you don’t want to specialize in any of the things you love
you’re endlessly inquisitive
you have an intense curiosity about numerous unrelated subjects
you’re always curious to know ‘what’s out there’
you spend much time scanning the horizon & thinking about your next move
you continually move from one idea to the next
If so, you’re probably what Barbara Sher calls a “Scanner”.
SCANNER: (noun) someone for whom every single thing theysee or think sparkles with potential and pulls their attention; they want to do it all!
Also known as: Renaissance person; Jack-of-all-trades; multi-passionate; multipotentialite; polymath; hummingbird person; multipod; squirrel-brain.
Barbara’s passion for helping Scanners (multi-passionates) is evident throughout this book. Here are a few of the quotes I loved most:
…not all Scanners are the same! You still need to find the tips, tools, techniques & life-design models that are right for you.
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher, page xxvii
…she feels a familiar sense of apprehension that if she doesn’t do something about it right away, she’ll forget it like all the other good ideas she keeps having.
Refuse to Choose, pg.4
If Scanners didn’t think they should limit themselves to one field, 90% of their problems would cease to exist!
Refuse to Choose, pg.5
One of my favorite takeaways from this book was the idea of the “Scanner Daybook“. This is a plain-paper notebook or journal where you write down everything related to being a Scanner — capture your best ideas, and tangents that pull you off those ideas . . . it is meant to be “delightfully out-of-order, impulsive, and unrestrained”.
The best part about this Daybook, though, is that you are not required to DO anything with these thoughts & ideas! You simply notice & write them… no follow-through required!
The very act of considering your explorations worth keeping track of begins changing everything you ever thought about yourself… you’ll find a growing respect for how your mind works.
Refuse to Choose, pg. 13
Barbara writes: “There is zero obligation to act on anything in your Daybook. You simply capture ideas & “play them out on the pages, to see where they go!“
“Your Daybook lets you go into planning an idea without having to actually produce it… if you never take another step, you’ve had a good time, andrisked nothing.” (p.14)
There are a handful of great and practical tools, just like this one, throughout the book.
Barbara also dedicates a chapter to each of the nine (9) types of Scanners she has identified, and gives options for possible career paths for each type (some of which you may never have considered on your own!).
Overall, this is a fantastic book, and I can’t recommend it highly enough! It should be on every Scanner’s bookshelf.
It has long been believed that our personality does not change. But what if that isn’t true?
I love personality quizzes. I find it absolutely fascinating to see the uniqueness to each person’s individual makeup, and to hear about how their experiences have helped to shape who they are.
I recently read a book called, “Personality Isn’t Permanent” by Benjamin Hardy. In it, the author claimed that researchers are coming to see that personality is not, in fact, permanent, and that we can shape who we become through intentional choices and behaviors.
Now, I’ve always said that no one personality quiz is ever going to be able to 100% accurately describe who you are.
What I know to be true, however, is that, by taking a handful of these quizzes and then looking for the patterns among your results, you are able to get a pretty clear picture of who you are — or, at least, who you are right now.
► Don’t believe me? Check out my self-coaching guidebook, “Personality“, and test this for yourself!
I have discovered, throughout my years of inquiry and self-study, that our personality can shift and change. And my belief is that the trigger for this is our own personal growth (our environment probably plays a part, as well). Allow me to explain.
When I was younger, my personality tests would say I was a mix of INFP (Myers-Briggs) and Enneagram 9 (Had the Sparketestbeen around then, it might have said my primary type was Maker and my secondary was Maven).
Between 2011 and now, however, I have done a lot of personal growth work. And my quiz results now say that I am an INFJ (Myers-Briggs), and an Enneagram 5-wing-4. My Sparketypes are Maven & Advisor.
Truth be told, this change makes sense to me.
Growing up, my siblings and I lived with my mom, who is an Enneagram 9 (the peacekeeper). I also lived a very “sheltered” upbringing, and didn’t get a lot of exposure to elements of the world at large. I existed in a sort of “bubble” that consisted of family, friends, and acquaintances who all basically believed the same things, attended the same church & schools, and spoke and thought alike. As such, I feel that I displayed the personality that fit my surroundings and that I saw exemplified by my mom.
