There
was an elderly couple sitting on the front porch in their rocking chairs and
talking about what a good life they had enjoyed. The lady said:
"Pa, I would like to have some ice cream," and he said, "That
sounds good, Ma, with chocolate syrup. I'll go to the store and get
it."
She said, "You had better write it down!" And he said,
"I don't need to; my memory is still good."
When he got back, he
had two ham sandwiches. She said, "See, Pa, I told you to write
it down. I wanted mustard on mine."
*
* *
They
say INFJs are the ones most likely to "put it in writing." Well,
they don't necessarily mean contracts and legal documents. They're
probably talking
about INFJs who keep a notebook to scribble in because it makes them feel like
they are more in control and are missing less. All too often, good ideas
float into our heads, and just as easily float right out. INFJs who
realize this carry around a notebook so that the best of those ideas make it to
paper. And most INFJs have learned to keep pen and paper at their bedside,
because who knows when iNtuition may strike!?
If
you're resistant to writing things down and hate to be
hampered with writing materials, then consider this: Henry Thompson writes in
his book, Jung's
Function-Attitudes Explained, that
Ni
is constantly feeding images, ideas and thoughts into the symbolic memory as
well as retrieving data from it for use on current thoughts.
Unfortunately, much of the steady stream of images going into symbolic memory
does not make it into permanent storage or into a retrievable area.
Consequently, many of the Ni's best images are lost. Another
problem with Ni's contribution to memory is that the data may be of such an
abstract form that it has to be modified to be retrieved, resulting in a loss
of meaning. This may lead to the memory of an event not coinciding with
objective reality.
Now I'm not
suggesting that writing things down is the antidote to this problem, but why
risk anything more getting lost?
*
* *
While
purposeful activity contributes to happiness, feelings of lost thoughts and
opportunities contribute to an unhealthy frustration. People who feel
like their best ideas escape them are 37 percent less likely to feel content
than people who do not.
Madigan,
Mise, and Maynard 1996
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