely take that time machine back if offered:

• I’d be much more open-minded
• I’d not reply to certain critical letters or emails from family members (you know the sort…my dad, for one, could write the most withering letters-of-criticism)
• I’d consider the amazing job opportunity without grumping out about it
• I’d spend more time relaxing, playing, and so on…

So yes, regrets for sure. Not even just a few. A lot.

A really cool thing about regrets

So after I started thinking through my regrets, I had another big realization: I can’t go back in time, but I can start applying this information forward right now.

• I can crank my mind way open, try things, experience them, and then evaluate.
• I have the option of not only not replying to the occasional crazy-mail, but I can be proactive in lots of ways, and e.g. let people know when they do something that makes me proud of them.
• I can deeply analyze new opportunities and talk to people with relevant experience
• I can set aside time for fun and play, and actively evaluate the type of play that makes me happy.

It’s a sad fact that by not regretting things, you can say I was allowing unlearned lessons to damage my future prospects. I was also restricting my excitement for my future; it turns out that reducing the likelihood of crappy things happening in the future even a little bit really makes you feel better inside.

So yeah—I’ve definitely got regrets. I hope to recognize and analyze even more regrets in the future.

Filed in: Productivity /119/ | Energy /120/ | Therapeutic Practice /144/ | Thinking /70/ | Planning /17/ | Careers /40/ | Openness /49/ | Control /110/ | Goals /52/

I am seeing a lot of INTJ patterns in this write-up by Stephen Wolfram: Seeking the Productive Life: Some Details of my Personal Infrastructure

What do you guys think?

Filed in: Technology /41/ | People /74/ | Productivity /119/

Games and Gaming

I’ve been diving into Mercenaries, Spies, & Private Eyes (book cover shown above) which sounded absolutely fantastic and I’m planning a couple of solo-play pulp adventures just to test it out.

Of course, beyond just readin’ books, I feel a deep creative attachment to the idea of gaming and enjoy creating my own games. I’ve been revisiting my basic rules for wargaming with plastic soldiers and preparing the system for a Version 2 upgrade.

(I talk about this with a lot of my clients, but if you look at life as a role-playing game, there’s practically a treasure trove of learning experiences hidden in that metaphor)

Organization

I missed 2 Second Lean when it was originally published, but this book is a new favorite for sure. Like many INTJs I feel an instinctive struggle when confronted with phrases like spark joy and can feel myself growing more sarcastic the more I think about it, but 2 Second Lean has proven to kind of a bridge to that mindset for me. I rearranged my workspace to reduce waste and the result clearly sparked joy, which I have to admit was an awesome feeling.

It’s also nearing March already and I’m still on the prowl for favorite paper-based day planners after abandoning that quest for some years. Currently I’m trying out the Blue Sky 2019 Weekly & Monthly Planner, which is a good compromise between order & flexibility for me.

Software

After doing a 30-day trial, I placed an order for Softmaker Office because it makes desktop publishing exceptionally simple and works on my Linux systems. The one major thing that bugs me about LibreOffice is that the graphics and text positioning system is really weird. Softmaker Office absolutely blew my mind in comparison. (As always, I’m evaluating software based on my needs rather than others’ reviews and you should do the same. But no regrets here.)

Rest and Health

I finally got sick last week (sore throat, sinus stuff) after going 10 months without any sickness. This is a new record for me. And I have an autoimmune condition, so I mean it’s been great. My current regimen follows:

ALWAYS check with your doctor before altering your medication or fitness regimen—these are my personal notes only

• Gobs of rest, averaging 8.5 hours a night according to my Fitbit
• 5-10mg doxylamine succinate to help me sleep through the night. This is a pretty small dose, smaller than the store-provided sleep supplement dosage.
• Planning & scheduling for the next day in the evening, in order to lower stress and support good sleep.
• A multi-vitamin that includes iron (I was iron-deficient in the past)
• Blood thinner baby aspirin (I’m pretty DNA-sure that I don’t have any clotting issues, but it’s how my dad died, so I’m probably not going to stop until my doctor tells me otherwise at my next checkup)
• Exercise when I can, but lately it’s been maintenance-level.
• Eating about 1600-2000 calories a day, again maintenance-level. Sloppy macros, not exactly clean, but not terrible either.