From my twenties and onward, however, I broke out of that “echo chamber”. I began to question what I’d been taught and what I believed, and I started developing my own unique perspective on the world. I also was exposed to new environments (eg. workplaces, the online sphere, entrepreneurship, etc.). And, throughout that process, I believe my personality began to shift, as well.
But here’s the interesting thing: I am starting to wonder if perhaps it isn’t so much that our personality changes. What if, more so, we aren’t getting an accurate picture of our true personality in the first place? What if, as we learn and grow over time, and as we gain more exposure to parts of the world around us, we simply become more of who we were meant to be, at our core?
The reason for my questions is that I believe God created us to be who He intended us to be. And yet, one of the goals of this life on earth is to grow… to become. So, if both of these things are true, wouldn’t it stand to reason that we only become more of who we actually are?
It would certainly make sense of why we can see a shift in a lot of our behaviors, but why certain aspects of how we behave never seem to change.
This is my theory, anyway.
What are YOUR thoughts on this? I’d love to discuss the topic with you in the comments!
I’ve long had a fascination with personality types, and I’ve taken most of the quizzes that are available. . . Myers-Briggs (MBTI), the Enneagram, DISC, StrengthsFinder, those silly BuzzFeed ones, etc. Like most people, I’m drawn to these quizzes because they give me the words that help me describe who I am, and how I interact with the world around me.
Yet, I know that these quizzes can seem like unnecessary “fluff” to some people, and there is a lot of controversy around the legitimacy of a few of them.
I don’t write this post to try and argue about whether or not these quizzes are all that accurate.
I did, however, want to share why I use them as the foundation of the work I do with my clients.
First, I know — and like to reiterate to those who work with me — that no one test will ever be 100% spot-on in describing someone. We are each as unique as our fingerprints, so these tests cannot tell us exactly who we are.
Second, I may have my clients take these tests to get their results, but that’s as far as it goes. I am not teaching anything about these quizzes (I am not a trained facilitator for any of them), nor do I dive deep into the meanings of this or that quiz result.
Third, my personal experience with personality quizzes is that, if you take enough of them, you begin to see patterns emerge. And this, right here, is exactly why my clients go through a handful of quizzes, right at the beginning of our work together!
By seeing the “bigger picture” of how you act and respond, plus your underlying motivations, we are then better able to piece together what kind of work is going to best align with who you are.
And, when you align what you do with who you are at your core, I believe you are much more likely to find consistency, clarity, meaning, and fulfillment in your day-to-day life, and you’ll know how you can serve the world in your own unique way.
Basically, you uncover your personal brand — your “special sauce”, so-to-speak.
Now, I have worked with clients in the past who really didn’t care for personality quizzes, and thought they were silly or pointless. Still, they humored me and took the tests anyway… and they ended up shocked because the results so closely depicted the way they saw themselves!
And again, I’ve gotten so much clarity and self-awareness through taking various quizzes, that I am convinced that they are a fantastic place to start.
One side note: I have also had someone take the Enneagram quiz, and then feel like God was warning her to stay away from digging any further into it. I would never want someone to go against what the Lord has told them, so I respected this gal’s wishes, and we left it alone.
However, as I mentioned previously, I’m not going to be delving into all of the meanings and uses behind these quizzes. My clients simply take the tests to get their results, and then I look it all over and use this information to help them craft a strategy and plan for the kind of work they can pursue in order to feel aligned and alive, going forward.
If you have any questions, I’d be happy to discuss them with you — drop me a comment below, or send me a message! And, if you would like to go through this self-discovery process, you can do so through my Unique Blueprint self-coaching guide.
Is this it, finally? … Or, am I just going to change my mind, again?
Ah, the struggle of the multi-passionate!
When I find a new thing — an interest, a career path, etc. — I get so excited, and it really, truly does feel like I’ve finally found “THE thing”.
But I’m clear enough, now, to know — it probably isn’t. I probably will lose interest, again, eventually. Story of my life.
And yet, if I stop to look hard enough, I can see that there are some things that stick . . . I’ve not lost my interest in everything I’ve explored. Some things managed to take hold and stay put.
