At last I am releasing my new multi-media product, “Can You Spot It?: Recognizing the 8 Cognitive Processes.”

This has been a year in the making — I have devoted untold hours of effort toward bringing this dream into reality. I took it back to the drawing board at least three times before it achieved the level of quality that I wanted, and I battled recalcitrant software for months on end, striving to bring it all together.

This product is borne of the frustration I experienced on sooo many levels. Here are a few:

1) As a life coach and Type Discovery expert, there were sooo many things I wanted to communicate about type to my clients that we never had time for. Coaching is not lecturing, so I typically could not share all that I knew about the eight functions to help my clients with their development process. This product addresses that gap. Finally I get to spill what I know!

2) For a long time now I’ve had several type-based websites online with richer and more helpful information than the majority of type-related websites out there. IN SPITE OF THAT, I get emails everyday from people who simply don’t grasp what I’m talking about. It is clear to me that there is an epidemic of type doubt and type misunderstanding out there, and not enough hours in the day to set it straight. This product helps people improve their psychological literacy, which in turn helpa them discover and honor their own best-fit type pattern, AND helps them discern how type shows up in the world in general. Type is sooo much more than an abstract model. We are living and breathing it nearly every moment of every day. This product helps you grasp that.

3) I have repeatedly felt heartbroken at the way some people use type to fuel their biases and bash other type patterns in this ignorance. So I consider this product to be my first attempt at winning the Nobel Peace Prize. I believe it portrays type the way it was always intended, and will help others grasp what the intent underlying this powerful model always was. A whole lot of celebrities are chattering about “consciousness” right now, such as experts like Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Eckhart Tolle, Gregg Braden, Jack Canfield, Michael Beckwith, etc., who all want to help us evolve our consciousness. And yet they’re missing this piece! Jung was all about consciousness and unconsciousness, and type was a vital aspect of his work. It’s imperative we not abandon that aspect of consciousness and leave Jung out of the conversation.

Those are merely three of the many forces that kept me going with this product, even when I thought I was going to DIE from all the details, when the software crashed and burned and destroyed hours of labor, and when the Blue Screen of Death appeared with regularity on my computer screen. Aghhhhh!

Now for all the effort I’ve devoted to this product for the past year, I should be charging ten times the amount I’m charging for it — yet I made a decision early on that I wanted to share this message with as many people as possible, and strive to positively impact the way people hold type. So I priced it for less than the cost of two coaching sessions (I dare you to find a better deal than this one!). The cool thing is that, by using this delivery method, it’s even more educational than a live, in-person workshop could ever be. It reaches far beyond the limitations of four workshop walls.

Here’s a YouTube I created to whet your whistle and give you an idea of what this product is like, AND if you want to view the full-length version (which is twice as long), I encourage you to hustle to my new website, www.VirtualTypeWorkshops.com and sign up for the FR*EE BONUS, which gives you immediate access.

Whatever you choose, if you are genuinely interested in type, I hope you will avail yourself of this resource. Truly, there is nothing else out there like it, and it will SKYROCKET your understanding of type. I’m confident about that, or I wouldn’t have devoted a year of my life to producing it.

Here’s a peek:

If you’re anything like me, it’s waaay too easy to get “stuck in my head” and worry something to death thinking about it. It’s what I like to do best — climbing up and down the spires in my head, looking at all the different angles, trying to find the metaperspective I like best.

And of course, while all that’s going on, I can look like a fool because I’ve got that hypnotized glaze on my face.

Which makes me suspect this cat might have INFJ preferences. Or something like it.

See what you think.

I decided to make a production out of it, and shot a little video to describe the experience, and relate it to the INFJ pattern.

…Does this sound familiar? (~wink~)

As long as we’re talking about forgetfulness, here’s an amusing little video to entertain you on the same topic. Of course, they write the problem off to age, but we know better, don’t we?

Now in no way am I suggesting he has INFJ preferences, or the Catalyst temperament.  The reasons I’m sharing this include:

1) it’s just plain inspiring

2) it’s an incredible metaphor for INFJs.  INFJs “feel” their way with people much like dolphins use echolocation to navigate. 

Now point #2 assumes that you already know dolphins are the animal “totem” for INFJs, and are familiar with my webpage on that topic. If not, the link is here. You may wish to familiarize yourself with that material before clicking the link. That way you’ll have a context for viewing.

As a metaphor, I’d like this to provoke some introspection about how YOU perhaps use echolocation to “navigate” with people (albeit not in the Sensing way that’s being shown here). Take a moment to go inside and “check in” with yourself about how you intuitively “sense” what people are about and “calibrate” your energy to match them.

I’d love to hear how you connect with this idea.

Enjoy!

A link to the New York Times article is here:
New York Times article

If you are lucky enough to live in or near New York, the Rubin Museum has a special exhibit about it:
“The Red Book” Exhibit

and is hosting several related events associated with the release: Related Events

If you would like to pre-order a copy for yourself, it’s available at Amazon using this link: Buy “The Red Book”

Please join us in our excitement and enthusiasm about this forthcoming release!

So I had an interesting reaction to an interruption. Check it out! (Watch my face.)

