I wasn’t always an INTJ strategist or architect.
Not many people know this, but I used to test as an INFP personality type. I took the Myers-Briggs test twice five years ago—both times, INFP. Flash forward to two years ago, and I tested twice as an INTJ.
My INTJ Strategist Story
You’re probably wondering: Can you really change your entire personality?
The answer is yes—and I’m not alone.
Personality changes can be triggered by many things: trauma, radical mindset shifts, memory loss. In my case, it was a full-on identity audit.
My INFP era was marked by idealism, emotion, anger, and disappointment—often masked as empathy and kindness. I was at the age where I’d finally realized the world wasn’t as pure as I’d imagined it to be—and I was furious. At the world. And at myself for ever believing it could be better.
I’ll be real with you—I was an extremist. Politically, emotionally, philosophically. My beliefs seemed noble on the surface. But the thoughts that came with them were dangerously dark.
The Dangers of Ideology
I truly believed that those who disagreed with me weren’t just wrong—they were evil. That the world would be better off without them.
That kind of thinking isn’t just twisted—it’s dangerous.
It’s the kind of thinking that fuels terror, war, and cultural collapse.
I don’t blame this mindset on being an INFP. But I do believe I was masking—living out a distorted version of myself that was out of sync with who I really was. The personality I’d landed on wasn’t my own. It was a byproduct of pain, idealism, and unprocessed disillusionment.
Back then, I thought I was one of the only sane people left. A freedom fighter. Joined only by those who agreed with me.
(Delulu much?)
But here’s the thing:
I know there are thousands of people still stuck in that mindset. Many are still convinced that those who disagree with them don’t deserve to exist.
I was lucky. I broke out.
But only after putting myself through hell—on purpose.
The Road to INTJ
Pain. Discomfort. Patience.
All the things I had been raised to avoid became the stepping stones to freedom. I rewired my entire mindset from the inside out.
This is where the strategy began.
I had to re-learn everything. And it hurt.
There were moments I questioned whether the transformation was even worth it.
It was.
- I stopped trying to be good.
- I questioned what good even meant.
- I let go of ideologies.
- I saw how they plant the seeds of destruction.
- I stopped being pleasant.
- I became intentional.
- I stopped blaming the world.
- I took full responsibility.
Did I mention I lost 35 pounds?
The Catalysts
Two books changed everything:
- The Courage to Be Disliked – Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
- Can’t Hurt Me – David Goggins
They shattered my worldview—and rebuilt it on solid ground.
But truthfully, all I needed was this single conviction: Humans are capable of extreme transformation.
With that, I gave myself permission to begin.
The result wasn’t just a new mindset. It was a new operating system.
From INFP Empath to INTJ Strategist
With knowledge and brutal honesty, I transformed from someone who was led by emotion to someone who directs emotion.
From a people-pleaser to a system-builder.
What started as a walk and a chapter a day became an active pursuit of struggle, discomfort by design, self-discipline, and finally—freedom.
I became someone who starts a blog and sticks to publishing 1–2 articles per week—on top of a full-time job.
Now, I write chapters of my novel consistently, study multiple subjects, develop interdisciplinary theories, train my opera voice, and still stay on track with diet and exercise.
I visualize the future years in advance and make real-time decisions that optimize my trajectory.
Most importantly, I trust myself. If I say I’ll do it, I mean it.
I was always meant to be an INTJ strategist.
I just had to unlearn what wasn’t mine.
Here’s how I’ve sharpened my strategic abilities in sustainable ways that allow me to engineer my entire reality.
1. Simulate the Future Before it Happens
Some call it overthinking. I call it thinking in 4D.
Planning doesn’t have to be just a to-do list. Make it a simulation. Timeline engineering. When used strategically, it can become a form of mental time travel.
Your brain already has access to all three dimensions of time:
- You can revisit the past to extract lessons
- Study the present for data
- And project yourself into the future to optimize outcomes before they occur
Sounds complex, but it’s actually simple logic:
When it comes to your projects, don’t live in the present—stay at least one month ahead. Then, operate from the past (your now) to adjust what your future looks like before it arrives.
A Practical Example
Let’s say you work at a marketing agency and schedule a post to go live one month from today. It’s about a film premiere.
Suddenly, news breaks—the lead actor is involved in a scandal.
Because you scheduled in advance, you now have the time and mental bandwidth to update or cancel the post.
That’s not just being prepared.
That’s adjusting the future in real time—by simulating it in advance.
Apply This to Your Life
You can run this system anywhere:
- Want your fitness to improve by next month? Audit your current routine now and make micro-adjustments. Visualize the process.
- Got an exam or performance coming up? Simulate it using AI. Anticipate weak points. Design around them. What can you do now that will optimize the result?
- Overcommitted your calendar? Reroute the traffic before it becomes gridlock.
Don’t let the present sneak up on you.
If you’re thinking in 4D, it never has to.
2. Engineer Your Inputs
Don’t just consume content—curate what enters your mind.
By carefully selecting what to read, watch, and listen to based on what you want to improve on, you can train your mind to produce desirable outcomes.
In 2025, it’s harder than ever to protect your inputs—because our social media feeds are designed to control them.
We let the algorithm take over.
Most people spend hours a day scrolling, letting Instagram and TikTok drag them from one topic to the next, down an infinite feed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
There are a few easy fixes that will take you from swaying with the social current to steering the S.S. Success.
Build your feed like a curriculum:
- Unfollow accounts that don’t align with your vision
- Actively follow people, groups, and topics you want to learn more about
- Switch to “Following” mode instead of the “For You” feed to avoid algorithmic drift
- Engage with unfamiliar topics to stretch your perspective
- Save useful content for structured review later
Why Does This Work?
Like AI, our minds are entirely shaped by our environment, interactions, memories, and data.
Feed it strategically, and it’ll produce thoughts, actions, and projects that reflect your life experiences.
If you focus solely on:
- Books that stretch your frameworks
- Films that deepen your narrative instincts or emotional range
- Conversations that challenge or refine your worldview
- Podcasts that enhance your understanding
- Lessons that expand your intellectual range
…your brain will only be capable of growth and success—nothing else.
3. Frame Emotional Triggers as System Errors
INTJ strategists tend to feel deeply but privately. This gives them a chance to process emotions internally before letting them influence their relationships.
It’s not about suppressing your feelings, but understanding them before you let them steer.
Rather than letting emotions explode outward, train yourself to analyze them like system malfunctions.
Ask yourself:
- What caused this spike?
- Can I trace it to a belief or expectation?
- How can I refine the input or system that created the dissonance?
Instead of bottling your emotions, debug them.
This leads to profound emotional self-trust, turning your reactions into signals, not saboteurs.
If you don’t frame emotions strategically, they’ll quietly sabotage your decisions—especially when it matters most.
4. Redefine Morality as a Scalable System
When I began reevaluating the meaning of good instead of settling for people-pleasing, I came to a grounding conclusion: It’s not about doing small deeds, but optimizing your life to become capable of as much good as possible.
Morality is all about contributing to society and doing the least amount of harm.
It’s the foundation of modern society, enabling cooperation and coexistence.
So our values should reflect that.
We’re taught to give to the poor, be compassionate, avoid lying (when possible), and build solid relationships based on trust.
But so many of us remain incapable of this at a significant level. We see millionaires doing so much more for those in need than we do, and feel powerless.
Here’s what no one likes to admit: most of us are not equipped to make a real dent.
The Brutal Reality of Goodness
While many believe goodness is all about giving the little we have, goodness is also scalable.
The more we optimize our own lives, the more good we are capable of.
Look at it this way:
- The affluent can do more for the poor than those living in poverty can, providing them with opportunities—not ephemeral things.
- The clear-minded, stoic, and in-control can do more for those in need of emotional support than the unstable can.
- Those who remain transparent are better positioned to stay honest and serve as an example for others.
- Those who actively practice loyalty—making it a part of their identity—are more capable of maintaining good relationships than others are.
Morality isn’t just about choosing good over evil. It’s about expanding your capacity to do good at scale.
If you don’t like the world you live in, change it. While small acts of good are powerful, the things we could’ve done and didn’t, affect the world even more—for worse.
Your personal growth is your moral obligation. Not for status, but for service.
5. Audit Your Life Like a System
This idea connects back to 4D planning, but zooms in on the art of auditing and refining your systems.
Your habits, routines, and even beliefs are all testable systems. Whatever doesn’t serve you doesn’t belong. Likewise, whatever does serve you, immediately gains value.
Here’s the most practical approach:
- Task-batching worked for someone else, but not for you? Research a different method.
- If religion doesn’t make sense to one person, but it makes your life better, keep it.
- When someone else makes running look fun, but you dread it, swap it for dancing or hiking.
- Do your old-school to-do lists simplify your routine? Keep them!
Track what works, and what doesn’t. Then, optimize one variable at a time.
When you do this, you gain leverage. You’re no longer ruled by circumstance—instead, you iterate toward a version of life that actually works for you and your unique goals.
Run on Clarity, Not Chaos
This guide isn’t about making life colder or more robotic, but simply giving yourself the opportunity to regain control in a life that’s heavily shaped by technology, society, and pre-packaged mentalities.
Being an INTJ strategist is about running on clarity, not flowing with the current.
When you live in 4D, “overthinking” isn’t a flaw. It’s how the greatest systems are built.
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