IMPORTANT MINDSET SUPPLEMENTS:

• Planned maintenance appointments with doctors (I have found that this is very hard for INTJs on average)
• Setting boundaries on things I don’t like, don’t wanna do, being more patient with myself, etc.
• Cultivating lots and lots and lots of interests, which I’m finding really helps as a form of preventative medication. Hell, I was reading an astrology book at lunch last week and then took a break from that for a few minutes to dive into some of Feynman’s old talks. ANYTHING is good as long as it’s brain fuel. (I would say “ANYTHING is good as long as it sparks joy” but I know I’m already playing fast and loose here by mentioning things like astrology, right? Anyway the astrology text was surprisingly nuanced and my expectations were way off.)

In previous posts I talked about defeating depression and exhaustion with the help of inflammation-fighting medication such as ibuprofen. But in my later tests, I found that Ibuprofen was just doing what I wasn’t letting sleep do for me. With the extra sleep, I don’t need Ibuprofen and caffeine is optional. I’m much more productive and can take on larger problems.

If I could go back in time and “cure my depression” with one phrase, it would be: “Get so much more sleep than you think you need”. It’s really too reductive an exercise, but just to drive home what I’m learning. I instantly notice the negative effect of even 7.5 hours of sleep on my mindset.

I also wrote a dice-tables-based workout generator, which has been fun to use. I hope to release it soon!

Coaching Practice

I’ve passed around a beta version of an INTJ sub-types model to some friends and colleagues, in addition to emphasizing activities like dream integration.

The podcast—man I have so many ideas for this thing so it’s on hold for now until I figure out what is bugging me about it, remove that part, and put in the fun parts.

Other Interests

I started a framework on Death Preparation, including considerations like whether I want my body cryogenically frozen. I’m at least open to learning more about it. Maybe it sounds crazy, but after listening to a recent Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast, I realized I hadn’t even been thinking about this kind of thing in an organized way at all. Scattered thoughts, sure. But dyin’s huge man! Why not put some thinking into it.

In the radio world, I got some great images from the recent ISS download session and applied for the “diploma” that is available to participants. This was a lot of fun and I got absolutely drenched standing outside and aiming a huge antenna at the horizon, while trying to explain to my surprised neighbor what a “space station” is. Funny.

Using my journaling template, I’ve also realized that one thing that can help turn a 9/10 day into a 10/10 day is the degree to which I’ve made choices for which I’ll be grateful tomorrow. For example, by keeping promises I made to myself and by attacking problems that I’ll wish I had attacked earlier.

That’s it for now!

(Oh and I also have a beard.)

Filed in: Randomness /26/ | Interests /111/ | Therapeutic Practice /144/ | Books /10/ | Sleep /10/ | Openness /49/ | Fitness /31/ | Technology /41/ | Productivity /119/ | Energy /120/ | Coaching /27/ | Rest /21/

Moving upward a step from that warning sign that was my last blog post, here’s a mindset to consider. Instead of focusing on “here’s what I already know [followed by negative conclusion],” consider this stance instead:

Above: “Refuse to Choose” author Barbara Sher, “You don’t know what’s possible,” via Youtube.

I wouldn’t say it’s easy to start thinking this way for the average INTJ, but I will say it’s so worth it. To get into an “I know” mindset per my last post is to pressure those around you to protect you from possibilities, no matter how beneficial. It screams, “I can’t stand admitting that I don’t know about things, so please help me exist in this world as if I genuinely know everything.”

To be aware of that mindset, and to stop doing that—that’s really great. That alone can save many of your most cherished relationships. But let’s take it one step further.

To get into an open, “I don’t know what’s possible” mindset, is to invite those around you to tip you off to new and interesting and even life-changing things. From books and movies to job opportunities, beneficial relationships, and so on. And most people will do this for you without wanting anything in return except an acknowledgment that “hey, I didn’t know about that,” and maybe a bonus “and that seems like it could be pretty great!”

Your life will improve, your relationships will improve. Try it. If you really need to quit the new thing, you still can. But at least you engaged your perceptive side and explored the new territory.

Filed in: Therapeutic Practice /144/ | Productivity /119/ | Relationships /78/ | Energy /120/ | Ne /17/ | Control /110/ | Openness /49/ | Ni /42/

INTJs as a type are really talented at what Dario Nardi calls “meta-perspectivizing,” or thinking about whatever’s going on, from the outside-in. What emerges from that capacity is a sort of pattern-based predictive sense. Suddenly we get an intuitive burst: “I know what this is and where it’s going.”