They say there is typically a difference between the way extraverts respond to interruptions, and the way introverts respond. What do you think?

It’s not a brilliant film — but it’s a good-enough film.  I love its message.

Since viewing it, I notice I’ve been assigning clients to watch it as “homework.”  I hear myself say to them, “You must see this film.”   Obviously some part of me thinks the wisdom of this movie is vitally important for them to experience.  (It sure isn’t because I’m getting a kickback for every DVD rental sale.)

Now I’ll be honest:  after giving it a bit of thought, I daresay the “Yes Man” approach is most likely a reflection of the Get-Things-Going interaction style.

In contrast, the INFJ interaction style of Chart-the-Course (if I were to characterize it) probably looks more like “NO Man.”  It tends to be the overall polar opposite of the Get-Things-Going style, and we know these two styles tend to cause each other stress.

I learned this firsthand, by the way — long before I knew a thing about type.  Many years ago I took an improv class in Los Angeles, and they taught me that the first rule of improv is to say “YES and…” to whatever happens onstage.  If out of the blue your improv partner should claim that you are a Lithuanian lumberjack, you’d better start swinging an ax and begin speaking with a faux Lithuanian accent.  Never say “no” to anything in improv!

During one class, our wily instructor assigned me to go onstage with my scene partner, pretend to stuff envelopes, and whatever he said — regardless of how crazy it was — each response I gave must begin with the phrase, “YES!  And…” after which I was expected to build on his statement and fire something brilliant back at him.

It was among the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life!  I’m pretty sure smoke came out of my ears, and there was a perceptible smell of burning wires from my brain.  It called on more extraverted intuiting than I was able to muster.  My unfortunate tendency was to resist *everything*.

In fact, I was sooo challenged by this unnerving “yes and” concept that I failed the class!  To my credit, I took it a second time because I was determined to pass.  And I’m glad I did, because it’s become a vital skill in my coaching, my presenting, and my acting.  I think training in improv skills should be required learning for every INFJ.  (I really do.)

Now, I want to take care not to praise any interaction style as being the BEST style, and the one that *everybody* should try to be.  That would be highly inappropriate, and it’s not my point.

However, it is possible to over-use our innate style.  And that can limit us — even stunt our growth.

I recently came across this intriguing quote:  “Never become the prisoner of a preconceived plan.” -William Zinsser

Have you ever done that?  I have!  I’ve been there.  Christmas is when I tend to have that experience of getting “trapped” by a vision I had that isn’t working so well in reality.

This is exactly what can happen when we become TOO attached to our Chart-the-Course interaction style.  We miss out on opportunity; we avoid our attraction to novelty; our lives begin to feel stale and boring.  We lose touch with the very things that make us feel alive!

It’s a paradox I suppose.  On the one hand, we love predictability, stability.  We treasure the time we take to withdraw and formulate our deliberated plans.  We can’t help ourselves from trying to anticipate what will happen and plan/prepare for it.  We’re good scouts.

AND… this same gift can become a curse when our lives become over-structured, over-planned, and no room remains for spontaneity and new possibility.  We may become rigid and inflexible when we are living too much into our natural preferences, our beloved comfort zone.  It becomes a bane rather than a boon.

Worst of all, our best gift of iNtuition Ironically craves novelty.  Chaos actually provides us with opportunities to structure and do what we’re best at.  So it’s a paradox!  If we don’t design our lives to honor *both* planning and spontaneity, we feel dead.  (The older we get, the truer this becomes.)

“Yes Man” is a wonderful reminder to INFJs to stop and smell the roses / coffee / soup — whatever’s cooking — and say YES to life.  We have natural planning skills, and we can handle whatever happens.  Really we can.  With that in mind, it’s okay to once in a while throw some caution to the wind and say “YES, MAN!” and embrace the vitality of being ALIVE.

Try it out!  Rent the movie if you want to see how it’s done.  Your life will be so much fresher and better for it.

Let me know what you discover.

Beebe gives an example in the very first paragraph of someone who was mis-diagnosed. Beebe writes, “For example a patient diagnosed by his therapist as an introverted intuitive (because he did not seem to do much and vividly reported dreams that were full of imagery), is discovered to be an introverted sensation type…”

So okay, mis-typing happens all the time. It’s practically the order of the day. What’s the big deal?

Well, just between you and me, I waded through the entire rest of the article with bated breath, waiting for Beebe to dispute this negative characterization of introverted intuitives…. and he never did.

Never mentioned it again.

Yes, I realize the point of that article was not about defining what an introverted intuitive looks like, but still… shouldn’t the record be corrected about that? Beebe should defend our honor here. After all, we don’t want to give the wrong impression, do we?

Or… wait.  IS it the wrong impression?

I’ve been contemplating that question for the past several days. Maybe there’s something to such a characterization after all.

Does that idea stick in my craw? You bet it does! It hits me hard — punches me right in the inferior function.

Hey, I *want* to be an action-oriented, doing, happening kinda gal. I want to motivate, inspire, change the world.  Set it on fire!

And — I confess. I can barely seem to keep up with my blog sometimes. Left to my own devices, I’d rather curl up with a book and read more than anything.

