- Here's a question for ya?
Are you lazy or is it just your personality type?
Is your Myers-Briggs personality type
causing you to struggle with laziness?
And I think the thing is that a lot of times,
depending on your personality type,
things are a little bit stacked against you
when it comes to that perception.
So first of all, laziness, what are we really talking about?
What we mean by laziness, the general definition,
is the disinclination to expend energy,
to do work even when you could.
So it's like you have the ability
and you just don't wanna do it.
The opposite of laziness, I would say, is conscientiousness.
And interestingly conscientiousness
is one of the personality traits in the Five-Factor Model,
also known as the Big Five, also known as OCEAN.
But the Big Five,
it's like the scientifically approved personality system.
Conscientiousness is one of those traits.
Conscientiousness in that system is basically
like the sense of duty,
following through with your responsibilities,
being industrious, getting stuff done, following the rules.
And it's interesting because once you apply that definition
over to Myers-Briggs it gets a little dicey.
Now, stereotypically, what you'll see happen,
like with 16Personalities.com.
I don't know why I did it like that. (laughs)
They equate conscientiousness with the J preference.
The J letter at the end of a type.
So basically what they're trying to tell you,
I mean, it's a general stereotype
I think with Myers-Briggs not just that site,
but what they're trying to tell you
is that types that are J types are more conscientious,
they're more responsible, whatever.
Types that are P types, the perceiving types,
they're a bit less conscientious.
You could say the lazy types.
The thing is, I think that definition of conscientiousness
isn't really applicable to all of the J types.
I think it's really just applicable to the SJ types.
The types that have introverted sensing
as one of their preferred functions.
Introverted sensing is about, you know,
following through with your duty.
(laughs) I said doody.
It's about being responsible.
It's about following the procedure
that has been established.
It's about doing the routine,
doing the same thing over and over again,
respecting what has come before,
the traditions that we've gone through.
It's about organizing physical reality.
To a degree, I think that conscientiousness
also kind of describes extroverted thinking,
which all the TJ types have.
Extroverted thinking is about getting things done,
about checking stuff off a list.
Extroverted thinkers are always just kind of on the lookout
for what can be accomplished.
So when you put that together,
ISTJs and ESTJs are like the most conscientious types.
Theoretically, the least lazy types.
And then you get, you know, ISFJ and ESFJ.
They also have introverted sensing,
so they're a bit more conscientious as well.
You could say like ENTJ, maybe INTJ,
maybe they're a bit more on the conscientious side,
although you could argue the opposite just as easily.
But here's the thing.
In Myers-Briggs your personality type
makes you feel responsible for certain things,
like to take certain courses of action,
to rely on different parts of your personality.
So those Si types, the SJs, feel responsible to be dutiful.
They feel responsible to organize things.
They feel responsible to keep that routine.
But then other types don't necessarily feel that.
So they don't feel that responsibility to conscientiousness.
And ironically, because they have that responsibility,
the Si types could feel that they are lazy
'cause their personality type
has set a very high bar for them.
That's like, you know, an ISTJ is like,
"Man, I am just not."
They could be doing their duty all the time.
They're just full of. (laughs)
They're up to their knees in doody,
and they still feel like they're just not doing enough.
Whereas other types, let's say the opposite of that,
an ENFP, they are suppressing their introverted sensing.
And I'll get more into that in a bit.
But they might not think of themselves as being lazy
because their personality does not feel responsible
to be conscientious in that same way.
So what are the types that struggle with this
and what types are maybe not so much lazy,
it's just their personality, man?
And it's also worth pointing out
that you can find a spectrum within every personality type.
You will find people who are objectively lazy
of every personality type,
and people who are objectively
conscientious and hardworking.
This is just talking about, like in general,
how does your personality type
set you up for an inclination towards
what would be considered traditionally conscientious or not.
So first up, I think feelers actually will struggle
with feeling conscientious
and might be judged by others to be lazy,
especially by the thinkers,
especially by the extroverted thinkers.
And it's because for feelers getting things done
is not a priority.
Like work is sort of the domain of thinking,
because work is like,
how do we accomplish what we're trying to do,
how do we solve the problem here?
Feelers aren't concerned with that.
Their main responsibility isn't,
"How do I solve the problem?"
Their main responsibility is,
"How do I make people feel good?
What's the emotional atmosphere here,
and how do we raise that up?"
And, you know, sometimes getting stuff done
is the way to make people feel better.
But a lot of times the feelers will be like,
"Nah, we don't need to get stuff done.
We can just like, you know, go out and have dinner.
Like, that'll make everyone feel better."
Especially the extroverted feelers,
which are generally the types that are FJs,
those types could really be perceived as lazy,
especially by the extroverted thinkers.
A lot of times the extroverted feelers, all feelers,
but especially extroverted feelers, are like,
"Yeah, the work, we can just do it later.
It's not a priority.
There's not even that much work to be done."
