Cognition is the result of where you naturally focus your attention, your desires, and your interests. Regardless of what your momentary desires or interests may be, each of us has certain deep, secret hopes that mean more to us than anything. While moods and opinions may change, these deepest desires are such a pure reflection of who we really are. In a world where there is so much to do, so much to experience, so much need and so many discoveries waiting to be found, we each inadvertently focus the most on some things over others. The things that we focus on most of all reflect what we want most out of life, deep down. This comes out through cognition, as the unique specialization of your cognitive type.
As the ESTP Spartan, perhaps nothing is more important to you than getting the most use out of yourself as the person you are, and helping others do the same. Cognitively, you focus on the use (T) of people (EP) as they already are (S), most especially yourself. This causes you to think of everything in terms of how it applies to particular, real people you know, rather than to theoretical people as a trend. What matters most to you, deep down, is being yourself, getting the most out of that, and holding onto the parts of yourself that you love, no matter what changes life may throw your way.
This gives Spartans their fierce sense of individualism, a joy in the person they are, and a relentless drive to push their own limits in order to experience everything that makes them who they are. They extend this passion to others as well; Spartans champion the individuality of every person, but of course they have the most control over their own sense of self. ESTPs therefore feel great loyalty to anyone who values them as they are, and tend to resent those who ask them to change the parts of themselves that they love. Their goal is to see just how much they can do with the tools in their awesome selfhood arsenal, pushing the limits to see how spectacularly cool they can become without losing themselves to get there. As part of enjoying their own selves and others around them, ESTPs constantly pay attention to how others react to their every word and action, surfing along others’ reactions in order to get the most useful benefit from them. As a Spartan, you use the whole world and everyone in it as a sounding board. You watch others’ reactions, try to get more reactions, and use it all as a way to reflect the awesome person you know you already are.
None of this means that your specialization of deftly surfing along reactions to celebrate yourself comes easy for you. You have to work at it, just as much as anyone else would. The difference between you and other types is that you care to work at this, above all else. Some may say that it’s just easier for you to be confident, loving yourself while constantly pushing your own limits, but that’s not true. You simply care enough about safeguarding, enjoying, and experiencing everything you are, and everything everyone else is, that you’re willing to work much harder at it.
No cognitive type has it easy; every type has to work just as hard at their specialization as anyone else would have to. And every type has to deal with social pressure that tries to make them feel ashamed or embarrassed of their unique specialization. This pressure results in unhappiness and deep, internal conflict, as people feel tempted to ignore their specialization in an effort to not stand out, rock the boat, or look foolish or make anyone else uncomfortable. When we try to ignore our own deepest desires, the reflection of who we really are and really can be, we feel torn, frustrated, and unfulfilled.
This is why understanding our own cognition is so important! As we come to understand what we already wanted in the first place, we learn how to get out of our own way. We learn to let ourselves shine, rather than hiding our light. The world needs what each of us can uniquely offer. We need all the strengths of all the types; each is special at the same time, because each is special in a different way. You don’t do anyone any good when you hide your unique strength, even if you’re afraid it will make others feel uncomfortable. Let yourself be the Spartan you are, show everyone what awesome really is, and do it in your own personal way. As you do, you’ll implicitly give others permission to celebrate their own awesomeness while admiring yours all the more.
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