The Intellectual Teachers
Intellectual Teachers are playful, enthusiastic, and open-minded. They think short-term about what might or might not happen, anticipating and improvising to solve and fix new problems. They speculate and they prepare for any eventuality. They study the systems and the functions around them to understand how things work, and they find ways to experiment and test the systems around them. They cut-corners and test boundaries to see what might or might not happen. They study and question power, who has it, and how they use it.
They enjoy challenges and complex puzzles. They are intelligent, logical, and thrive in the unfamiliar or complex. They measure, order, and refine theories and thoughts to explain their environment and the world around them. They take the role of the spider-in-the-web, or the teacher, helping people understand abstract systems. They are educated and study and prepare ahead before trying something new. They are interested in business, success, and accuracy. They are quick to change and adapt when they realize something is incorrect or problematic.
They sometimes suffer from indecisiveness, juggling many different options for how a system should work, and avoiding making decisions. They test people’s knowledge and insight in a field, and cooperatively step in to help and to clarify misunderstandings where people fail. They are emotional and sensitive to errors and mistakes, taking their time to fix problems when they emerge.
Intellectual Teacher behavioral variations
Active Intellectual Teachers
You rely on the intellectual teacher subtype when you 1. Predict how complex systems can be changed or improved. 2. Come up with strategies for how to improve your performance at a task, or 3. Question systems or methods that others take for granted, and when you are in this state, you experience both a high state of active focus, as well as motivation and energy.
Stable Empathic leaders
You show empathic leadership when you 1. Guide people on how to view life. 2. Think about why people are feeling or behaving the way they do, and 3. Evaluate past decisions and experiences based on their symbolical meaning. When you use this state, you experience an incredibly sharp focus at the cost of lower motivation and energy.
Hyperactive Practical Explorers
You show practical exploration when you 1. Find new chores or routines. 2. React with your gut to things that seem to function according to some kind of rules, and 3. Instinctively know how to get power or respect from others. When you use this state, you experience an emotional high, at the cost of lack of focus and clarity.
Passive Social Fighters
You show social fighting spirit when you 1. Enforce social norms when people break social rules or harm what is beautiful. 2. Create communities or groups for the people you care about, or 3. Actively support people who you care about from social pressure. When you use this unconscious state, you lose motivation and energy, as well as focus and clarity.
Health
Intellectual types have the highest need for challenge and complexity. It's important they express their needs for puzzles, improvement, and new projects, in order to maintain their health and motivation.
Teachers
As a Teacher, it’s important for your emotional health & your focus to:
- Try to analyze and prepare for different possibilities.
- Try to stay ahead of everyone else.
- Try to analyze your current values and thoughts.
If unable to do so successfully, you risk experiencing lack of motivation or stress. You also risk making unnecessary mistakes.
When Teachers engage in mindsets similar to those of the Leaders, they gain a heightened focus but a lack of motivation. When Teachers instead engage in the mindset of the Explorers, they gain a heightened motivation, but a lack of focus. If Teachers are forced to rely on the mindset of the Fighters, they lose both motivation and focus.
Relationships
In relationships, healthy intellectuals value stimulating learning experiences. Intellectuals tend to engage in various projects, working to develop or improve themselves or the people around them. They often discuss success, improvement, and they spend a lot of time exploring new ideas for projects and learning opportunities with others. More negatively, unhealthy intellectual types can suffer from inferiority issues, feeling incompetent or weak compared to others. They can feel like the people around them are boring and understimulating. It’s important for intellectual types to deal with their anxiety, and the best way to do so is to challenge yourself in a healthy way. Learn things at your own pace. Explore what you’re curious about. Watch yourself improve and learn about how good you can be if you just try!
Teachers help us prepare for what is to come. They make us feel safe, staying ahead of anything that’s happening. They seem to know us and what we will do better than anyone. But teachers sometimes postpone decisions for too long. They avoid voicing their needs to others, and they can be too secretive at times. It’s important for teachers to maintain their needs for staying ahead of the situation, by letting themselves have time to prepare and think ahead, in order to maintain healthy relationships.
The ideal pairing for an Intellectual Teacher is with an Intellectual Fighter.