So, what’s the difference?
I believe some of these things just happen to align with how I’m wired. The rest — well, perhaps that’s just due to my insatiable curiosity, and my desire to explore.
Some of the things that have stood the test of time with me include:
✔️ a love of books & reading ✔️ love of entrepreneurship ✔️ marriage ✔️ creativity & love of design ✔️ love of music & dancing
“I don’t know much. Only that I am passionately curious.”
Albert Einstein
Do you struggle to stick with things? Have you managed to find some things that do stick around, though?
“Follow Your Passion“. It’s a phrase we’ve heard over and over and over. Yet, recently, I was introduced to another view of this concept, thanks to author Elizabeth Gilbert. She has had a change of heart … and so have I.
Elizabeth Gilbert was asked to speak at one of Oprah’s Super Soul Sessions, a while back. Her topic was titled “Flight of the Hummingbird: The Curiosity-Driven Life“. This is the talk she gave:
And, because some of you may be more like me, preferring to read, over watching the video (though, I do still highly recommend you watch the video, if you have time … Liz is a great speaker!), I’ve transcribed the video for your convenience:
[Oprah gives intro] [Liz:] Sweeties! Sweethearts, my loves, we’re here, in so much grace… Thank you. Thank you so much. So listen, I’m here today to do something that, I have to be honest with you, that I never in a million years thought I would ever do. I am here today to speak out against passion. You heard me right: against passion. And I know it sounds very strange and weird, but I want you to stay with me on this. Because I really believe what I have to say here, today, may bring a measure of comfort, specifically to some of you, in particular, and I’m hoping it really will.
But I have to back up for a minute, and just say, to come clean, that I am the least likely person in the world ever to become a committed anti-passion spokeswoman. The fact is that I have led my entire life guided by passion. Particularly in regard to my work as a writer, which is a vocation I have been chasing my entire life with a love that you could call obsessive.
I can barely even remember a time before I knew that I was going to be a writer, that I had to be a writer, that I needed to be a writer, that I was going to be a writer, no matter what it took.
I was probably like 5 or 6; I was a book-loving child. And, I remember I pieced it together, at last, that books do not just magically appear out of the ether, but that people make them. They create them, from their imaginations. And that kind of person who does that, is called a Writer. And once I had that piece of information, that was it: my destiny, from that point forward, was sealed, I made my decision. And I have never veered from that passion since.
I have to be very honest with you, because it would be disingenuous of me to play at anything else: Passion has worked for me. Passion was the thing that kept me writing in the new, early years, before anybody else except me cared about what I was doing. For a long time, I made a living as a diner waitress, and a bartender. And passion was the thing that made me come home from those long shifts, smelling like other people’s French fries, with really sore feet, after a really long day at work, and then I would take off my shoes and sit down, and go to my real work. And that real work was Writing. I did that, day after day and year after year. Even when I was getting nothing out of it, except for rejection letter, after rejection letter, after rejection letter. But I didn’t care.
I didn’t love it. No one loves being rejected. But passion — my passion for writing was so big that it made me stay in the game, even through all of the obstacles. And then, finally, I got lucky enough to become a published writer. Then, in 2006, I got really lucky. I wrote this book called, “Eat, Pray, Love” — you remember that one? — and, it became really successful, much to my surprise. And as soon as that happened, as soon as I became successful, THIS started to happen… people started putting a microphone in my hand, and they would send me up on stage, and they would ask me to stand there and speak about how I had gotten there, and what I had learned.
And so, of course, the minute I had the opportunity to speak in public about the thing I cared about and believed in the most, what did I talk about? Passion. What else would it have been? There was no other subject, as far as I was concerned. Passion, to me, was everything. It was the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, the one true path, and the only way forward. And so, in audiences across the world, I would just stand there on stage and I would say some variation of this, night after night.
“You know what you have to do, every single one of you? You have to identify your passion. You have to identify that tower of flame within you that will be your guiding, purposeful light. You have to find that thing that makes you feel like your head is on fire, that makes you feel like there’s a soul revolution going on deep inside your rib cage, that makes you feel like you would sacrifice and risk everything for that thing, that nothing else matters, that thing that you KNOW you were born to do. Then you have to get every molecule of your being, and you’ve got to funnel it directly and powerfully into that thing, that one thing, and no other thing. And you’ve got to focus on that forever, and that way, and only that way, will you succeed.”
