Photo from www.16personalities.com

Let me start by once again saying that I am an ENTJ and it is hard. If you are an ENTJ, please read until the end.

This is the very first time that I blogged about Personality Types even though I am crazy about MBTI. Perhaps I was conscious that I might write something incorrect since this is not my field. I am glad that I finally had the courage to share this to you because I am such an avid fan of MBTI.

For this blog, I would be detailing one of the worst struggles that I have as an ENTJ. It is the struggle with laziness, incompetence, and inefficiency.

Especially in a professional environment, ENTJs will simply crush the sensitivities of those they view as inefficient, incompetent or lazy. ーfrom http://www.16personalities.com

It is not that ENTJs never become lazy, incompetent, or inefficient. In fact, we do. Sometimes. And I will be iterating those times somewhere in this blog later.

Probably because of the dominant Extraverted Thinking cognitive function of ENTJs, we usually strive for efficiency and competence in whatever we do. Most of the times, that is a very good thing to have but sometimes, we become monsters because of it.

ENTJs against other People

Sometimes we are blessed with a perfect environment at school, at work, or wherever we are. But most of the times, we are not. That’s where the monster inside an ENTJ’s body awaits to come out and spoil everything.

ENTJs vs the Laziness of other People

Laziness is such a sensitive word for ENTJs. We never want to be entitled one. As much as we hate to be called one, we also hate to have a subordinate or somebody close to us that is lazy. For an ENTJ’s mind, unwillingness to work (work in general) will always be equal to laziness. Because of that, no matter what the reason will be, that person who is unwilling to work will now be tagged as a lazy person.

ENTJs vs the Incompetence of other People

ENTJs usually believe that all of us can do anything as long as we work hard for it. Because of that belief, incompetence is not excusable for ENTJs. In our mind, a person becomes incompetent because of laziness. The laziness to practice or learn. And because ENTJs despise laziness, incompetent people will be tagged as an incompetent and lazy person.

ENTJs vs the Inefficiency of other People

Inefficiency is a mortal enemy of ENTJs. ENTJs have always worked hard to be efficient in everything that we do. Even the most efficient way to get coffee everyday is a thought that would cross my mind in the morning at work. We want things to be fast and effective. For an ENTJ’s mind inefficiency will always be equal to laziness, incompetence, and apathy.

Sometimes, because of ENTJs’ Extraversion, we can manage to still be nice to those people we tagged as inefficient, incompetent, and lazy. Somehow, there is still that darkness inside that keeps ENTJs to hate, label, or judge people. That sucks.

Because also of ENTJ’s Extraversion, ENTJs tend to explode at other people. We would express our disappointments to other people. Because we are Thinking (T) people, we don’t usually choose our words. I have exploded a lot of times. There were times in public that I humiliated somebody. There were times at home that hurt my parents. I have hurt a lot of people and I have stressed myself out too much, too. And again, that sucks. A lot.

ENTJs against Himself/Herself

The very self of an ENTJ is not saved from his or her own wrath and judgments. People are not perfect, thus, ENTJs also become lazy, incompetent, and inefficient sometimes. The punishments and the judgments are double than how ENTJs snap to other people.

An ENTJ’s Laziness

I mentioned above that we hate being called lazy. Thus, ENTJs usually becomes lazy when nobody else is around. As soon as we feel that we are being lazy, we can’t bear ourselves. We push ourselves until all the work is done even if we are already very tired. Sometimes, this bounces back to us as a health issue.

An ENTJ’s Incompetence

Incompetence is shameful for an ENTJ. As for me, I punish myself whenever I become incompetent. Or sometimes, I become very depressed with my incompetence. There was one time I slapped myself because I was late at work for consecutive days.

An ENTJ’s Inefficiency

Since we always think of ways how to make things efficient, we don’t usually become inefficient. But when we do, we always blame our intellectual capacity. Whenever I become inefficient, I usually tell myself how dumb I was and how humiliating it is. Then the feeling of not wanting to face everybody comes after the self-pity. That’s the hardest part, because, I would overthink that everybody now sees me as an idiot.

This behavior has costed me a lot already. Starting from broken friendships to health issues to work-related issues. Look at what happened to Steve Jobs. He was one of the famous ENTJs.

Thankfully, I have a Psychology major bestfriend. When I was in the middle of my personality crisis (it is what I called it), she introduced to me MBTI. Then I understood. I understood people. I was relieved because I now know and I understand.

If you are experiencing these things as well, whether you’re an ENTJ or not, don’t worry. There are things you can do to achieve balance and I will be writing some down to help. Just some because I couldn’t know all, right?

1. Know your personality! Take the Personality Test for free here.
   It helps. It really does. How would you expect to understand others if you don’t even understand yourself, right?

2. Study about personality types.
   It really helps if you not just understand yourself but also others. Every personality type is unique and deserves to be understood.

3. Have feelings.
   Because ENTJs are Thinking (T) people, we don’t usually take into consideration the emotional factors or these are not our priority. Just the logical, rational, and practical ones. That’s why we are cold to other people and we just say whatever we want no matter how cruel those words are. It is true, what people always say; “Be kind for everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” If a person has reached the limit of your patience, just remember that there are always better ways to say things.

4. Unwillingness to work is not always equal to Laziness
   The more I studied about personality types, the more I realized that depending on people’s personality type, they have their own priority pyramid. For example, Perceiving (P) people are not always keen on organizing things on their desks, their PC files, or their rooms as much as Judging (J) people do. At one look, Judging people would usually stereotype them as lazy people because they can’t prioritize on keeping their thoughts and things organized even though it is such easy task. But mind you, because they are not Judging people, their thoughts are organized even with those mess on their tables or rooms. That’s why, organizing is not in their priority list and that’s not laziness.

5. Forgive Incompetence and Inefficiency. Sometimes.
   Same with #3 and #4; critical thinking, sympathy, and a little charm please. Fix situations in an orderly and constructive way.

6. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Achieve balance.
   Learn to forgive yourself the way you can forgive others. Find ways to fix your flaws in a healthier and constructive way. Keep the standards. Just change the way you impose them on yourself.

Overall, it boils down to being open-minded and the willingness to improve for the better.

If you are experiencing these things, know that you are not alone and that you can always improve. There are those people who have already achieved balance. Kudos to them for successfully going through the phase of ruthlessness.

As for me, I am still in the part where I apply all the things that I have learned. I will not stop until I, too, will achieve balance. You should, too. Cheers! 🙂

All love,