So that could land them in hot water
and make them be perceived
as being maybe lazy, irresponsible.
You know, it's interesting 'cause the FE types, you know,
an ISFJ for example, isn't considered
to be a stereotypically lazy type,
but, you know, they have the Si so they're very organized.
But that extroverted feeling there,
it's gonna lead them more towards
trying to take care of people in a way
where it's like not necessarily
getting a bunch of tasks done.
It's just like, "How do I make sure you're happy?
And if I have to do certain tasks, that's fine,
but this is not my main priority,
getting stuff done for the sake of getting it done."
Their main focus is on the emotions.
The intuitives also will struggle
with this inclination towards laziness
because intuitives are not focused primarily
on the concrete world.
To intuitives the primary responsibility that they have
is to be paying attention to the abstract world.
So their room can be a mess,
and it's like, "That's not a big deal.
I can take care of that later.
The bigger deal is what does it mean?
The bigger deal is what's gonna happen in the future?
The bigger deal is what's this plan that I'm working out,
or what are the multitude of plans
that I could choose from?"
The extroverted intuitives especially,
you know, I mentioned them earlier,
they struggle because they suppress their Si.
If you look at an ENFP or an ENTP,
Si, introverted sensing, is their inferior function.
And if you're unsure what all that means
check out my video on cognitive functions here,
click that card.
But yeah, the ENFP and ENTP,
they are actively trying to avoid introverted sensing,
which as I mentioned,
is sort of like analogous to conscientiousness.
Does that mean that ENFPs and ENTPs,
and also INFPs and INTPs are necessarily going to be lazy?
No, it doesn't mean that,
but it could mean that they are perceived that way
because their primary way of looking at the world
is not through a lens of duty
but through a lens of exploration of the abstract world.
But even the Ni types will struggle with this whole thing.
And, you know, this is something that needs to be looked at
because a lot of times with that stereotype
we talked about earlier where all J types are conscientious
and all P types are not,
I don't think that holds true when it comes to NJ types,
because they're ultimately intuitive.
They're not really paying attention that much
to the concrete world, especially the IJs.
They will be looking beyond the physical world.
You look at INFJs, INTJs.
INTJs are a good example because
they are trying to get work done
in the laziest way possible.
So an INTJ might look like they're very productive,
very industrious, but so much of their effort is spent
trying to bypass work.
Like, the INTJs are looking for the shortcuts.
They're looking for how to be efficient.
So like, what judgment calls do you make there
when it comes to are they lazy or conscientious?
Because it's like the least amount of effort
for the maximum amount of gain.
I mean, what do you call that?
I think INTJs would admit they're pretty lazy.
They happen to get a lot done
because they're smart about being lazy.
But the INTJs have extroverted thinking,
whereas an INFJ has extroverted feeling
which isn't really too concerned
about getting a bunch of things done.
You pair that up with intuition and you can find
INFJs who are kind of low in conscientiousness.
They might be planned out.
They might like to be prepared about things,
and they might be over controlling
about categorizing certain things in their life,
but it doesn't necessarily translate to,
"Oh, I made my bed this morning."
So that's what I'd like to call the J myth.
Not all J types are conscientious.
Likewise, all P types are not unconscientious or lazy.
They are just driven differently.
If you look at an ESTP, for example,
they're gonna be focused on getting
a bunch of different things done,
things that they are interested in,
and they're not gonna spend too long on one thing.
They're not gonna be the most conscientious.
They don't care about convention.
They don't care about, you know, the rules.
They're not thinking too far down the line,
but they might still accomplish a lot
if they are personally invested in it,
if they are very interested in accomplishing something.
There's really a bias here when it comes down to it
that conscientiousness generally means
are you an ISTJ or not?
So my suggestion for you,
if your personality type is maybe leaning you
in the direction of being less conscientious,
if you're an intuitive, if you're a feeler,
if you're, heaven forbid, (laughs) an ENFP,
what you should do is try to do a bit of Si-Te.
Even if you don't have those functions
just think of it in those terms.
Do some fake Si-Te.
Try to do a little bit of Si where it's like,
"Okay, let me make sure that I have a procedure
for doing the important things in my life
so I have a system that I go through
so that I am making sure
that all the important stuff gets done.
And also let me do some Te, some extroverted thinking,
and always be on the lookout for just, like,
what's one thing that I can accomplish out there in reality,
in the extroverted world?"
It's tough if you don't have either of those.
If you're an INFJ you don't have either of those functions
so you kind of have to do this fake Si-Te.
It helps to think of things in these terms
so that you can be like, "Okay, I need to do my Si now.
I need to make a list and I need to do my Te,
and I need to start checking off the list,
getting things accomplished."
Thanks for watching.
Watch another video right here about
what's the loneliest personality type.
Get your Kleenex box ready.
Or check out something
from the rest of the playlist right here.
And until next time, stay cool and attractive.