I’d be up there on stage, and I’d be quoting Vince Lombardi, and I’d be quoting Winston Churchill, and I’d be quoting Eleanor Roosevelt, and I’d be quoting Jonathan “freakin’” Livingston Seagull, and I’d be telling people that ‘if you can dream it you can be it’, and that you’ve got to ‘jump so the net will catch you’, and ‘what would you do if you knew you could not fail’, and you guys… you know all the bumper stickers, you probably have them on your car, right?
We all know these slogans. But I did it with enormous sincerity, because I really believed it. I believed that I was doing a public service by telling people that they had to live their lives exactly the same way that I had always lived mine. I preached that, because that was my fundamental truth, that was my certainty. And then, something happened.
Do you have an alter-ego — a vision in your mind of who you would like to become? Maybe you’ve made attempts to change and become that person by making lists of what you need to do to change into that version of yourself. But, what if there was a better way? What if, instead, you focused on the who, rather than the what?
Nia, at SipBlack.net, also wrote about these identity-based habits. She says:
“You need to become the kind of person who can reach those lofty goals. Be committed to embodying that individual. Then stop thinking like you, and start thinking like that other person… Create someone, if you must… If you won’t get it together, then become someone who will.”
Nia also writes:
“Reinventing yourself makes you aware of the sheer power of the mind… you can become anyone you want, do anything you want.”
So many times we try to begin with deciding to change our actions. And, while this might work for a time, many of us find ourselves falling back into the same old patterns.
Taking on a new persona, however, is based on a mindset shift… and this, truly, is key to any lasting change.
I think it’s important to remember here, that what is changing is what you do, when you do it, and how you do it. You aren’t necessarily changing your fundamental beliefs or values.
For example, my own alter-ego is someone who still holds to Christian beliefs, and values Freedom & Authenticity. However, this “better me” is someone who:
follows a daily schedule
obeys God without hesitation
eats wholesome, nutritious food 90% of the time
is capable of defending herself, if need be
is confident and secure in who she is
etc.
Basically, she excels where I often find myself lacking. In acting as though I am this other persona, I am just acting in the way I would truly prefer to be acting, anyway. In so doing, I’m leveling up!
So, if you could reinvent yourself, who would you become? What does this better version of you look like? Feel free to comment below!
I love personality quizzes! Mind you, I’ve always been very self-reflective, and I love psychology (knowing what makes people do what they do).
Either way, I honestly believe that knowing my personality type has brought me freedom. Let me show you how…
A LITTLE HISTORY
I started learning about personality types back in 1997. Florence Littauer’s books were the first to introduce me to these, and from there, I have taken several others.
THE RENAISSANCE SOUL
Margaret Lobenstine has a book called “The Renaissance Soul“, and it describes me perfectly! When I found this book, I immediately recommended it to my sister, and she, too, feels that it perfectly describes her. She and I now frequently reference this aspect of our personalities. 😉
STRENGTHSFINDER 2.0
Tom Rath’s book, “StrengthsFinder 2.0“, had a code for you to go online and take the Clifton StrengthsFinder quiz. From that, I learned that my “Top 5” are Learner, Input, Connectedness, Individualization, and Intellection.
This explained for me my love of keeping empty boxes around in case I might need them some day (Input), and my love of books & reading (Intellection / collecting knowledge!).
MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR
Through reading several descriptions online, I learned my MBTI — only to then take a quiz at 16personalites.com and have my findings confirmed. I am an INFJ (the Advocate).
ENNEAGRAM
I haven’t done enough research on this one, yet, so I don’t know enough about it. But, from the quiz I took, my Enneagram number is 7 (the Enthusiast)! [fact: The Enneagram tells you the underlying motivations for why you do what you do… whereas, the Myers-Briggs test tells you about your behaviors]. {2022 update: I’m most definitely an Enneagram 5 wing 4!}
HOROSCOPE
Generally, I tend to stay away from Astrology & horoscopes — they’re never very accurate, anyway. However, there are bits of the Sagittarius profile (my horoscope) that fit me perfectly … fiercely independent? Yep! A fiery temper? Not so much. I’m quite easy-going, in fact.
