Motivation and the INFJ

Hello Friends! I know it has been a while since we last spoke on here (over a week!). Albeit, I have been in some kind of strange funk recently and haven't necessarily felt inspired to write. However, a new leaf was born today and today felt like a perfect day to do some writing! Hopefully all of you have been finding a way to stay cool recently, while enjoying life to the fullest and have been able to incorporate the great memories of summer from childhood into your day-to-day life routine to some degree. 

Today, the focus is going to be on motivation and the INFJ personality. Recently, as I continue the job search and really trying to find a solid company that fits the values I am personally looking for, it has made myself think about work principles primarily motivation. Motivation can be very hard to define and try to nail down because there are multiple facets that make it up.

Personally speaking, motivation is something that usually comes from myself internally and exists at a high level even on days where I might not feel completely 100% or as though I'm performing at my highest. After all, I wake up everyday at 3:30 AM and immediately start the day with a workout of some kind: 30 minutes of weightlifting followed by a mile walk or a three mile walk/jog followed up by 20 minutes of yoga depending on the day. It definitely requires a lot of discipline and personal motivation!

For many other INFJ's, motivation definitely exists to a high degree albeit maybe not at that same level. Particularly, there must be certain principles that align with the work that an INFJ is working on for the motivation be demonstrated at the highest level possible. Typically in the work setting, an INFJ will feel motivated at the highest level when the work they are doing is making some sort of profound impact either on another individual, group of individuals or the world as a whole. 

 

When the work is meaningful in that fashion, anyone who identifies as an INFJ strives with being able to go above and beyond to complete whatever needs to be done and completes the work with a lot of passion. In the corporate world, that can be very challenging especially if the INFJ is not working for the right employer. Often times, companies in the corporate world ignore the fact of what principles need to be in place for employees to feel motivated and focus more on profit and sales goals instead. 

As such, the notion of just working for any company or doing any job simply isn't good enough for an INFJ. Rather, there needs to be a meaningful component to the work, a set vision or series of goals that show how the INFJ is helping it's employer and employees as well as a short and long-term outlook that indicates how the work will transform an existing process. For example, if you do a search for ideal jobs for the INFJ personality, many of them will revolve around helping other people. While that can certainly exist in certain industries such as Customer Service or Banking/Finance, both of those industries do not have the nature of work that an INFJ is looking for. 

Instead, industries such as Human Resources, Behavioral Health, Healthcare and Social Work are much more impactful for the typical INFJ as they all provide work opportunities that encourage the individual to work at a high level and include that meaningful component as well. Furthermore, alongside the vision and outlook principles, it is also important for the INFJ to feel recognized in their work that they are performing to know that it is making a difference. An employer cannot simply just provide someone of this personality type with a quota number and expect them to meet it on a daily basis. 

Rather, there have to be motivational principles put into place that allow the INFJ to work independently as well as with a team of other individuals towards various goals. Ideally, instead of providing a sales quota number, the right idea is to formulate a goal for the INFJ such as "Making contact with at least five patients to see if they are in need of any Behavioral Health Resources" or "Providing outstanding, patient-driven care to every patient every single day." Within both of those goals, there is meaning to the work being done and the INFJ sees the impact of how their work will impact others at a higher level. 

As this blog continues to delve into the INFJ personality more, there will be future discussions about other work principles that need to be in place for individuals of this personality type to perform at their highest level. However, for now the focus needs to be on ensuring that companies realize the importance of providing a variety of motivational tactics and techniques to employees in a multi-facted approach instead of a singular one that focuses solely on methods such as sales figures and quota. While this blog post certainly will not change the view of every single company on this topic matter, it is my hope that it will at least provide further thought and discussion in this area as it relates to personality types and motivation. 

Now that you know more about what principles need to be put into place for an INFJ to feel highly motivated, what are some principles that you rely on to motivate yourself on a daily basis especially those days where you might not feel 100%? Do you have any motivational strategies or tactic that you incorporate into your own life that might be useful for others? While you are not expected to share those publicly on here if you do not want to, it does give you something to think about. 

Motivation can be a hard topic to master especially as it pertains to incorporating it into the corporate world and customizing those principles based on each personality type. Although, it is something that can be done through thoughtful research and insight that Organizational Psychology provides to companies and organizations alike.

Take care for now until we talk again on here friends! Remember, to be your true self each and everyday because the world is constantly craving more authenticity from everyone!