How to use your natural strengths to create a better environment
I’m naturally quite a worried person - whilst I’d be useless as a nurse or doctor (I hate blood and don’t even clean my own home let alone other people) or children (I’m not a fan of lots of children congregated in one place) I do take on board that I do care about others achieving success and motivating others. I also recognise the one personality trait I don’t have is aggression and winning at all costs, and environments in which this is 100% valued, are environments I would never thrive in.
Our genes influence our dispositions, our cognitive function stems from our parents, which influence our natural tendencies. You may have heard of Myers Briggs or taken an insights discovery profile. Whether you agree with them or not, (they are never 100% accurate), it can be interesting to take the time to identify elements that resonate to help you establish what you may like and dislike in both your life and career. For instance, you can view if the corresponding suggested roles are of interest, if not, you can look at what elements of the suggested role you may wish to take into another role ie. if it suggested you be an artist - maybe you don’t like painting, but perhaps you do like being creative and working on your own.
I won’t lie, I find it quite difficult with the colour wheels as I never fit into a box (even on this I’m three colours). When I’m happy at work, I’m primarily a sunshine yellow, though I’m not an extrovert, I don’t like details, rules, disapproval nor routine, I do like being friendly, I am naturally spontaneous, I love being creative and probably do follow up with me with specifics in writing. When I’m unhappy at work I crawl into green - gentle, friendly, hate conflict, I feel everyones emotions, and I can be incredibly organised like a blue, in the workplace I can be quite detail oriented (I’m a walking contradiction), I love problem solving, but I’m not a perfectionist. And even the one area I said I’m not, the red, whilst I’m not dominant and intense, nor focused more on tasks than people, and fact I hate debates - I do like to bring new ideas, I need to implement concepts that aren’t fully formed - otherwise I’ll never do them, and I quite like to be clear and brief in a meeting
If we listen to what our natural dispositions are, and look further into these personality types than a few questions ask of us, by reflecting on our overall selves and identifying traits from the overall wheel, we can look to where our strengths lie. We can identify what environment would suit us best, and then go out and find that environment - for example if we’re naturally introverted, we may choose a career that allows us to work independently and set our home up so that we can do a lot of things within the confines of our home. Conversely, if you love competition, you may thrive in an environment that adopts and rewards competition and ways to measure how you’re performing against others. Because if we find environments that our true to ourselves and our own nature, then we feel content with ourselves not just at home, but with our full lives. It can help us find motivation, it can enable us to be more authentic, and it can help us live in our ideal life and thrive. We can help set our environments up for our natural predispositions, what we wish to dial up and dial down. Consider do you want to spend most of your life being in charge, or do you want to be zenned out at peace and create a harmonious environment? Do we want to be less impulsive with our health and create more considered spaces so it’s easier this is a priority
The environment we find ourselves in plays a huge role in determining whether we act on our genetic inclinations or not. We can use this to set us up for success. Some areas identified we may not choose to pursue, and we must think about our environment to create friction to prevent us from ‘bad’ inclinations, however we can also set our environments up to promote more of our ’good’ inclinations.
If you’d like any help identifying your natural predispositions or help as to how you can find and create your optimum environment contact us for a free coffee chat to see how we can help
