Breaking Down Personality: Judging vs. Perceiving – Everyday Fulfillment
No Vacation Required
We recently came across an article comparing what different generations want from work, and one thing stood out immediately: purpose has become part of the conversation.
For a long time, success was measured almost entirely by achievement, stability, and what your career allowed you to provide. Today, more and more people are asking different questions. Does this work align with my values? Does it fit who I am? Can I build a life that feels good instead of simply looking successful?
To us, that’s an encouraging shift.
It’s also a reminder that fulfillment doesn’t begin with finding the perfect job. It begins with knowing yourself well enough to recognize what actually fits.
This week, we continue our personality series by exploring another of the structural keys that shapes how we move through the world: Judging and Perceiving.
Onward and Inward,
COMMON QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS EPISODE
❓What is the main difference between Judging and Perceiving personalities? Judging types generally prefer structure, organization, and having a set plan, while Perceiving types thrive on flexibility, spontaneity, and keeping their options open.
❓How do Judging and Perceiving traits affect workplace fulfillment? A mismatch between your natural personality and your work environment can cause stress. For example, a Perceiving type may feel constrained by rigid deadlines, while a Judging type might feel anxious in an unstructured setting.
❓Why is it important to understand your personality type? Understanding whether you lean toward Judging or Perceiving can help you make intentional adjustments to your daily life and career, leading to greater everyday fulfillment and less friction in your routine.
❓Can a person be both a Judging and Perceiving type? While most people lean toward one preference, these traits exist on a spectrum. You may find that you naturally adapt your style depending on the situation or environment you are in.
❓How can I figure out if I am a Judging or Perceiving type? You can start by reflecting on how you handle your free time and deadlines. Do you prefer a carefully planned itinerary, or do you like to see where the day takes you? Your natural inclination in these moments often reveals your core preference.
CHAPTERS
(00:00) Mind Share: A hopeful shift toward purpose across generations
(04:05) Understanding Judging vs. Perceiving
(05:25) Structure vs. flexibility explained
(06:40) Why this personality difference creates so much workplace friction
(09:08) What happens when your environment doesn’t fit your type?
(11:10) Understanding yourself and your team
(11:35) Where Judging and Perceiving matter most
(14:00) Working with reality instead of fighting it
(17:15) Fulfillment begins with small, type-aligned adjustments
(19:05) How the structural keys shape your complete personality
(21:05) Mailbag: Are ambiverts real?
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TRANSCRIPT
Kent (00:00)
I was reading an article about goals of the different generations ⁓ And it made me think of the fulfillment block of podcasts that we recently completed. And just this total, ⁓ you know, silver lining as we talk about ⁓ so many people feeling off purpose and unfulfilled and coming to us ⁓ for over the years for help on being more fulfilled and feeling more on track and all that. It's so heartening to read
Kent (00:29)
About this generational shift that has really moved away from the kind of baby boomer mentality of, I want to work hard to provide for my family and to provide nice things, but with not a lot of care for
Kent (00:52)
spending time with ⁓ these loved ones. Yeah. And ⁓ a lot of care for ⁓ work and ⁓ life being in balance and aligning with things you believe in. So in this article I was reading that, you know, Gen X, which we're a part of, really started this, which was still a very work hard mentality, which Caanan and I can relate to. But with a very much
Kent (01:19)
screw the man, watch out for yourself mentality. And then we move on to millennials and Gen Z You know, Gen Z in particular, I'm just kind of glancing at this article, really doesn't want a job, won't stay at a job that lacks purpose, for instance. Good for them. so yeah, these are all huge moves towards
Kent (01:46)
living a more fulfilled life and knowing who you are and just reading that line, Gen Z is really aware of work that has purpose versus lacks purpose. ⁓ Right there you're doing that inquiry. Yeah. To be able to figure out, okay, wait a minute, how do I define what has purpose and what lacks purpose? So there's that inquiry happening that ⁓ means you're also getting to know yourself
Kent (02:14)
and your preferences. Yes. ⁓ so that that kind of bright light has been on my mind.
Caanan (02:20)
Yeah, that makes me I'm happy to hear that. It also makes me a little sad, as you were saying, like with Gen X, we were kind of the original anti-work, but then that sort of morphed into just working differently, but as hard, you know, as aggressively. and then I feel like millennials it somehow backslid and they became obscenely
Caanan (02:47)
work oriented. but
Kent (02:49)
Yeah, well
Caanan (02:50)
sadly without any real payoff.
Kent (02:52)
They were modeling their parents because a lot of millennials were born of baby boomers. So that's kind of a tough yeah.
Caanan (02:59)
And so they just got royally screwed in all of this and continue to get screwed in all of this. It makes it so sad.
