There are two kinds of people in this world - Doers and thinkers. We all have the potential to be both but we have a tendency to lean in one of those directions. The reason that we are predisposed to one over another is that we are all looking for safety. Doers get their safety by maintaining an external focus by staying outside - participating in the world, usually at a pretty rapid pace. They tend to keep moving from one thing to another, keeping themselves active, sometimes even exhausted. To them, it feels unsafe to delve into their inner world. Slowing down and becoming aware of their feelings feels threatening. It’s not that their focus of attention is outside rather than inside but their focus of attention is on action and the moment; not on thinking about it. This can make them prone to recklessness, irresponsibility and haste. This leads to them stumbling into mistakes that are often preventable. They tend to be confident and are typically proud of the fact that they manage to get things done. However since they don’t take time to introspect they don’t realize that the way they’re operating may not be well thought out and that there is often value in a little bit of preparation. In fact, they tend to judge thinkers as cowards who waste their time pondering over inessential details. Doers also tend to knock others down by being inconsiderate because they don’t spend enough time considering others thoughts and feelings, just as they avoid their own.
Thinkers, on the other hand, get their safety from staying inside themselves. Venturing outside their inner world feels threatening. This doesn’t mean that they’re shy or unsocial by any means. Just that their point of safety is more towards hesitancy and procrastination, sometimes even paralysis, rather than action. They tend to be analytical and cover many angles of thought before acting, if it all they do follow through with action at all. Thinkers are thorough, detail-oriented and have genius ideas but those ideas are useless without the will to implement them. Thinkers only implement ideas that they are sure of since they lack the courage to take risks. They’re afraid of failure. They tend to be more considerate interpersonally but also more inhibited, tending to care too much about what people think of them. Thinkers judge doers as overconfident and irresponsible.
It is very important to understand if you’re a thinker or a doer because each of these have tremendous strengths in terms of navigating the world successfully and achieving what is important to us. Balancing out these two aspects is absolutely essential to personal development and to maximize our potential as human beings. As Scott Fitzgerald put it, "Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind". The journey toward integration is in opposite directions for thinkers and doers. They often attract the opposite type in a romantic relationship, which is good because they can learn from one another. If one type resists it can cause a lot of interpersonal difficulties.
For doers who are confident, comfortable being engaged in the world, relatively uninhibited by what others think of them, know how to prioritize their needs and wants, willing to take risks and uninhibited by the possibility of mistakes and failure, the journey is inward. To slow down, introspect, put more care and thought into their action, to be more sensitive to others and also inclusive of other perspectives. Energetically this would feel like softening and an opening. More kindness, more vulnerability, more depth, more perceiving. Meditation, yoga, nature, support groups, therapy. Anything that nurtures the heart and soul!
For thinkers who are analytical, comprehensive, idealistic, sensitive, considerate, detail-oriented and innovative, the journey is outward. It’s about having the courage and will power to execute even when things are not perfect or perfectly to their liking. To truly recognize that without the courage to try and fail and try again, life is not worth living. They need to see that it is safe and wonderful to participate in the world and there is no requirement to be perfect to show up. The act of showing up as they are is daunting to thinkers but they are often way better prepared than they imagine. It’s just that their mind is so active that they’ve attended to all the possible worst case scenarios and are their own worst critics. They’re also afraid and hyper vigilant about being judged as silly or overconfident by their fellow thinkers. This, of course, is possible but nobody should miss out on the joy of participating in the world because of a few judgy minds. Activities like improv, dance, singing, acting, spontaneous public speaking, anything that is about playing and being out of the head and in the moment is good for thinkers.
As a thinker myself, I have spent way too much of my life caring what people think and trying to make sure I had all angles covered before putting something into action, missing out on opportunities and really screwing myself over without realizing I was letting fear control me. It just made sense to me to be well prepared, do things I am good at and only show up in the world while wearing a mask of competence. I didn’t know how much I was missing out until I started authentic public speaking classes, improvisational theater, dance, singing, etc.
You see, when we are forced to throw our formula of safety out the window, we are not driven by fear. And when we are not driven by fear we show up in our true brilliance. Not perfect perhaps, but radiant. To be the best versions of ourselves we tend to further enhance an idea we already have of ourselves. In other words, we tend to sharpen our strengths or lean only very slightly out of our comfort zone but I highly recommend working on what’s most uncomfortable because it breaks ego identification and all the fears underlying it which then propels you like a rocket ship to a much more liberated, happier and creative version of yourself. I would pick happy and free over perfect any day, wouldn’t you?