CORE VALUES
I also researched my core values, and came up with a list of my top 10 (plus a few extra). Suffice it to say, Freedom is my #1 core value, and my site has that as its overarching theme — the thread that ties all of my various interests together.
So, having done all of these quizzes (plus, a whole slew of the ones through BuzzFeed… Thanks, Facebook! LOL), I now feel I have a really good grasp of who I am, what makes me tick, and why I do what I do… especially on default/instinct, when I’m not really responding, but reacting.
LEARNING TO “SEE”
Because I know my personality type and core values, I can now see why certain jobs never fit me (mainly any of them where I work for an employer! LOL), and why I’ve acted as I have — or made certain choices — in the past. Knowing that I’m a right-brained creative, for example, shows me why the left-brained, secretarial jobs I’ve had never worked out for me (I had 3 of them in 3 years!). I was trying to force the proverbial square peg into a round hole, so-to-speak… acting in a way that was in opposition to my type.
{2022 update: I also have been diagnosed, now, with Attention Deficit Disorder, which really sheds new light on why those jobs never suited me!}
During the second of those secretarial jobs, I was super-stressed because of work, and decided to make up a list of all of the things I both loved & hated from all of my previous jobs. Doing this, plus taking into account my personality & values, I was able to make my next job a much better fit for me, even if it still wasn’t perfect. Of course, at that time, I still hadn’t realized the bit about my right-brained creative side (I knew I had it, but it’d been buried for years at that point). Therefore, I still didn’t see that secretarial jobs weren’t a fit for me. After all, I’d gone to college and had gotten a certificate in Office Administration! So, I assumed that that’s what I needed to (should) be doing! I knew that, eventually, when finances allowed, I wanted to start my own business — I didn’t know what business, yet, but I knew I wanted to work for myself. But again, finances at that time didn’t allow for that.
Well, fast forward nine months, and I found myself out of a job — again. And, being that the job market was pretty sucky (especially in the small town where I live), hubby suggested that I go through the government-run self-employment program (here in Ontario, Canada) and try starting up the business I’d told him I’d been considering (virtual assistance for authors). So, I did!
LIGHTBULB MOMENTS
Since October 2013, I have been self-employed (yay!). As previously mentioned, I’ve always had a gut feeling that I was meant to be an entrepreneur — long before I got the chance to be one! I come from a family of entrepreneurs, actually (both of my grandfathers, two of my uncles, and my sister), so I like to say “it’s in my blood!” LOL
Mind you, even my first year-and-a-half of self-employment was a learning curve. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, the “virtual assistant” thing didn’t last long, partially because it was yet another secretarial gig.
I then thought about doing Life & Business Coaching and took the steps toward that, but I realized I’d need years of training first, which I didn’t have the time or money for. So, that got set aside…
…Until now.
Four-and-a-half years into my self-employment journey, I realized that coaching really is the thing I’m meant to do with my life. I was able to look back through my journals (from the past several years), and connect the dots. And it stood out like a glaring light… Plus, it helped that I found some Life Coaching courses on sale through Udemy, which I purchased, and am working through.
FREEDOM!
The biggest thing my path has shown/taught me, though, is first, to know myself (ala Socrates), and second, to trust my intuition. All of the various versions of my “business(es)” over the last few years have been me getting an idea, trying it, feeling that something was still “off” (not quite “it”), and then pivoting to the next thing. It’s been frustrating, at times, and somewhat discouraging, too. However, I was blessed to have an amazing business coach & friend who helped me work through all of that, as well as my sister — a business-owner herself — whose business is thriving!
Another thing that helped add to my feeling of “freedom” was going to an Art Journaling class once a month, via the local library. This helped me to reconnect with my creativity.
I used to spend a lot of time doing “creative” or artsy things, but motherhood pushed that (mostly) into the background for seventeen years.
I also met some great new friends, in the last couple of years, who are musicians and creatives, themselves — which helped me to realize (after having spent time with them) that they are my “tribe”, my people… the creatives and the dreamers are with whom I feel at home.
