Introverted Thinking

“The INFJ’s thinking is introverted, turned toward the subject. Perhaps it is when the INFJ’s thinking function is operative that he is most aloof. A comrade might surmise that such detachment signals a disillusionment, that she has also been found lacking by the sardonic eye of this one who plumbs the depths of the human spirit. Experience suggests that such distancing is merely an indication that the seer is hard at work and focusing energy into this less efficient tertiary function.”

I’m not upset, (at least not by anything you did- I’m likely upset about the insufficiency of the human race), I’m not angry, and it’s possible that I’m not even tired. If I was one of those things, I would tell you why. When I get that zoned out creepy awkward stare, I’m focused. My awareness has drifted away from the world and into the detailed patterns and musings of my mind. Do not interrupt me if you wish to live.

If you ever hear me say, “I’m thinking,” this is what I’m doing.

Extraverted Sensing

“INFJs are twice blessed with clarity of vision, both internal and external. Just as they possess inner vision which is drawn to the forms of the unconscious, they also have external sensing perception which readily takes hold of worldly objects. Sensing, however, is the weakest of the INFJ’s arsenal and the most vulnerable. INFJs, like their fellow intuitives, may be so absorbed in intuitive perceiving that they become oblivious to physical reality. The INFJ under stress may fall prey to various forms of immediate gratification. Awareness of extraverted sensing is probably the source of the “SP wannabe” side of INFJs. Many yearn to live spontaneously; it’s not uncommon for INFJ actors to take on an SP (often ESTP) role.”

Sometimes you have to say my name a few times to get me to hear you. I have to watch this because I’m liable to zone out completely and ignore all prompting if there’s something really interesting going on in my head. That’s why I can never get up in the morning- my dreams drown out my alarm clock.

I’ve also been known to respond to a question unknowingly, and sometimes incorrectly, while in this state. A lot of times, my family will tell me something I need to know, have an entire conversation about it, and have to repeat it again later because I wasn’t “there.” I do notice things when I want to, though. It might just be that I notice one thing, spend six minutes mulling over it, and miss twelve other things.

Under stress… I drink Dr. Pepper like it’s beer. I also ignore all responsibility that can be procrastinated until I have sufficiently relaxed and sorted through all my mental anxieties. I do like to live spontaneously at times, mostly because I want the practice. I need to prepare myself for unexpected change, so when I have a chance to comfortably step out of my routine into something that I’ll quickly catch onto, I go for it. I’m also great at adjusting because I have so many back-up plans, so it’s not hard for me to switch things around if I need to. Just know that when you ask me to hang out, I’m mentally reorganizing my entire schedule for the month, and you can’t expect me to stay much longer than I originally made room for.

 We all sat quietly waiting for the last dish to be placed on the table, which my mother soon delivered, and after sitting herself down my father prayed a heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving, being sure to mention the beautiful day outside; I peeked towards the window, ashamed that I had failed to acknowledge the gorgeous day the Lord had made.

 When we opened our eyes and food began to pass around, I experienced one of those focused TV moments, I do not know if there is a term for it or not, but it was one of those moments where the speed of life slows just a bit, where all the noise is heard but falls into the background, because the focus is on the faces, the expressions, the smiles, laughter, enjoyment, and joy.  

  As if I was watching myself, I just sat there and took it in, saying to myself in total peace; “I’m going to miss this,” it lasted a moment longer, before I eased back into the normal speed of reality.

  You see it’s been an emotional week, full of the sweetest kinds of fellowship, shared stories, amazing friendships, hard and healing friendship talks, ah ha moments and disappointing frustrations. All a bit confusing if I let it , but there seems to be a pattern emerging.

 The more courage I have to tell more and more people that I’m Gay, to keep stepping forward in this path, the more “Me” I become.  That may sound silly to you all, but for anyone living in the closet, especially one of Christian faith, it’s hard to figure out that line of “I’ve always been this way, I’m still the same person,” and “This is who I really am.”  You see on one hand, were hiding the most important, most genuine thing about us, on the other, it’s not going to change who we already are as a person. 

