your broccoli will tell you how to eat it

January 22: phlegmatic

Those in my chosen profession - as well as each of the professions that I chose not to participate in, now that I think about it, after I'd finished educating myself in preparation for them - are often erroneously assumed to be phlegmatic and dull. In my experience, members of each of those groups are often beyond fascinating.

February 22: shrive

One of my colleagues apologizes regularly for even the slightest inconvenience. I've tried to offer her a general shrive, absolving her of all possible culpability in the even that she's inadvertently made my work life more difficult, but it hasn't kicked in yet.

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    Idealistic. Warm. Caring. Creative. Imaginative. Original. Artistic. Perceptive. Supportive. Empathetic. Cooperative. Compassionate. Responsive. Sensitive. Gentle. Tenderhearted. Devoted. Loyal. Virtuous. Self-critical. Perfectionistic. Self-sacrificing. Deep. Multifaceted. Daydreamer. Persistent. Determined. Hardworking. Improvising. Initiator of new projects and possibilities. Agent of change. Drawn to possibilities: "what could be" rather than "what is." Values oriented with a high level of personal integrity. Focus is on understanding the self, personal growth, and contributing to society in a meaningful way. Under the surface appearances: complex and driven to seek perfection and improvement, in the self, in relationships, in self-expression.
    If the career does not express idealism and drive for improvement, then boredom and restlessness sets in.
    Dislike conflict, dealing with trivialities, and engaging in meaningless social chatter. Thrive on acknowledgement and recognition so long as not attention-centered. Need a private work-space, autonomy, and a minimum of bureaucratic rules.
     That is what it means to be an INFP (Introversion, iNtuition, Feeling, Perception), one of the sixteen personality types on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). (The other options are Extroversion, Sensing, Thinking, and Judgment.) Roughly 4-5% of the United States population is estimated to be INFP, which is often called the "healer" personality type.
     Each time that I've taken the test - and there have been several, whether for work or as a test subject while living in the Mitten - I've been an INFP, and I've always scored Strong or Very Strong in each category. It is unlikely that I will ever score dramatically differently; I will probably always be INFP.
     Among the career options that are suggested to be a good fit for INFPs:

• artist
• "attorney devoted to righting wrongs"     (as compared to the ordinary attorneys, who cause them?)
• clergy in low-dogma faiths
• coach (personal growth/effectiveness)
• consultant (education, human resources)
• counselor (relationship, spiritual, career)
• editor
• entrepreneur
• healer (alternative disciplines)
• librarian
• physician (psychiatrist, family, holistic)
• psychologist
• researcher
• social scientist
• social worker     (excuse me while I laugh myself sick...)
• songwriter/musician
• teacher
• therapist
• writer, poet, or journalist

[the title quotation is by Anne Lamott, from Bird by Bird, and reads in its entirety: “There’s an old Mel Brooks routine, on the flip side of the ‘2,000-Year-Old Man,’ where the psychiatrist tells his patient, ‘Listen to your broccoli, and your broccoli will tell you how to eat it.’”]