Business by (human) design
To know me is to know that I love a personality framework. As I mention in the book, I view personality tests as conversation starters that invite me into deeper relationship with myself.
When I was writing Inner Workout, the Enneagram was the most transformational personality framework I’d encountered. I appreciated how it got to the root of my motivations, instead of focusing on my actions alone.
Today, human design is my internal conversation starter of choice. I appreciate human design because it’s talked about as an experiment, and we all know I love an experiment! The more I play with my human design (1/3 Generator with an emotional authority, for those curious!), the more satisfied I feel in both life and in business.
I just booked a podcast interview where I’ll get to talk about my human design lessons-learned with more depth, but, for now, here are three shifts I’ve made as I experiment with my own human design:
1. I ride my emotional wave.
As someone with an emotional authority (and ADHD!), I can realllllllly excited about something in one moment only for it to be dead to me in the next. Now, I give myself more time to make decisions before I take action.
I have a giant Post-It in my office that says Ideas at the top. Whenever I get really excited about an idea, I write the idea and the date on a regular-sized Post-It. I revisit those ideas to see if I’m still excited about them days or weeks later.
The practice has helped me honor my ideas without getting entirely carried away by them.
2. I try to initiate less.
I thought that being an entrepreneurial creative meant that I was supposed to be an innovator who created next level ideas out of thin air. My human design says that my magic happens when I respond, and I can think of countless times when that’s been true. Lifestyle Business League, Gateway Coaching, the Instead deck, and offering business coaching were all made in response to conversations, observations, and invitations.
Even when I’m pitching, which on the surface seems like I’m initiating, my press and partnership pitches are well-received when I’m responding to the needs of an organization and its stakeholders.
Initiating less requires both trust and humility. The truth is: lots of opportunities just come to me. My corporate speaking engagements to date have been entirely inbound. I have to trust that aligned opportunities will continue to find me, just like my book deal did, and my ego has to sit down and stop trying to force things or take all the credit. Admitting that there was luck involved doesn’t make me any less talented.
3. I allow experimentation to be a part of my process.
According to my human design, I’m very much a person who has to figure things out for herself. My parents and my husband can corroborate. It’s rare for me to get something right the first time, and I don’t need to place a value judgment on that reality.
I learn what does or doesn’t work. I bring those lessons with me into whatever’s next.
Progress is never linear, and that’s especially true for me.
Inner Workout has been so many things. I’ve been so many things. And it’s actually quite fun to continuously expand and evolve, if I choose to see it that way.
I share this partly because it’s fun to nerd out on human design but mostly because I think we could all use the reminder that everyone’s doing what' works best for them.
The Process Report is my process, and it’s up to you to figure out where any of this fits into yours.
And if you’re curious about your own design, you can get a free chart here. I really admire the business Erin’s built, and there’s plenty of free content on their blog, too!
Lemme know in the comments or by hitting reply: what personality framework has been your biggest intern conversation starter?