  When we come out, it’s not like everything changes; I once read a status bulletin on a social networking site for gay men that read “Just because I’m gay, doesn’t mean I drive a gay car, have gay hobbies, eat gay steak and potatoes, or go gay camping. I’m just like you.”  When we read something like that, those of us in the closet say to ourselves “yah that’s right!” but then we feel so conflicted. It’s so hard to come out to those we love as “the same person” when we are announcing the biggest thing of our lives.

   Those statements of gay food and hobbies are not true, and yet they are.  Being gay is so deeply rooted in who we are, that being gay means so much more than just same sex -sex or attraction, because the one thing we want everyone to know is that we are gay!  I’m gay when I drive my car, I’m gay when I pursue my hobbies, I’m gay when I eat and enjoy my food, I’m gay when I go camping.   It’s not that these things become gay because we do them; the struggle is doing them as what we truly are, and not what we pretend to be.

  When we do  every day simple things and not so every day complicated things, doing them as a straight person conflicts with everything we are. When no one know who we a really are, when no one knows who we can really love.  In essence everything we are and do gets interpreted by our sense of self and sexuality.  Its’ almost as if those two competing ideas: Everything we are, is “Gay” and not everything we are is “Gay” somehow simultaneously exist as true.

  Here’s the pattern I’ve noticed though…

The more I deal with my life in terms of being gay, with being honest with people, the more satisfaction I have in life circumstances, good or bad.   The idea that everything I am is gay gets melded into a version of living a life as a gay person that leads to freedom, where not everything I am is gay.  Does this make sense? Even as I write this I agree with you that the answer is yes and no.

 Is it any coincidence that the more we rest in the truth of who we are, and in the Truth of God’s Word, the better life gets, even when faced with difficulties or hard times?  Is it any coincidence that when the Bible talks about being blessed in tribulation, and growing closer to God through struggle and strife, that I am experiencing the exact same effects of peace and a deeper relationship with God , the further I come out of the closet?

 This to me signifies the reality of the existence of a gay Christian.  Just like we don’t eat gay meat and potato’s we don’t experience a gay version of God’s grace and love (or judgment like mainstream Christianity would propose),  but just like we eat our food and do everything in our lives as a gay person, we also experience God’s love, peace, strength and power as a gay person.   God’s gift of grace will have the same meaning to a gay person as it would a straight person, but with different tones and notes.

 When two different people hear the same song, they might enjoy very different parts of it. Perhaps you pick up on the violin playing in the background, or the powerful notes the performer hits, and yet some hear only the words and their intent.

Perhaps I’m not sure where I’m going with this one, but I find it incredible that seeing what I’m facing in the future of coming out, seeing the potential loss of family, friends and church fellowship, and social status in various areas of my life, things that scare me to death… yet from this, somewhere in the store houses of God’s grace, there is courage above it all, a sense of peace and longsuffering that is promised to me through the difficult times.

 Last night, I sang a song in Church that sums this up appropriately.  I’m not sure who wrote the words, but I give credit to them whoever they are.

“For I know my God saves the day,

And I know His Word never fails,

And I know my God has a plan for me.

It’s gonna be alright.”

A quick note weighing on my mind as this week comes to a close;   I recently found out that October 11 is the national day of Coming Out, which is about two weeks away.    This next Sunday is one of the biggest fellowship events for my Church.  I have to wonder if God is leading all this to a crescendo of opportunity. I’ve been trying to prayerfully consider a time line for the actual full scale coming out, I can feel it needs to be soon. Is this a prodding from God for me to take advantage of this? With one last fellowship event before things get crazy?   The timing seems to have that classic God stamp on it; I certainly didn’t plan to be coming out on the national day of Coming Out! I did not even know it existed until yesterday!

  It’s so tempting to think in terms of “what am I gonna do?” because the only thing that matters is, what is God gonna do? I shall wait upon Him and move when He makes a way.

 It’s gonna be all right.

