I'm a Feeler and Proud of It

A note: This post was inspired by Jake Johnson, a fine fellow I might add. Check out his blog and maybe he'll post something new!

Yeah, so about the brain type thing. By virtue of my brain type, which is ENFP, I am not as into understanding and classifying brain types as, say, the aforementioned Jake Johnson, who is an INTJ. However, this past week I went on a road trip with Jake to the NCFCA National Tournament in South Carolina, and the discussion of brain types inevitably came up.

I did notice something interesting and tangible about the whole brain type thing, though. I won't get into the details of how braintypes are defined, because others who know more about it would most likely be correcting my description left and right. If you'd like to find out what your brain type is and possibly become obsessed with it, visit this link. Basically, the "F" part of my brain type means that I am a feeler. I base my decisions upon what feels best, not what is logical.

Before being indoctrinated with brain type theory, I was extremely offended at being labeled a "feeler." Was this implying that I was ruled by emotion and those who were "thinkers" were cold, calculating, logical, intelligent people who only thought logically and were unaffected by emotion? That certainly didn't reflect the real world. Everyone experiences emotion, and I knew I was plenty logical in my thinking.

However, I have now been shown the light. The classification of "feeler" and "thinker" is not so much which we experience, but which we allow to shape our decisions. I could live with that. Yes, it's true. I do base my decisions more on what I feel than on what I think. Often, I will immediately deduce what the most effective or beneficial course of action would be and then abandon it for one that sounds like it would be more fun.

Now for the tangible example of this dichotomy. Jake brought a chessboard on the trip, and I love chess, although I am a notoriously lazy chess player. I immediately deduced that Jake must be a serious player if he brought along a magnetic board designed specifically for playing in the car, and so the best thing to do would be to avoid looking like a fool and not bring up the option. However, playing a game sounded more fun, so I chose that instead.

Of course, he was a serious player and put me in checkmate after a scant number of moves. I expected it, but I did it anyway, and I'm glad I did. The rest of the week we played chess games constantly, and I got better at it. But I did so by realizing my natural tendencies to do what felt best and not think through things first. Every time I went to move a piece, I saw a move that looked elegant or symmetrical and went with that. However, after losing a few times, I decided to consider thinking about what I was doing for more than two seconds.

On the last day of the trip, I played my best game with him. I still lost, but I thought about every move and every move was a legitimate one. He's just better than me, and that's going to be the same way for a while. Currently we're playing long-term games on RedHotPawn.com, in which we have three days to make each move. This is already helping me a lot to tune out my feeler side and tune into my thinker side.

This is but the first of a flood of posts about Nationals... get ready for the rain.