Are you an INFJ seeking to find your true calling? If yes, then you’re not alone. Many INFJs find it difficult to listen to their true calling and follow it throughout.
INFJs are the rarest personality type of all the 16 Myers-Briggs® personality types. INFJs are rare because 99% of the world’s population doesn’t share the same cognitive preferences as INFJs do. It becomes difficult for INFJs to find and follow their true calling as they don’t have many role models to relate themselves with and follow their life path.
Several INFJs in their late 60s repent of not being happy with how they have lived their lives doing something that never gave them any fulfillment apart from paying their bills, putting food on the table, and providing a roof above their head.
If you, as an INFJ, want to see yourself living your remaining life committed to your true calling, you have come to the right place.
Here are the six proven ways through which you can find and follow your true calling.
Table of Contents
1. Do something that intrigues you.
Ask yourself this question – What’s the thing that piques your interest uncontrollably for longer periods? Whatever comes to your mind, it must be something that you think is important enough to be pursued.
While asking this question to yourself, don’t judge yourself if you can succeed in the future following this pursuit. Make a list of all the activities that arouse your interest and ask yourself the following questions:
a) Does it fascinate you?
Does this activity makes you feel like – “Wow! This is Amazing! Wish I had known this earlier.”
b) Do you feel you should invest more time learning about it in depth?
INFJs are inquisitive beings. They love to consume a plethora of information on various topics, and they seek to find individual meaning and connections among them.
Do you feel whatever you’re pursuing should be given more time since it is worth pursuing it?
c) Do you feel the need to connect with others to get deeper insights into it?
If you find something exciting, you will automatically flock towards those who share similar interests like you.
Normally the inclination towards your true calling will come to you naturally and won’t be forced. You’ll wonder how far you can go to find that missing piece of information that completes your whole picture.
If your answer to all these questions is Yes, then you’re definitely interested in pursuing it forward. Kudos!
2. Do something that is the need of the hour.
As an INFJ, I’m sure you would be having some concerns regarding the well-being of people in general and the world as a whole.
I urge you to think deeply about them and ask yourself – Is it possible to find a solution to any of these present issues? If yes, then ask yourself the following questions:
a) Can you do something on your behalf to bring about a change?
Even if your contribution is minuscule, it can eventually snowball into a colossal form if your idea resonates well with the world. All you need is an honest intent to serve the purpose.
Remember the saying – A single spark can start a prairie fire.
b) How many individuals you know are working for it?
Ask yourself this question to ascertain if enough people have the same resolve as yours to work for your cause.
If you see, there are enough people who are working for your cause, follow them, join their groups, and work with them if possible.
If there are few people or literally no one working for your cause, then that’s a great opportunity for you to create something new.
You’ve been god gifted with Ni hero, so you can create any solution that serves the need of the hour.
3. Do something that can help someone in some way.
Do you know why you always have the innate need to help others? It is because of your Good Parent Fe (Extraverted Feeling) who wants to see everyone happy and delighted around you.
For INFJs, one of the crucial aspects of finding and following their true calling is to help the world become a better place by solving people’s problems.
Ask the following questions to yourself and find out if your true calling supports them.
a) Do you think you can help people with it?
The greatest joy for INFJs is to be able to help people with their gifts. You will be really happy when you’re able to help people while you’re committed to your true calling.
b) Can you improve people’s lives using it?
INFJs are cognitively well-equipped to use an analytical approach while looking for a solution.
Ask yourself how you can find permanent solutions to people’s problems using your true calling, and how can you improve their lives using that?
If you can do that, Congratulations! You’re on the right track.
4. Do something that gives you a social identity
We’re all social animals. Especially INFJs deeply crave genuine social connections. Socializing is something that comes naturally to INFJs.
Still, as they grow up, they tend to limit their social circles to only a select few individuals as it’s draining for them to express their true selves repeatedly to people who aren’t able to decipher such a rare personality type.
These people try to stereotype the INFJ in commonly found social molds, judging them with their close-minded life experiences. And due to this reason, a lot of INFJs feel terrible for showing up their true selves.
So, either they pretend to become someone else who is socially appreciated by all. Otherwise, they tend to move inwards, cutting off most of their social ties to isolate themselves and understand themselves better.
Long periods of isolation lead to a dark depressive state of INFJs, which is unhealthy for them.
So, it is very crucial to check if your true calling provides you with a social identity. Not only will it be easier for you to carry yourself freely and genuinely in your social circles, but it will also provide you with the social acknowledgment and appreciation that you crave deeply inside.
Ask yourself these following questions:
a) Does it provide you with a social identity?
It will be easier for you to connect with social groups and spread your message. INFJs hate to conform themselves to social stereotypes, as they’re cognitively tuned to create new identities.
You can definitely create your own, but it will help you, especially in the beginning phase, to associate yourself with a recognizable social identity as it will prevent you from falling into the INFJ imposter syndrome.
b) Does it bring you new social connections?
INFJs must learn that for them to live a fulfilling dream life, they need to maintain and create new qualitative social connections.