For example, someone is talking to you, giving you a compliment, and suddenly you reach an intuitive conclusion: “They are buttering me up, about to ask me to help them.” (In many cases that’s OK and you should do the favor cheerfully, by the way—I’m not here to help you fall into disfavor with well-meaning friends who need help!)

While often beneficial, this intuitive talent can be really dangerous to our growth and happiness. For this reason it’s also very risky that it’s pretty much automatic for INTJs.

So let’s discuss. First: Beneficial cases. Contingency planning scenarios are great for INTJs!

For example, your spouse says, “hey let’s go to the beach,” and you drop everything and say “great, let’s go, I’m ready to hop in the car whenever you are,” and she’s VERY happy about this, because you already anticipated your spouse saying that at some point this week, so you took 30 minutes and put a plan together, and you even packed a small contingency-bag for the trip. Low risk, high mental reward, fun exercise. And boom! You were right. Have some happy brain chemicals. Good INTJ.

In that case, the anticipation was really nice—it helped you flex a bit, and instead of becoming the grumpy, plans-interrupted INTJ control freak, you were able to go with the flow and spend some healthy, happy time with your spouse.

Now let’s discuss the really risky and potentially negative side of this. That is: A constant pressure to know, to anticipate. (See also item #4 in this article )

Here are some phrases, examples of the way this feels, or manifests within the INTJ brain:

• I already know what you’re thinking
• I already know what you’re about to say
• I already know that won’t work
• I already know it will be problematic

…and this is important—it’s usually followed by “And therefore, I won’t try it, because then I might be wrong.”

So: We can learn to protect ourselves against any chance of being wrong.

See any problem with that? In effect, this thinking closes us off to new experiences. It’s like we’re saying “no thanks” to all the good things that life can bring, because there are also a lot of bad things in there.

If you’re thinking, “hmm, it would probably be better to arm myself with a superior set of problem-solving skills so that I can deal with the bad stuff and also move forward, taking advantage of all of the great things life has to offer,” this is what I’ve discovered, too.

Overcoming the Weakness

The first step is awareness: This kind of intuitive-predictive thinking has its pros and cons. INTJ intuition is subjective, that is, it’s only as good as our past experience. We don’t really know the future, do we? We just like to talk like we do, based on whatever lies in our past. That’s the risky part—we can easily overstep what we actually know, and depending on the situation, that can cause us loads of trouble.

Some INTJs wonder why they have reached age 30 or 40 and they haven’t picked up on stuff that other people already figured out. “I already know” often turns out to be a key contributor to this problem.

A second important step is leaving room for not-knowing. When is it helpful not to know? Here are some examples from my own life:

• I read a bunch of negative reviews about a product that I needed to buy, then remembered that reviews are not me using the product, but rather someone else using the product. My subjective experience might be different. So I ordered the product, and it was actually just fine for its purpose! No complaints.
• I didn’t want to look like I didn’t know how to run a business, so I avoided asking my business coach all kinds of “dumb” questions. I even avoided saying, “this isn’t even fun!” For this reason, I delayed my business progress until I could figure that out for myself.
• After losing a quarter of my body weight, I thought I knew how to lose weight. So when I started to gain weight again, I felt I had lost control and was afraid to admit: I didn’t know the “master key” to losing weight in every circumstance. And as soon as I admitted that, I was able to resume my weight loss.

I hope you can see how the benefit here really, really makes some focus on this issue worth your time.

And one final step to consider: Re-explore things that are buried in your past. In many cases, we have buried important lessons and experiences in our past, and are hesitant to re-explore. Some of my greatest breakthroughs with INTJs have revolved around this lesson: We may not already know what we can learn from our own past. Look in the past for lessons that you never got around to extracting from previous experiences. When you tackle the same problems again in different form, you’ll have a new sense of perspective and probably some new tools at your disposal.

So: Good luck, and remember: Unless you really knew everything I wrote here, there was probably something new here for you to learn. :-)

Filed in: Control /110/ | Goals /52/ | Openness /49/ | Intuition /62/ | Ni /42/ | Therapeutic Practice /144/ | Productivity /119/ | Energy /120/

I recently completed a basic framework for learning how to handle information you experience and metabolize via dreams, daydreams, and other exercises of the intuition.

This will be posted over on my coaching site shortly, but as a quick post for my INTJ blog friends, here you go:

And here’s the Archive.org Source Link

There’s also a PDF and RTF read-along version available for download.

This is pretty potent stuff for the average INTJ who hasn’t given it much exploration, as it lines right up with the INTJ’s intuitive gift. so give it a shot if you haven’t already.

