What Advice Or Suggestion Would You Give For A Person Who Is Trying To Develop Their Inferior Te? Would

What advice or suggestion would you give for a person who is trying to develop their inferior Te? Would there be any signs of improvement after doing so?

Combined with the following ask:

Hi, INTJ here. I think my Te is sort of…wonky. Do you have any advice about how to go about developing it? Also, I’d just like to say that I really like your blog. You offer very helpful and informational insight. Thanks! 

Anyone who wants to develop Te (extroverted thinking) needs to practice the scientific method in their daily lives. Cognitive functions are like muscles and need to be exercised to strengthen and refine. I’d develop Te by setting small “SMART” goals (”SMART” is defined as: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound) and working towards them. Examples:

Aiming for a specific grade in a school subject

Ex: Raise grade to 85% in Calculus II by the end of the semester

Setting a target weight to reach through diet and exercise by a certain time

Ex: Lose 10 pounds by the end of the month

Ex 2: Run 1 mile in under 10 minutes by the end of August

Learning a new coding language/instrument/art form with a set level of proficiency

Ex: Be able to play [song] by [composer] by mom’s birthday

Planning an event with an attendance/donation goal

Ex: Raise $500 to fight AIDS for AIDS Walk by the event deadline

Ex 2: Register 50 new people in the bone marrow registry by your birthday

Winning a competition (athletic, gaming, academic)

Ex: Earn first place in Science Olympiad

I’d then formulate a plan to best achieve the goal through research and logical estimation. Examples:

Goal: Raise grade to 85% in Calculus II by the end of the semester

Plan: Enroll in campus tutoring, attend Professor’s office hours every week, do 15 problems per day in the textbook, redo all the mistakes on the test until you understand the concepts

Goal: Lose 10 pounds by the end of the month

Plan: Cut food portions in half, drink 2 liters of water per day, stop eating junk food, increase vegetable and fruit intake, exercise 30 minutes per day

Goal: Register 50 new people in the bone marrow registry by your birthday

Plan: Engage social media (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr), advocate on campus, connect with family members and friends, distribute flyers in class. run ads in the school newspaper

Finally, I’d execute the plan. This might sound obvious but it’s not. The majority of people make elaborate and grandiose plans only to give up on them without even trying. Do what you planned– you’ll either succeed and gain confidence or you’ll fail and gain knowledge and experience. Either way, you’re better off than when you started. If you aim to lose 10 lbs but only lose 5 lbs then you’ve failed at your goal but you’re still 5 lbs lighter.

One of Te’s biggest strengths isn’t that it’s always right (far from it), it’s that it’s not afraid to be wrong. Being wrong simply means more data and more input to refine the process, refine the method, and refine the plan to attack the problem or goal again much stronger, faster, and wiser than before. Te knows that it doesn’t know until an attempt is made because the results from the effort will reveal new information that planning and brainstorming can’t possibly predict. Te dares to try, fail, and succeed.

For inferior Te types like INFPs and ISFPs the most obvious improvement I’ve seen is taking all those inner thoughts and dreams and turning them into reality. INFPs and ISFPs who can organize their thoughts, align their goals with a realistic strategy, abandon that feeling of despair from overwhelming odds stacked against them, and execute that strategy have a seismic effect on the people and environment around them.