What will you learn in this post?

• My backstory with Home Exchange
• Brief overview of Myers-Briggs’ 16 Personalities
• Brief overview of the 4 cognitive functions
• The role the Inferior Function plays in our lives
• How to use Inferior Function to deal with overwhelm

To expand my social, financial, and traveling horizons, I’ve been going to local ChooseFI groups. ChooseFI is a popular podcast for people pursuing financial independence. I’ve been learning a lot, and most importantly, I’ve been hanging out with more like-minded people. They talk my lingo with acronyms like coast FI and the 4% rule. The first meeting I went to was about  a year ago and it was on the “how to” of Home Exchanges. Although, I was not ready for anything like that, I needed to start meeting people who are talking about the same stuff I’m interested in. We started by introducing ourselves and everyone talked about where they are on their journey and how they came to FI in the first place. I enjoyed this part a lot. However, when they started talking about the nitty-gritty of home exchanges and other people started getting excited about staying in all these different places for free, I found myself getting overwhelmed by the whole thing. 

Doing Home Exchange or Trusted House Sitters or anything else of that nature is not as simple as clicking on a few buttons, and wiola! You’re living in Spain for the summer for free. As with everything else, it takes effort. The Home Exchange platform works on the points system. You must accumulate enough points by giving away your own home to take advantage of someone else’s. Then, you must vet the people to make sure they are the right fit and give you a safe vibe. After all, in many cases, you’re letting total strangers stay at your place for long stretches of time. Then, there is the process of chatting and contacting many people until you find the right person and home. 

Where do you leave the keys? What if something breaks or goes wrong? What shape should you leave the place in? How clean is too clean or not clean enough? Suddenly, the excitement of traveling to exotic places for cheap didn’t sound as exciting anymore. I was already overwhelmed, and I didn’t even look at the website yet.

For me, there is more to the story than Home Exchanges. There are people who get energized and enlivened by new adventures and they seek them out every chance they get. Then, there are people who don’t. It’s impossible to address this topic without bringing typology into it. In the Myers Briggs system or the world of 16 personalities, we call the people who enjoy new adventures in the outside world Extraverted Sensing or Se for short. 

What are the Myers-Briggs’ 16 Personalities?

Here’s the brief overview of the 16 personalities based on Jungian psychology:

Myers-Briggs created a system to delineate the 16 personalities, which consist of 4 opposing pairs that fall under the following categories:

• Extroverted (E) and Introverted (I)
• Sensing (S) and Intuiting (N)
• Thinking (T) and Feeling (F)
• Judging (J) and Perceiving (P)

A quick description of each one is as follows:

Extroverted – Active, outgoing, likes to take initiative, and talks more than listen. Reenergizes by being with other people. Processes thoughts, emotions, and information through external feedback.

Introverted – Quiet, reserved, and self-sufficient. Reenergizes through alone time instead of socializing. Processes thoughts, emotions, and information internally.

Sensing – Trusts facts, as well as past and present experiences. Pragmatic, realistic, observant, and lives in the now.

Intuiting – Trusts gut instincts and prefers to focus on the future instead of the present. Introspective, creative, and imaginative.

Thinking – Makes decisions based on facts and research rather than emotions. Head rules over heart. More pragmatic and logical.

Feeling – Makes decisions based on feelings and values. Heart rules over head. Empathetic and motivated by appreciation.

Judging – Prepares and plans ahead. Strategic, responsible, and organized with a strong work ethic. Prefers to stick to schedules and enjoys using checklists.

Perceiving – Preferring to go with the flow and not watch the time or follow too many rules. Spontaneous and enjoys keeping options open. Better at starting projects.

Each personality type is made up of 4 main cognitive functions. What are cognitive functions?

Cognitive Functions are mental processes that show us how we understand and interact with the world based on either the introverted or extroverted attitude of each mental process (sensing, intuiting, thinking, feeling, judging and perceiving). Your first four functions are the most important ones because we use those most often. For instance, you will either have extroverted or introverted intuition in your first four functions stack. The attitude and the order where the function fall determines your type. 

