Who Am I?

How do I really answer this?

Is it me or are people obsessed with doing personality tests. There are so many around to help you understand yourself better. Have you ever found out your Enneagram, taken a Myers Briggs Test, been asked to do your DISC test or Strengthscope? Just to name a few. There are even the social media personality quizzes that you can get sucked into!

These are all great and I’m sure they have their purpose but one thing that I’ve been thinking about recently is how they are so subjective. They are based on the person who is answering it at a specific point in time. I don’t know about you but if you’re asked a set of questions, I imagine these could be answered in so many ways based on:

• How you’re feeling at that time

• Whether it is for you personally or a test you’ve been asked to do for work

• Deciding whether to answer the test based on who you are now or who you’re aspiring to be

So even though these tests say, “give your first answer, don’t think about it too much”, I’m pretty sure most of us try to give the ideal answer or may struggle to answer, as we’re not in the right mood, so end up second guessing ourselves.

This is why I love Human Design. There is no second guessing. It’s not subjective to your current emotions, pressures or environment. It actually sheds light on these. However, people often compare Human Design to the personality tests above, even though it is so much more. As I’ve been learning, working with and applying Human Design myself for the past three years, there are so many layers to it and it can be applied to you personally, your relationships, your family, your work, and is a system where you can go as deep as you want to go.

The main benefit is there are no questions to answer, so it just is. This can make people feel sceptical at first but based on all the people I have worked with, there is a recognition of “this is me” or “I knew deep down this is me but I haven’t been able to express myself / articulate it in that way before”.

This is because from the ages of 0-7 years old we take on lots of things, which aren’t necessarily ours based on our environment, the people we see every day, our families, teachers, the media, and this leads to us being conditioned, which means we take things into adulthood that were never meant to be ours.

Human Design is a self-awareness and deconditioning system. It helps you to understand yourself better and see where you may be living in your shadows. Ultimately, it shows your potential. It helps you recognise, you may not be there yet but this is who you could become.

The other part of Human Design that I find fascinating, especially as I mainly work with women over 40, is that there is a conscious and unconscious side. You will recognise the conscious side. The unconscious side is what other people see in you. However, when you hit 40, you begin to recognise both sides, which makes such a difference.

There is also an additional layer when you are approaching 50, which is truly where you start to fully live into your life theme. This means you are just getting started, so even though culture tends to indicate you are past it, heading for retirement when you hit 50, this is not true at all, it’s just the beginning. If more people knew this, how different would society be!

You may be thinking, I’m pretty clear on who I am and have a steady sense of self, so I don’t do or need to do personality tests. This may be because you have a consistent way of knowing who you are, what matters, and where you’re going. You’re in good company, as 57% of the population are like this but the questions I’d want you to ask yourself are:

• “Am I holding onto an identity that no longer fits?”

• “Do I feel pressure to always know who I am?”

• “Does this still feel like me?”

The remaining 43% of you, tend to have different ways of being, can be a chameleon, be naturally open to different environments and different versions of yourself but it can also feel like not always knowing who you are, searching for direction and wanting to feel a sense of belonging. So, you may be constantly doing these personality tests to know yourself better.

This is just one element of Human Design. What I find is that when I take clients through their Human Design, something clicks for them, there is a recognition, a sense of this is who I am. They are always surprised that it so clearly speaks to them and some have said, “it knows me better than I know myself”!

Recently, I’ve been speaking to people who have dipped their toe into Human Design, discovered it on social media but think it’s only one or two things. Others have said, “someone has taken me through their Human Design but it left me more confused than before.”

This is where I support clients. I look at it with a practical lens and help you explore how you can actually apply it to real life, in a tangible and implementable way, based on what is going on with you at the time.

If you’re interested in exploring further, I’d love to hear from you.