More employees are not flush sensitive of the fact that they oftentimes weaken hours in chatting with coworkers, checking emails and information websites, sending messages on the phone, arranging folders in the machine etc. All these distractions trim the efficiency of the employee as he or she ends up employed to a extremum of 5 hours whereas they meet at energy for at least 8 hours or statesman.

If you are sedate virtually your progression and compliments to succeed a countertenor storey of success at apiece and every job you bed, it is distinguished to screw how to abstain distractions to process your sign and fulfill at your place unsurpassable. By people whatsoever of the halcyon rules mentioned beneath, you can pee trusty that you commit your soul performance at wreak and climb the success Contrive Your Each Day:

In position to be eminent at employed continuously without any distractions, you impoverishment to soul a drawing in localise to kind careful that all the tasks within each day go smoothly. The uncomparable way to do this is to create a slant of all the tasks you person to downright the close day, before you pass acquisition. This way you leave fuck a chore listing on your desk when you get at win and can get to the assignments at assemblage without any delay:

When you are creating a position of tasks that need to be complete within a given term border, gain trusty that you do it in the ordering of antecedency so that you can get the tasks finished without having to take the one with higher earliness from a random strain slant.

Image by Jon Åslund via Flickr

Assign Abstraction Slots:

It is somebody to apportion instant slots to presumption assignments so that you do not end up payment a lot of moment on the similar strain. If you are unable to terminated a strain within a assumption term phase, tell it and go to the next period which has been catalogued in the bestowed instant interval. You can become game to the nigh over assignments at the end of the day.

Put Your Phone on Silent:

One of the most distracting things can be the use of ambulant phones when at win. You can oftentimes get engrossed in measuring and relying to text messages and action ain calls. It is physiologist to put your phone on incommunicative fashion so that you do not get inattentive with unessential messages and calls. You can always ascertain your messages at the end of the day and play game to the grouping whose calls you missed.

Relate Telecommunicate Filters:

It is real arch to deal all the necessary filters to urinate reliable that you get exclusive the eminent netmail in your inbox. Employees oft waste a lot of loved measure sifting finished the telecommunicate and deleting scrap messages. There are umteen options free which can better you in making certain that you get the netmail you poorness to see in your inbox and the death is filtered out to other folders under particular labels.

Get Your Desk Designed:

Having a messy desk effectuation you cannot perceive the strategic documents when you requisite them and bonk to run a lot of example in the noesis. You can easily get inattentive if you signal studying some separate document which has been on your desk for a protracted experience and you forgot roughly it. This can confound you off the schedule completely and thence confine your efficiency raze to a high extent.

Acquire Brief Breaks:

It is an accepted fact that no one can learning for 8 hours segment and needs to construe standing breaks. If you schedule 2 to 4 truncate breaks of 5 to 10 proceedings each day and travel inaccurate from your desk, it can boost your fruitfulness stage to a great extent.

Interference Out the Disturbance:

Noise can be real distracting for an employee and oft the offices are not as unpretentious as you would feature likely. Since it is not feasible to ask all your colleagues to donjon their volumes drink, the foremost way is to put on a par of headphone. You do not eff to rivet to any humane of euphony as that power be quite distracting as healed but putting on headphones with no penalty on can also obstructor out some of the racket.

Opposition Off Traveler:

Staying subscribed in with any soft of messaging mate much as the MSN traveler or IM can be rattling distracting for your business.  If you someone to stay subscribed in as strain of your semiofficial scheme, set your IM state to occupied to wee reliable that you are not unstable by any of your colleagues or coworkers.

Detain Away from Friendly Networking Websites:

One of the most informal reasons why grouping drain minute at impact is that they move interacting at common sociable networking websites. You might exclusive be language in for a arcminute or two but you can get dependant to using the websites for hours which affects your fecundity negatively. So when you are at energy it is key to head careful that you do not opposition in at any ethnic networking website. These activities should be unfree for disentangled case at interior exclusive.

End:

It is very easy to get inattentive at occupation and the over all productivity of apiece individual suffers a lot owing to these distractions. You can piss trusty that there are no distractions at pass by masses the helpful tips that hold been mentioned in the article and amount your fecundity to a outstanding construction.

image source

One of the biggest losses of productivity is a messy desk. It distracts you visually. As you begin working you can easily get pulled in by all the trinkets and papers to fiddle with. Your attention will be drawn to the colors and objects on your desk. Get rid of the clutter.

Don’t just move the clutter from your desk to your cabinet though, because next time you’re looking for something, the clutter will end up on your desk. Get rid of what you don’t need. Make folders for things you do and create a color coding system to easily find what you need, without having to drag out a ton of papers.

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The best way to avoid future clutter is to not allow any room for clutter. Keep your working materials on your desktop and only those. Get into the habit of filing everything else you don’t need immediately and throwing everything else away. Don’t become a pack rat. Make sure at the end of every day you spend 2-3 minutes cleaning your workspace. It will save hours of time in the long run weather you work from home or in an office.

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These steps are designed to keep you focused so you can spend less time “working” and more time enjoying life. A messy desk can take up to an hour of time away a day. Between looking for what you need and being distracted, thats an extra 30 hours a month you gain from having a clean desk.

Nowadays, we are experiencing faster means of transportation, communication, and other such life altering changes. Not only can we communicate with loved ones with a quick text message while taking a midterm exam, we can also finish that imperative work project by simply flipping open our laptop with one hand and adding the last touch of SPF 15 (only SPF 15 and above protects against UV rays) to our freckled noses.

Ah, such is the miraculous gift of mankind’s technological, intellectual, and progressive advancement. In the wake, we are left to reap the time saving benefits, marvel in the new discoveries, and do more of what we love to do!

With the influx of ever changing ever altering choices at our fingertips it is no wonder that many people are still, left year after year, not knowing what they want to really do “when they grow up”. It was an easy decision for our fathers’ father’s fathers. Great, great Grand pappy was a tailor, so too, of course, was his son and on and on.

Things were simpler. Choices were of a minimum. Women stayed home with children, men went to work and roles were clearly defined and structured.

Today, the world is truly “our oyster”. Now more than ever it is possible to do anything you have ever dreamed of doing. Choose a college major, heck choose two with a minor in three. You can always change your mind, you can always rethink your plans; this is not the sign of anything other than the actions of a person who changed his or her mind. How many times in the day did you rethink your dinner menu?

There is no wrong or right in the journey of your life. There are only choices, experiences, and opportunities. People place value, judgment, etc on life. Life remains neutral. Do not let another’s preconceived perceptions affect the direction of your life. You know yourself best. You know what is best for you. You always have.

If you are still searching for that dream career or life picture, it has and will always remain possible.

As I was searching for my dream career, I ventured into a few different educational pursuits. While I found them interesting, I knew after awhile that my heart was pulling me in another direction. So what if I had spent a year invested in one project. My heart was no longer in it so why stay with it merely because looking for something new would mean I’d have to start over or people in my life thought the idea ludicrous or too frightening to fathom? My ultimate happiness is worth starting anew infinitely despite what anyone or any external factor may otherwise be suggesting.

Your ultimate dreams are worth the world.

Notable as well, during these pursuits, was the observation that my classmates were a vastly diverse bunch. Some people were venturing into their first career move while others had spent 20+ years in a discipline that no longer held the same gravity. I also noticed that I was often the youngest student in my classes with the oldest diligent note taker being a gray haired grandmother finally pursuing the dreams that she had to put off due to pregnancy and motherhood. Her zest and energy for the subject was that of a youthful kindergartener, it was inspiring. It further solidified the idea that it is never too late, to start over, to change your mind, to begin anew, not now or ever.

Joie Schmidt © Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved.

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Dreams of the Heart – volume I by Joie Schmidt is available:

  * Volume I: Amazon Kindle, Adobe Reader, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad and iBooks

Dreams of the Heart – volume II is available:

  * Volume II: Amazon Kindle, Adobe Reader

———> Stay tuned . . . vol. II will soon be available on iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad and iBooks!

(*In memoriam of the tragedy in Japan all proceeds from – volume I – sales will go to the relief efforts until 3/11/12)

==================================================================

More Inspiring Motivational Reading

• You Can Be Anything
• Stumbling on Happiness
• Journal to a Better Life
• Mission Statement: Your Life
• Make Your Foundation Strong
• How to be a Triond Super Star
• Your Path is Filled With Happiness
• Plan to Keep Your Dreams in Focus
• Strength Will Always be by Your Side
• Risking Everything for Your Dreams

Do you have a story, poem, artwork or photography you’d like to share and earn residual income for life? Please check out this site to earn limitless income for life: Triond

Picture Source

The only way to stay focused on your dreams and not let anything bring you down – is to stay focused on your dreams and not let anything bring you down.

Easier said than done?

Maybe.

But, the power of the mind is infinite and in your power. You have the choice to think about your present situation in a particular manner or not. You have the choice to make all the decisions in your life. Whatever you do or choose not to do, you have the wherewithal to know that it was your decision – and that is an empowering thought. Think about it as such and your life will only improve and get better.

Depending on what stage you are in your life – maybe you feel you have not achieved everything you wish you would have by now. Maybe you look around you and see people who own homes, luxury cars, and are married with children. Maybe you thought by now you would have all these things. Do not let the lack of these things discourage.

The saying is true: The grass is always greener; or at least often, seemingly greener.

Though it might be hard to keep your comparing thoughts in check, for example, if you are single or struggling with money; you must remind yourself that people in marriages or people with money are not necessarily happier than you are. Maybe you might be struggling with paying your bills or figuring out what the best job for you to have right now is, but these are just obstacles and challenges in your life that will help strengthen and solidify your character; people in marriages, people who are wealthy have a load of their own problems too.

Some of the happiest people in the world are the people who don’t look at what they don’t have, but instead focus on what they do have.

Yes, it’s easier said than done and I am trying to make a concerted effort to “exercise” my habit of inventorying what I do have. Some of the things I can list follow:

• I have my health
• I have my optimism
• I have a deep appreciation for nature’s beauty which is priceless
• I have friends who truly love me

While I know I have a ways to go, I still compare and put myself down for not having the things I think I “should” have by now, I am doing my best to break myself of this negative habit. I know that the more that I appreciate what I do have, the happier I will be and the more I will attract into my life what I truly want. I know that there is a part of me that needs those things to come into my life slowly, for I have been through much in my life and it has taught me that you truly can’t judge a book by its cover. That people who seem to have everything you want, might be worse off than you because of a lack of morals, lack of kindness, etc.

You know who you are. Tough times often teach you what you are truly made of. And, experience like that is priceless. It matters more that you truly care about making this world a better place, than by driving the best car on the road. In your heart, you know luxury items are nice, but they are not everything. I know for myself, I would much rather lift others up, give them hope, and inspire them to feel better in their day, than take on a sales job, for example, that earns me a fat commission check but scams people out of their hard earned money. (And, nothing against sales jobs as I do know that not all sales jobs are like this, but I merely used it as a way to illustrate a point.)

Joie Schmidt © Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved.

==================================================================

Dreams of the Heart – volume I by Joie Schmidt is available:

  * Volume I: Amazon Kindle, Adobe Reader, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad and iBooks

Dreams of the Heart – volume II is available:

  * Volume II: Amazon Kindle, Adobe Reader

———> Stay tuned . . . vol. II will soon be available on iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad and iBooks!

(*In memoriam of the tragedy in Japan all proceeds from – volume I – sales will go to the relief efforts until 3/11/12)

==================================================================

For more great reading:

• Do Something Positive
• Reminisce in Serenity
• Journal to a Better Life
• The New Complexion of Art
• Brian Tracy: Million Dollar Habits
• Your Path is Filled With Happiness
• You Must Lift Others Up to be Successful
• What are the Heavens for if You Don’t Reach for the Sky