In fact, that’s one of the big “sticking points” between my husband and me. I wish he’d clean up the garage, or take care of the trash, or DO a bunch of chores that need to be handled. On his part, he’d probably like me to clean up the house, hang up clothes, sew on that missing button. I suspect we both want the other to be what we ourselves are NOT.

How did that go again? …”he did not seem to do much and vividly reported dreams that were full of imagery.”

Maybe Beebe doesn’t dispute that characterization because it actually fits. Hmm…

Now you may call me crazy, but as it happens, I’ve never understood the idea of prison as a punishment. Some of it sounds pretty good to me. Think about it: you get a roof over your head, three squares, a few chores you have to do, and it seems like inmates get to read a lot and earn college degrees. Many of them “find Jesus.”

That sounds like a pretty good deal to me! I don’t understand why people get so wrapped around the axle about how awful losing their “freedom” would be. That would *give* me the freedoms I need.

Sure, it would be hard on a marriage, but my most vital freedom is: having “dreams that [are] full of imagery.” As long as I’m able to generate those on a regular basis, I’m more likely to flourish.

My freedom feels restricted when I don’t have the space to engage my dreaming. When I can’t get enough sleep, or when I’m so stressed that I can’t occasionally sit and re-connect with myself — that drives me crazy. I need my self-connection time! It’s non-negotiable. I’ve needed that my whole life.

Come to think of it, I’ve always been a little anxious around other people because I’m not all industrious and hard-working. It’s not that I can’t work hard — far from it. But I’m not the kind of person who’ll bustle around and vacuum the house, dust the furniture, file the papers, straighten the bookshelves. I’m not perpetually on the lookout for things to DO in order to “keep busy.” I’m just not industrious that way. The very idea of chores is a total turnoff. I’m always looking for electronic gadgets to handle my housework for me — be they dishwasher, robot vacuum, or self-cleaning oven. Anything to get out of *that*.

“He did not seem to do much…”

Is that a reflection of me…?

I wonder.

At minimum, I have resistance to considering that possibility. Which might mean there’s more truth to the portrayal than I’m comfortable accepting.

All the time I encounter people who are interested in type, and I have recently noticed that one glaring signal that I’m probably not speaking to a correctly typed INFJ is when I hear about a lot of activity — lots of socializing, lots of go-getting, doing. When they don’t display what I might describe as a “contemplative” demeanor, it flags me that something doesn’t add up right.

I remember a retreat I went to where the first night all the extraverts got by on very little sleep, and seemed to crawl all over the campus before I even woke up in the morning. They already had a strong sense of the entire landscape before I ever rolled out of bed. They knew where the roads went, what buildings were nearby, where all the animals were, what kind of plant life was plentiful, and even how beautiful the sunrise had been!

I’m not that adventurous. I’m more inclined to lie in bed and enjoy my dreams.

I’m brought to mind of an old saying — you’ve probably seen it. It says,
Sometimes I sits and thinks. And sometimes I just sits.

Does that describe me?

Maybe it does, more than I want to admit. How about you?

It’s true! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been hit with shower inspirations. And some of those would get lost in the shuffle because I couldn’t capture them in time. Doncha hate that?!

Jung talks about how much of introverted Intuits’ best stuff is just plain LOST because images and inspirations move through us like water. They’re here and gone.

Not that all of them are worth keeping, but some of them are!

In fact, somewhere I have a statistic that claims people who “write things down” are some percentage more likely to be satisfied because the great idea didn’t get away from them.

I noticed a couple of years ago that water is a particularly inspiring medium for me. If I took a long bubble bath, I would make sure I had a writing pad nearby. I have several water-splattered writing tablets to show for those efforts.

And swimming in a pool presented the biggest challenge. I thought I overcame that obstacle when I found a plexiglas write-on/wipe-off board that I could lay by the pool and scribble ideas on occasionally. But I still had to be cautious about getting it wet, so it wasn’t ideal.

So my new toy is — underwater diving slates!

These are plastic slates that you write on with an ordinary pencil! The pencil is attached to the board with a plastic cord, and the whole thing is waterproof.

You are supposed to “erase” the board with sand — but I just rub it with a little bit of baking soda, and the pencil lead comes right off. It’s a miracle!

I just got two of them yesterday from Amazon, so maybe they won’t seem like such a miracle in another week — but right now, they’re a miracle!

Here’s a link to the product on Amazon if you’re interested in having one of these babies for your very own:

Let’s hear it for trapping intuition!

Cheers,

Anyway, see what you think of the video. (Remember, it’s not about the song, it’s about the images!)

Recently I heard John Beebe speak about introversion. He showed a character in a movie who was trying to figure out where he had seen somebody before using their introverted sensing. You could see the wheels turning in the character’s head as he tried to place where he had seen this man before. He was completely engaged with his inner world. And John said that was classic introverted behavior: “you go for it in there, not out there.”

And John’s statement really took my fancy. How often am I inside myself, looking for answers in there, not out there? And this video likewise caught my fancy, because it seemed like an interesting representation of my inner life, where I’m going for it in there… so much of the time.