Extroverted judging = Action
	Fe: social harmony, doing work for other people, helping others
	Te: goals; works hard to achieve objectives; gets stuff done
Introverted judging = Deciding
	Fi: what feels right/values; satisfying their own moral standards instead of others; artistic
	Ti: analyzes/problem-solves; finds solutions to problems; has no end goal; tries to find a goal through reason
Extroverted perceiving = Exploring
	Se: sees things as they are right now; acts/improvises in the moment in the outer world; loves directness, hates mind games
	Ne: sees in context/reads between the lines; sees multiple meanings; nothing is literal; sees how things relate to other things
Introverted perceiving: Knowledge
	Si: follows routines without improvising; photographic memory; detail-oriented; masters specialty
	Ni: overall gist; sees the bigger picture; likes to understand not master; synthesizes information into a single insight and can make predictions

Your first function is your dominant and it’s the one you go to for everything. Your second function is your auxiliary or the trusted side kick who will always come to the rescue, especially in times of trouble. Your third function is the tertiary or the one where you feel the most insecure, so it compensates by working too hard. And your fourth and last function is your tantrum function that starts to cry and bang its fists against the floor every time it’s faced with challenges. Guess where Extraverted Sensing falls for me as an INFJ?

What role does the inferior cognitive function play in our lives?

The fourth function also happens to be the holy grain that we end up chasing because it’s the one that we know that if we just mastered it, our lives would be complete. It’s true that we do need all four functions to be fulfilled human beings. However, it is not true that all four need to function at the same level or to the same degree. Our dominant functions are dominant for a reason. Those are our strengths, the ones we can tap into with consistency and confidence. 

For me, that’s Introverted Intuition or Ni. It’s that weird function that synthesizes information into a single insight and makes predictions. It’s also the one that no one can see from the outside. Every so often, people hear you make seemingly “random assumptions” that sometimes turn out to be true and they think you’re an alien. Science fiction novelists use that function a lot. I prefer alternate realities and urban fantasies, but you get the picture. 

So, we live and breathe our dominant function and if we are to use percentages for use, our dominant function would be at 80-100%. We tap into our auxiliary when we need a little help from our friend and that’s at 50-75%. We work extremely hard at our third one, but we shouldn’t since it’s not our dominant, and so we tend get stuck here. The cure for this dilemma is to use our auxiliary instead. Theoretically, we shouldn’t be using the third function more than 30% of the time. Our final function should not be ignored, but it should also not be given more attention than like 5 to 10% of the time. It’s inferior for a reason.

Our Inferior Function can cause a lot of trouble if not addressed in a healthy way. It’s the one we feel is what’s missing the most in our lives. If only I knew what my true values were (Fi). If only I could get things done more efficiently (Te). In my case, if only I could be easy with new things and adventure (Se). I have gone through great lengths to avoid having to learn how to set up a tent, book long-distance trips, or whimsically find something new to do to expand my horizons. I mostly had my boyfriends do that stuff for me and I would just go along for the ride. But without a trusted buddy or boyfriend to change my light bulb or flea bomb my place, the deficient Se can take over my mind space and produce more anxiety than anything else. 

Although, we’re only supposed to focus on the Inferior Function 5 to 10% of the time, just like in your financial portfolio, what you do with that 5 to 10% matters. Learning little things like changing the light bulb, calling an exterminator, and setting up a tent could make all the difference in the world for living a more functional and fulfilled life. And it doesn’t have to take more than 5 to 10 minutes of my attention. 

What does this all have to do with Home Exchanges and FI?

Everything. Whatever falls under your fourth function must be treaded delicately and incrementally, and only about 5 to 10% of your time. For me, it’s anything that has to do with sensory experiences in the outside world. Nothing gets more outside than travel and extravagant new experiences that forces you to get out of your comfort zone. I must use one of my teaching techniques when it comes to planning trips and trying out new adventures and that’s by breaking them down into the smallest possible units that I can handle. I know I must do it, but I must do it on my own time and at my own pace, so it doesn’t take over my life. 

Where do you get overwhelmed and how do you handle it? Can you relate to the Se inferior?