So, be encouraged. If you still don’t know what you are meant to do, just keep experimenting. And, if you need help, you can always check out my self-coaching guides!
Do you know YOUR personality type? (Share it here! I’d love to see what mix we have!) If so, how has it helped you?
Have you ever taken those quizzes (on BuzzFeed, etc.) that tend to circulate around Facebook, promising to reveal certain aspects of your personality or character? Most of them are pure fluff. However… if you take enough of them, you begin to see patterns.
Being the “personality junkie” that I am, I can’t resist taking these silly quizzes. I’ve taken quite a number of them, actually, saving the results I get from each in a file on my computer. There seems to be at least a little bit of truth that can come out of them, to be honest.
For example, one thing I hadn’t noticed about myself, until I saw the same result pop up from multiple quizzes, is that I’m quite diplomatic.
{ DIPLOMATIC (adj.): having or showing the ability to deal with people politely (Merriam-Webster); tactful ability to avoid offending others or hurting their feelings, especially in situations where this ability is important (Dictionary.com).}
This is very true of me, though. So, no wonder it came through in the quizzes!
WHERE TO BEGIN
One of my favorite tools is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). While I know there’s a lot of controversy out there regarding the validity of this profiling, I still feel that it’s one of the most accurate I’ve come across.
Through taking the free test at 16Personalities.com, I learned that I am an INFJ(the Advocate).
A WORD OF CAUTION
I fully believe that no one test is going to be able to peg us 100%, spot-on. Reason being, we are all unique and complex individuals.
However, that being said, I think these are still highly valuable tools with which you can start getting to know yourself better!
WHY SELF-AWARENESS IS IMPORTANT
I believe that it’s important to take the time to be more self-aware, as it can help you to be better able to find what works best for you — whether that’s in your relationships, your health, your work, your hobbies, etc.
For example, by knowing that I lean heavily toward the introverted side, I know that I’m going to have to ensure that I get enough time alone to recharge, especially during busy seasons, like the week between Christmas and New Years. My hubby still doesn’t understand why I cannot do 4 days straight of back-to-back family gatherings in a row. But it’s true… I get seriously worn out and irritable, and I need time alone, in quiet, to just do my own thing, and not have to be “on”. It’s like a rechargeable battery: I need to be “put on the charger” to build back up my internal juices before I’m ready to go again!
Another example is regarding work.
Several years ago, I had just gotten out of a job that was all kinds of wrong for me, and was desperate to avoid landing in a similar position with my next place of employment. So, I sat down and made two lists: the parts of previous jobs that I had enjoyed (as well as some job “wishlist” items), and the parts of those former positions that I absolutely hated and didn’t wish to repeat. Then I took these lists into consideration while reading job descriptions in my hunt for work.
Because of this, my next position ended up being far better than anything I’d had up until that point. And I believe it’s very much thanks to my willingness to take the time to sit down and reflect on what does & does not work for me.
YOUR MOST IMPORTANT SELF
The most important part of yourself, if you’re a follower of Jesus, is your identity in Christ. By having accepted God’s gift of salvation (an eternity with Him, in heaven), you are now a daughter (or son) of the Most High God! And this changes everything.
This part of yourself is where you find your strength, power, and confidence. God inyou is the source of all these things you cannot access on your own. You have the same power in you that raised Christ from the dead — how amazing is that?
Knowing who you are in Him — that He lives through you — is hugely powerful! A true game-changer! For me, it’s given me a confidence that I have never before had, and it’s increased my self-esteem exponentially. As such, I’m far stronger, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, than I’ve ever been, and that affects all other aspects of my life.
GETTING STARTED
There are a lot of ways you can get to know yourself better. To start, I highly recommend finding out your MBTI (here). Once you’ve got that, it will serve as a good foundation from which to judge everything else.
I also really encourage you to start a journal. Write down what you learn about yourself, and how you feel about those discoveries! You’ll be able to catch patterns, over time, and as you understand yourself better, it will help you improve all aspects of your life!
To help you out, here are a few of my other favorite resources for becoming more self-aware:
