Type 5: Embrace Your Inner Blockhead

5s fear that they are inadequate (to a task, to a situation, sometimes even to life in general). To defend against this fear, they retreat into their heads—command central. From this safe vantage point, they intake information and attempt to use their mental faculties to process the stimuli presented by the outside world. 5s are very good at concepts, theories, figuring things out, and mastering a body of knowledge.

This works well enough if you’re trying to do the math, put together a puzzle, understand string theory, or absorb the works of Aristotle. It works less well if you’re trying to learn how to play guitar, repair the plumbing, or maintain any kind of personal relationship.

Since 5s do not like to be intruded upon, however, this may be a pretty good tactic as it does serve to put other people off. But spending all your time inside your own head can get lonely. And what’s the point of knowing so much about something if you don’t put that knowledge to practical use?

ANALYSIS PARALYSIS

One of the pitfalls 5s face is becoming immobilized because they don’t think they ever have enough information to make a decision or to act. This state of affairs both arises from the compulsion and contributes to it. It’s like a self-powered circuit that keeps the thinking process running long after it should have shut down.

When 5s embrace their inner blockhead, they can accept the fact that they aren’t—and don’t need to be—experts about everything. There are plenty of things they don’t know and never will know. But we’re all really in the same boat in that regard.

When 5s realize that thinking is not always the best way to deal with life—and, in fact, it’s sometimes the worst way to deal with it—they may be able to open themselves up to an entire new world of possibilities. Alternate realities, if you will. They may find that the material world has at least as much to offer them as does the cerebral world. They may find that it’s really not the end of the world to be wrong or misinformed or unprepared. These are some of the bases for humor in our society. Levity may not be the first word that comes to mind when thinking of 5s, but it’s a super duper circuit-breaker. And remember:

If you don’t have a sense of humor, you probably don’t have any sense at all.

Aphorism