Filed in: Therapeutic Practice /144/ | Intuition /62/ | Productivity /119/ | Sleep /10/ | Openness /49/ | Thinking /70/ | Ti /30/ | Ni /42/ | Goals /52/ | Control /110/ | Energy /120/

Just in between posts here, I thought I’d put this out there in case any of you have recommendations. I’m looking for a new email provider. Who do you recommend that’s not Google?

Some background: I already have a Google email account that I use for consulting work, and decided to set up a Fastmail account for my coaching emails, just to keep things separated, and also because Google mail has been pretty annoying in its own ways recently.

Well, today I logged into the web version of my ehh-it’s-ok-so-far Fastmail account to find that I had an embarrassing backlog of emails. Why had the Fastmail app on my phone not alerted me to this pileup? It turns out the Fastmail app had recently been updated, could no longer send me notifications, and I would now have to figure out…I mean, we’re not sure exactly, but figure out whatever it is that must be done to clear app data on my specific device, just so I could log in again from my phone. Geez.

I really wanted to like Fastmail but after writing all those apologetic email replies today, I’m not sure it’s a good match for my (relatively commonplace?) needs at this point. So—if you have a recommendation I’d love to hear it. It needs to support custom domain names, and hopefully have something other than an ad-supported free tier. Reasonably good support would be a bonus. I’ve tried GMail, Protonmail, and Fastmail recently. My contact email address is in the sidebar. Thanks!

Filed in: Technology /41/

Above: Some of my shorthand journaling and diagramming

I hear this every once in a while from coaching clients when I mention that I keep a journal. A couple points:

It’s relatable.

I couldn’t either! I still have my first-ever journal. It contains a few lines of writing followed by about 150 empty pages.

It’s not un-learnable

You read that right. If you’re open to the idea of becoming the type of person who gets a lot out of writing, you can absolutely learn your way through it. And I really recommend it.

Tips for INTJs

• Give yourself time to learn. I’d recommend at least ten years. If you can be patient with yourself that long, and spend some time reflecting on your writing practice periodically, I promise you’ll make some huge breakthroughs.
• Start with terse information. Rate your day.
• Re-read your notes occasionally. Some people cringe to do this—I did that too. But it will teach you to write things that will help you later.
• Use bullet points and lists. They are easier for INTJs, in general.
• If you’re feeling really open-minded and ready for some exploration: Have conversations. One of my favorite journal entries was my first imaginary conversation with Data. I made what I thought were some good points, and he listened, thought about them, added some nuance, and calmly shot down every point while inviting me to integrate my strengths into the problem-solving sphere in question. If you can make yourself open to this kind of experience (and a lot of INTJs can do this, but haven’t), it’s worth whatever risk you foresee.
• Look at writing as a problem-solving tool. Test it out—I have noticed that it accelerates my problem-solving capability.
• Evaluate what’s working for you and do more of that kind of writing.
• Use your powerful intuition to guess at what kind of writing might work better and try that, too.
• If you write a lot of emails, review some of your longer emails. What kind of writing was that that you were doing? Was it explaining? Maybe you’re a natural tutorial-writer. Was it criticism? Maybe you’re a natural critic. These are all good starting points.
• Be careful about trying to learn from other personality types. Usually people know some emotional/feeler friend who keeps a deeply-personal journal and writes everything in their heart right on the paper in bright blue ink, and they think, “WOW there’s no way I’d ever do that.”
• As an introvert, security is important to you, right? You imagine someone reading your stuff and critiquing you, or making fun of you, or whatever. So address that directly. I learned to write in shorthand (see photo above)—good luck reading it. You can use stand-in names for things. I have found that I can even write something and then immediately burn it / delete it and still get a lot of benefit from the practice!

In summary

“I can’t write” is often a very misleading statement, because what it usually really means is, “until this point I haven’t figured out a way to write with which I’m really comfortable. For that reason I’m probably not super open to continuing down that path.”

Introverts are known to be really enamored with their own past experiences, and as a group we can be too reserved about re-exploring things that we haven’t been able to do in the past. I believe this is one area where a lot of introverts make a tragic mistake by limiting their personal development.

So: If you “can’t write”—I challenge you to take another look at the subject. Find your own method and benefit.

Filed in: Thinking /70/ | Openness /49/ | Therapeutic Practice /144/ | Te /36/ | Productivity /119/ | Interests /111/