Seven Superpowers of Sensing Personality Types

Are you a super Sensor? Does your body thrill with sensations as you move through your environment? Are colors, scents, or sounds the first thing you notice when you walk into a room? Does feeling hungry distract you to the point that you will stop what you’re doing for a snack?

Sensing personalities differ from Intuitive personalities in the way that they process incoming information. Sensors rely on their ability to smell, see, touch, hear, and taste as they walk through life. These senses are the tangible proof of what we tell ourselves the world is like, but not everyone views the world around us the way we do.

Sensors and Intuitives sit at opposite ends of the personality typing spectrum. Sensors take in external data through concrete, immediate facts and compare it to the facts already stored in memory, sorting, matching, and categorizing it as they go. While Intuitives tend to focus on the macro view, Sensors focus on the micro. Intuitives tend to view things from an internal, or intellectual, perspective and a Sensor’s focus is external, or physical. Intuitives lean toward the future and Sensors lean on the past.

Sensors see pepperoni, cheese, sauce, crust, and those little pepper flakes that nobody likes. Intuitives imagine a trip to Italy. Another way to approach this dichotomy is that Sensors take in the “what” of what they see, not necessarily the Intuitive “why” of what they see.

If you’re lucky enough to be a Sensor, you can claim the unique superpowers that come with being able to take in the world around you and call it like it is.

Without further ado, here are seven Sensing superpowers.

1. Sensors are very aware of their body in time and space

Because their senses are honed from being in constant use, Sensors are great candidates for jobs and hobbies that require them. Sensors tend to be graceful, athletic, and have quick reflexes. They take in real time, tangible information and, with practice, can translate it into almost instant decisive action. These superpowers make them heroes as stunt men wielding martial arts, pilots in supersonic jets, NBA players, or soldiers hunting the enemy in a dark room.

2.  Sensors can bring order out of chaos. Fast

Because of the way they take in the details of what’s set in front of them, the Sensor’s organization process begins instantly. If there are already files of data in the memory that help with labeling and categorizing, a Sensor can walk into a messy room, country, or space shuttle and know exactly where things should go. A Sensor can look under the hood of a car and give instant diagnostics. A Sensor can hear the sounds beneath a stethoscope and prescribe the correct medication. A Sensor can take your shoebox full of crumpled receipts and replace it with a tidy, IRS-worthy spreadsheet.

3. Sensors, whenever possible, will do it now

Sensors are not distracted with external details or futuristic issues when looking at a situation. They focus their mental energy instead on fixing things, not improving them for later. Innovation is not the goal, especially if something has a history of working just fine. If they see a problem and know how to fix it, they also see no reason to put it off into the murky future, or take time to ponder other possibilities. 

Sensors are very “hands-on” people. They take care of the car they have instead of buying a new one every few years. They tend to stay in their home and pay it off, take pride in its maintenance, and don’t let the grass grow. Over time, this sensible superpower translates into more money in their pocket.

4. Because Sensors live in the here and now, you won’t find them daydreaming 

Neither will you find them burdened with drama. This under-appreciated superpower shines in positions of leadership. Dwelling on the past or worrying about the future can slow down and distract anyone if regularly indulged. This practical Sensing superpower allows them to let go of what they can’t control and pay attention to what they can. Sensors are known for being grounded, using common sense, and being down to earth. This makes them efficient, effective, and indispensable.

5. Because of their integrated learning process, Sensors form lasting memories that keep mistakes from being repeated 

That’s right. Studies show that kinesthetic, or active, learners retain information better. Memories made through movement are easier to retrieve from the database later, somewhat like muscle memory. Sensors learn through patient application of the new knowledge. The more senses they can utilize while taking in new information, the faster they learn and the more reliable they become in their new skills. 

Learning, for Sensors, involves figuring out a thousand ways how not to make a lightbulb if that’s what it takes to finally make one. Methods include trial-and-error and repetition. They will pull from these experiences over and over again in practical ways and mistakes become very rare.

6. Sensors notice what others don’t and recall details that others skip over

This detail-oriented superpower, combined with their physical awareness, means a Sensor will never space out while driving, for example. They remain aware of the road, the weather, their speed, the position of the headrest, and the constantly changing traffic. Sensors tend to have a mental GPS, always aware of which direction they face and where landmarks lie. Being observant in high definition means Sensors excel as interior decorators, detectives, artists, surgeons, chefs, and more.

7. Sensors don’t jump to conclusions, they ask questions

There is a brief mental pause as Sensors internally assimilate their new information before they apply it externally. They look for the bottom line instead of reading between the lines. They want facts, not figures. Concrete clues, not inferences. They claim this superpower through being realistic, pragmatic, and mechanically minded. Sensors are open to additional information if it’s factual according to their experience and will evolve in their understanding accordingly. In the Sensing world, there’s no such thing as TMI, and their clear conclusions are usually rock solid and reliable.

As Spider-man understood, “With great power comes great responsibility.” And acting with responsibility is powerful. Don’t let mild-mannered Clark Kent fool you. Sensors use their superpowers to keep the world a seriously safe and stable place.