Kent (03:06)
Came defined as the aesthetic generation.
Caanan (03:09)
Yes.
Kent (03:10)
Yes. Kind of starting to become values aligned, but everything had a look a certain way.
Caanan (03:14)
Yeah.
Caanan (03:15)
And so then Gen Z comes along and it doesn't surprise me that I mean they are genuinely over a culture that this hyper aggressive capitalistic culture. It it does nothing for them and they can see now a history of it not
Caanan (03:32)
paying off in any real way, not even monetarily now, So I'm glad that they are feeling that way. And hope that we can move the culture into a place where it aligns more with people wanting to be genuinely fulfilled. I have my doubts, but
Caanan (03:51)
You know, they're the future. Children are the future. Have you ever heard that?
Kent (03:55)
So let's let them lead the way.
Kent (04:04)
this is our second personality episode where we're getting deeper into personality than we have historically because we haven't really with the prior structures had the time to do this kind of a deep dive and now we're all about personality. Breaking it
Caanan (04:19)
We're breaking it down.
Kent (04:20)
down, shifting up the work we do. Go check out our website, by the way. The the services we offer really
Kent (04:27)
focused almost ⁓ solely on helping people figure out who they are. Yeah. As an individual, within a couple, within a work group. ⁓ It's all very exciting. ⁓ So ⁓ last week and this week, we're talking about what are known as the structural keys. Last week we talked about extroversion and introversion, which is a structural key. This week we are talking about judging and percieving
Kent (04:56)
, which are also structural keys...
Caanan (05:01)
Can I
Caanan (05:01)
just jump in and say that I feel like this is the most difficult to understand?
Kent (05:07)
Yeah, you can say that because everybody everybody everybody says that. So validate Yeah.
Caanan (05:17)
Okay.
Kent (05:20)
let me just see how to put this as succinctly as possible.
Kent (05:28)
If you prefer decisiveness, boundaries,
Kent (05:34)
scheduling structure, as we call it, you wind up being a J in MBTI analysis, which is judging. If you have more of a preference for flexibility, open-ended, real-time adaption, you are labeled a P for perceiving. And we're not gonna debate this. We could take up a whole podcast of all the problems we have with some
Kent (06:03)
parts of the MBTI, but we very much believe in the information that it communicates. So this is another what we call structural key that
Kent (06:15)
determines how you manage your key personality characteristics, which are in some cases equally frustratingly termed sensing, intuition, thinking, and feeling. And we're going to be talking about those pairings in weeks three and four.
Kent (06:40)
Judging and perceiving are very interesting. And this shows up so much in terms of particularly work strife because most workplaces are very structured, right?
Caanan (06:56)
Yep.
Kent (06:57)
And you don't have a choice when you're working to be as spontaneous.
Kent (07:07)
As you might be in your personal life or be as open-ended. ⁓ So it takes a very ⁓ unique and special kind of work group ⁓ to ⁓ accommodate this particular pairing difference. More structured J, less structured P. ⁓ And ⁓ so many ⁓ problems can be exposed,
Kent (07:35)
That people don't really know, track back to this, ⁓ much like we talked last week about extroversion and introversion, ⁓ these ⁓ personal preferences for more structured ⁓ or less structured. ⁓ So a work group that embraces ⁓ team members knowing themselves ⁓ and team members ⁓ knowing each other's personality characteristics
Kent (08:04)
Can safely and productively ⁓ accommodate for this because you know, as we said last week, the phrase that pays ⁓ it's personality, ⁓ not ⁓ personal. Again, very confusing in a workplace ⁓ because
Kent (08:21)
You don't really have a choice. Yeah. Workplaces can accommodate these personal styles, but they're very deadline and structure oriented.
Kent (08:30)
Yeah, so we always like to start off with the story when we can. And this is just one of those times where I don't know that a a story, a single story, can accurately communicate just how
Caanan (08:43)
Yeah.
Kent (08:43)
drenched in the dysfunction of this
Kent (08:46)
work groups are in particular because if you don't have the agency to apply your personality style to how you see deadlines and getting things done, it can be really tough.
Caanan (09:04)
Yeah. You know, that brings up an interesting point that is something we're gonna have to make a whole another series about. Like, so you know yourself, you know your personality type, but your life is structured in a way that you can't control certain aspects.
Caanan (09:21)
like you and I could control, as we talked about in last week's episode, we could make changes to the way our life was structured to accommodate our type. A lot of people can't do that, and that's very frustrating. But also like extroversion and introversion, which is what we talked about last week, perceiving and judging terrible words.
