Over the past few years, I have taken a number of third party assessments online, and in some cases – been examined/evaluated in person too.
I am keeping a running tally of the various assessments I have opted into that really do span multiple Dimensions of Life or DOLs.
Today, I’m going to focus on a likely new concept that I have been playing with for nearly a year. It is focused on personality and operating assessments.
The most well known personality assessment out there is the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) assessment that characterizes personalities across a number of dimensions with finer grained assessments detailing the relationships between the 4 primary zones and some even go so far to say that there are ’shadow types’ of MBTI’s that get elicited under severe stress. I’m not going to go into MBTI here on this post, rather it is the most well known example of an assessment. This post is aimed at rounding out a concept that you probably have never heard of.
Conation
For many, conation is a new term.
Conation is concerned with how you direct your effort and take action.
This concept as an underpinning of your outward personality has proven to be exceptionally useful for me over the past year or so. Conation stated another way is mode of operation, and it’s an action-based on instinct.
Conation is how you naturally do things.
When you understand your own conation, you can gain clarity into how to get the most out of your actions.
When you have a deeper understanding of your mode of operation, you’ll be able to identify what fulfills you.
With this knowledge, your approach to delivery can be attuned to your strengths of execution. Then, by leveraging this knowledge of how you direct your action and effort – you will find life simply feels more complete because you know that you’re getting the most out of it – given your attuned approach towards getting things knocked out. Your ‘flow’ will increase.
So how the hell do you know where you stand in terms of your conative approach and pre-disposed modes of directing action and effort?
What if you have a tendency to jump right into action without even having a plan?
What if there is someone you work with or have a relationship that is way more planful?
This could cause some problems – simply because of your current wiring. This could also prompt some exceptionally cool opportunities if you find people that compliment your approach in terms of your action approach to life.
There is a third party assessment called the Kolbe Index.
The Kolbe Index has gained popularity because it’s different from other assessments and because it is useful. Unlike personality assessments, the Kolbe Index is used to determine strengths by identifying instinctive traits and action orientation. Other assessments such as Myers-Briggs will gauge how your cognitive and affective facets of your personality interplay.
Kolbe coupled with MBTI can provide you a more useful picture of not only how you think and process, but also how you operate and drive action in world.
Conation can be leveraged in a variety of other applications.
For instance, identifying your Kolbe Index opens up the door to leverage your natural instincts to be a more effective parent and enjoy better relationships. Understanding your mode of operation can increase your productivity in general, which in turn allows you to get the most out of every other Dimension of Life. I’ll be speaking to the types of DOLs in a future post and how these DOLs can build upon each other when you start working them in combination.
Leveraging your Kolbe Index can mean making big changes in your life and career.
You might be surprised to find that your conation means trying new parenting methods or going down a completely new career path. That’s the power of understanding your conation.
While the Kolbe Index isn’t as well-known as some of the more mainstream personality assessments, it’s a dynamic, game changing tool in a league of its own.
You can get a Kolbe Index done in 20 minutes or less as part of an initial assessment for yourself. The findings likely will surprise you, and they may also make some things more obvious.
Anything that can increase your level of self awareness will only help you in the long term, and it will further your ability to scale your lifestyle with a decreased amount of stress.
Possibly even becoming a bit happier?