Ensure that your true calling gives you the access to form new social connections and maintain them.
5. Do something that makes you feel happy.
If you want to live a happier and longer life, you must do something that keeps you happy. It applies to all the 16 Myers-Briggs® personality types irrespective of the INFJ personality type.
Due to our early mental conditioning highly influenced by existing societal standards, we tend to choose careers that can provide us with a higher social hierarchy position. We don’t look forward to pursuing anything lesser than that which might provide us a deep level of satisfaction and an urge to pursue something to better the world.
Since you want to follow your true calling, you have to come to the basics and answer the following questions.
a) Does it make the best use of your cognitive preferences?
Introverted Intuition(Ni) and Extraverted Sensing(Se) are the perceiving functions through which an INFJ gathers data from the external world. Extraverted Feeling(Fe) and Introverted Thinking(Ti) are the judging functions used to make decisions.
The main driver of the INFJ personality type is the Introverted Intuition(Ni) which is also called the dominant or the hero. Since it’s the strongest perceiving function, the INFJ personality type heavily relies on intuition data to make decisions using their strongest judging function i.e the Extraverted Feeling(Fe) – Auxilliary or the Good parent.
Any activity that demands your intuition (Ni) to come to the forefront and requires your goodwill to serve and help others(Fe) is generally considered the best niche for INFJs.
Whereas anything that requires you to focus on a lot of sensory details combined with taking harsh decisions should be avoided as INFJs are not the best fit for these kinds of pursuits.
b) Do you feel full of energy pursuing it instead of feeling mentally drained?
Whatever your true calling may be, you must ensure that it doesn’t drain your mental energy as you pursue it. Otherwise, it won’t be sustainable in the longterm.
You might have noticed that you’re don’t like to involve in activities that demand you to stay mentally alert, focusing on tiny sensory details for a prolonged time. You feel worn-out after these sessions.
It happens because of your inferior cognitive function, Extraverted Sensing (Se), which is not strong enough to handle and monitor heavy amounts of sensory data. Whereas, if you are asked to find the overall meaning or patterns out of something, you feel comfortable doing that. Isn’t it?
So, it works vice-versa. INFJ & INTJ personality types (Ni dominants) are proficient in using their Introverted Intuition(Ni) to their advantage. In contrast, the ESTP & ESFP personality types (Se dominants) are proficient in using their Extraverted Sensing(Se) to their advantage, as these 2 groups (Ni dominants and Se dominants) fall on the opposite ends of the Ni-Se axis.
You’ll feel totally satisfied when your dominant cognitive function, Introverted Intuition (Ni), is frequently used to find solutions in your daily routine.
If your answer is Yes to both of the above questions, then you’re more likely to stick to it. I am sure you will stay forever happy pursuing your true calling.
6. Do something that is inherently easy for you?
If you want to create a massive impact in the world, it will surely take some time, but it will never happen if you pursue something that doesn’t come to you naturally.
If you’re pursuing something that you feel very uncomfortable at, how will you enjoy doing that in the future?
Ask yourself the following question to ensure you’re not following a wrong pursuit.
a) Do you get it naturally?
Nothing is easy, and nothing is complicated. It all depends upon your perspective. And perspectives are formed using our cognitive preferences. That is the reason why individuals belonging to the same personality type get each other very well.
Your true calling has to be something that comes to you naturally. It means you’ll be able to feel like you have certain talents within you that make it easier to grasp and understand it deeply as well as faster than others.
b) Do you find it interesting enough to teach others for prolonged periods?
INFJs are one of the best personality types when it comes to teaching. That doesn’t mean that you’ll be required to teach something which you aren’t interested in.
Even if you have gained knowledge about something which you don’t like personally, you’ll still have deeper insights into it. You can explain it to others and make them understand more easily than most other personality types. You’re God-gifted in this regard.
Don’t succumb to the social pressure, rather ask yourself wisely – Am I really interested enough to teach others on this subject for a long time?
If you’re sincerely interested and comfortable enough to teach it to someone, it implies that you believe it is essential that others learn and gain knowledge on it.
You’re more likely to have a purpose for it. And others will also notice that. Remember, your passion for something will always shine through.
Conclusion
If you’ve answered straight-forwardly Yes to most of the questions, be assured that you’ve found your true calling and you’re following it in the right direction.
Let’s recap whatever we’ve discussed till now. For INFJs to find their true calling, first, they must pursue what intrigues them. Their true calling will inspire them to do what they feel is the need of the hour. INFJs can find their true calling by helping others in some way that can provide them a social identity. Their true calling must be something that makes them happy and is inherently easy to pursue.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve chosen a difficult or an easy pursuit. The thing that matters the most is how much excitement you have to learn, work and grow in that field.
If you’re really interested in something, learn it as much as you can. Don’t think about success. Think about how you can solve a problem. How you can make people’s life easy in any way that you can.
If you can solve at least one problem that people face related to your interest, mark my words. No one can literally stop you from being successful.
My dear INFJ friend, I hope you have found your true calling using these 6 proven ways through this article.
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