Caanan (09:46)
There is a strong bias in the workplace toward structure and the like, just like there's a strong bias toward extroversion versus introversion. Yeah. And so it can be very difficult. Like if you're, you know, if you're an introvert and you prefer things to be left open or or you're more of a you want to be more flexible with how things work or how you move through.
Caanan (10:15)
the day, you know, that just cannot be in most cases cannot be accommodated given the way work is structured. Yeah. And that can be very difficult for people.
Kent (10:26)
In everything we've done, in our personal lives and as sought after business and career development consultants, we've learned one consistent thing. Most people just don't know themselves. NoVacationRequired.com is where we talk about how you too can build a life that you don't need a break from and how it all starts with knowing yourself. There you'll find all of our podcast episodes, information on services, and the scoop on us. And to really raise the bar, we model this as a couple.
Kent (10:56)
To show that a relationship doesn't have to be a compromise or a counterproductive union. When two people are each doing their own work, the heightened connection becomes a shortcut to building a no vacation required life.
Kent (11:11)
I want make an important distinction here, just kind of an interesting factoid. So we've got E and I, extroversion and introversion, which we talked about in the last episode, and this week's pairing, J and P. Those are both what are called structural pairings. They show how your personality operates.
Kent (11:39)
Interestingly, we're asked all the time, what's most compatible? Those things like can an I be with an E? All these things people want to know: like, who does this mean I can work with? And more importantly, who should I seek out in a in a love relationship? So interestingly, between what we talked about last week and this week, the EI
Kent (12:05)
Pairing has a very big impact, particularly on personal relationships. It's very difficult without this knowledge to be in a love relationship EI. If you know your types and you can work with this and understand this, it can work beautifully because you're just
Kent (12:32)
Adjusting, bringing that knowledge of type to the table. ⁓ but if not, it can be very frustrating. This why is our energy not ⁓ mapping properly? So coming right back to this week, judging and perceiving structured versus unstructured, ⁓ this shows up real profoundly ⁓ in the workplace. ⁓ And in fact,
Kent (12:56)
A J and a P love pairing can be a very kind of easily accommodated difference. But in the workplace, as we both talked about in the last segment, not having that agency.
Caanan (13:16)
Right.
Kent (13:18)
Or, you know, we're gonna get a lot into this with ⁓ next week's topic, ⁓ thinking versus feeling, ⁓ not having that agency, especially if you work at a place that makes it sound like, hey, however you do things is valued. ⁓ We Right, Caanan's laughing like ⁓ the times we've had to do this game, you know, with corporate client projects, etc. ⁓
Kent (13:47)
Yeah, you're sold one thing, but how things work on the inside is often an entirely different story. So again, this isn't to be total naysayers. It's about knowledge. You know who you are, if you know your personality. Right. And how it works. And then you know how you have to show up
Kent (14:09)
in different environments, like say an organization where you have to be much more J, much more structured, list oriented, all that stuff, as opposed to your maybe natural P less structured, more instantly the power of that
Kent (14:34)
empowerment, that knowledge is ceaseless because that's life. You know, that is life. You're always having to adapt to different situations. Yeah.
Caanan (14:47)
Yeah. So if you know yourself, there are tools, like in the instance of being a P, somebody less naturally structured in a very J structured environment, as most workplaces are, knowing that you can use tools
Caanan (15:11)
and structure the parts of your life that you do have more control over in order to balance out
Caanan (15:17)
How you have to show up in a certain environment. And you can also then, this is something we're always talking about, you know, you're always becoming, you're always trying to move closer to you're always trying to to build a life that is closer aligned to your type. Yeah. You can start making adjustments outside of work, and then maybe you can start to make adjustments
Caanan (15:44)
with how work shows up for you. Totally. How you work. So that it gets closer to your natural preferences. Yeah. But
Kent (15:51)
I think
Caanan (15:52)
just even knowing that, knowing yourself and making slight tweaks is so empowering.
Kent (15:58)
Yeah, isn't this bringing to mind to you things we've talked about so many times on other iterations of this podcast? People just not seeing a way out or a way to change or feeling so hopeless. And so much of our advice is Yeah, you've got to do this thing you want to do. You've got to get the promotion, get a better work group, whatever it is, but you've also got to deal with reality. Yeah. And what you're saying.
Kent (16:27)
Is so resonant there because it's like you with this knowledge, no, it's not gonna just because you know who you are doesn't mean it's gonna change your work group overnight, but you have this knowledge and you can begin to make changes. And I love what you said, Caanan It starts with, well, making your work work for you, ⁓ accommodating in how you need to accommodate
Kent (16:52)
so that things work for you. But then over time you're gonna naturally gravitate toward, okay, I need to really watch out for this factor of my personality that I now know so much more about. And I need to start moving toward work that aligns more with my personality.
Caanan (17:10)
Yeah, 'cause there
Caanan (17:11)
like you said, we are in the world. You have to show up in different ways. You have to sometimes contort yourself in order to make it in different spaces. And if you know yourself, this is something you have said all the time and I'm gonna bring it back to last week's or last month's series about fulfillment. Fulfillment isn't a destination. Fulfillment isn't
Caanan (17:35)
The time when you finally find a job that aligns with your I and your P, these things that are not as valued in the workplace. Fulfillment is knowing that you recharge in an introverted way. You prefer things to be less structured, and you start moving your life toward that. It isn't when you get there, it's when you decide I'm going to start.
Caanan (18:00)
doing the little things I can, and sometimes they can be so little, to make my life more aligned with my type.
Caanan (18:09)
Thanks for listening. We'd be honored if you'd subscribe, like, and share. It means the world to us.
Kent (18:19)
Yeah, and that's the beauty ⁓ of self-knowledge, specifically personality. Then you have this knowledge and you get to accommodate ⁓ in an empowered way the life that's happening around you. ⁓ And I think, yeah, as you said at the end of the last segment, like ⁓ strife ⁓ strife could come ⁓
Kent (18:47)
in two seconds. There could be an earthquake, a divorce, a company shutdown. Who knows? ⁓ But the more you know yourself, right? Yeah. The more you are able to ⁓ make decisions that work for you now and then have the knowledge to move closer to decisions that are good for you ⁓
Kent (19:12)
long term. So I ask you, you know, here we are at the end of week two. We've we've talked about two of our personality pairings. E and I, extrovert and introvert, ⁓ and J and P ⁓
Kent (19:28)
Structured versus less structured. These two ⁓ structural keys that starting next week we'll get into, you know, how they inform the other two pairings ⁓ of your personality, which those coming two pairings are really the way your personality shows up. ⁓ Think about the power in knowing, ⁓ you know, am I an E? Am I an extrovert or introvert? Do I just think I am? Do I think I am Because people tell me, do I think I am because
Kent (19:55)
It's what's acceptable for my line of work. What is my timing preference? How do I decide how I want to manage my outer life? Do I want to manage it with more structure, less structure? What is my
Kent (20:20)
Actual preference. So we're talking here about not only these four pairings, but as we'll get into more and more in the coming couple of weeks, how where you land on each of these four pairings determines what is actually your personality. These two structural keys we've talked about this week and last week, and then the two
Kent (20:48)
personality keys that we'll talk about in the coming week, how they work together to actually form the personality that you present to the outer world.
Caanan (21:07)
Okay, Kent, you're gonna take the mailbag this week.
Kent (21:12)
Yeah, after last week's ⁓ after last week's ⁓ episode, kind of a long email, but somebody basically was asking about ambiverts saying like, yeah, aren't most people really ⁓ Yeah, like ⁓
Caanan (21:21)
What's the word? Ambervert. I want
Caanan (21:25)
people to hear that 'cause it's kind of a weird word.
Kent (21:27)
Yeah, a combination, extrovert, introvert, kind of saying like, are most people ambiverts and ⁓ you just deal, you know you operate in both worlds. Like, yes, yes, and yes, and you still have to know your preference because you very much have a preference. Now, to be clear, Caanan and I, have made a career out of this and we've determined
Kent (21:54)
very specifically that our legacy surrounds well, wanting to maximize the number of fulfilled people in the world, which to us means helping people know themselves better, helping people to know that the answer to who they are is within themselves. It's not a special formula. It's not an external product. So yeah, I think it's great that you, writer, and so many people recognize
Kent (22:22)
that you're multitudes. And yes, I think as we said, especially in week one, on the extroversion, introversion week, you are definitely both. So that's very astute. But you do need to know your preference and as we'll get into in the coming couple of weeks, how your preference, remember extroversion, introversion is the structural key, how extroversion and introversion actually best show up in
Kent (22:51)
Your manifested personality, meaning you know how to pulse when I'm more authentically introverted and where I'm more authentically extroverted. so yeah, we're happy that people are coming to know this, but
Caanan (23:11)
Yes.
Kent (23:12)
it's also more empowered when you know your preference.
Kent (23:19)
and how to actually pull and play and toggle the extraversion, introversion levers. Caanan, what would you add to this?
Caanan (23:27)
I was just gonna say, yes, that is the that's sort of the fun part is once you know your preferences and to be clear, nobody is preference less. You're not like perfectly down the middle on all these aspects of your type. You have a preference. But once you know your preference and then you start to
Caanan (23:49)
understand how you can pulse these things and how you can show up in an authentic way in different ways, in different situations, that's really the that's the magic. That's where you start to really feel fully embodied in your type.