Two Fridays ago, I went on a pretty cool assignment. My job was to go experience No Agenda Day, a once a month retreat at a local private retreat house that is set up in a way that allows participants to do whatever they want as a personal retreat in a beautiful setting. What I wanted was to work on a book project, read, and meet with a business/life coach. Mission accomplished. One of the most interesting parts of the day was getting the results to the Paths Element profile, a quiz I did to determine which one of four elements– earth, water, wind, and fire- am and how that impacts what I do and how I do it. When I initially heard about each element, I could see how there was something about that one that was true for me. I’ve bolded the things I identified with for each one below.
Earth: EARTH tends to do particularly well in accomplishing tasks and getting results. Motivation is based on a desire for an orderly process that leads to accuracy. Likes to stay focused in order to “get it right.” Tends to move slowly and good at maintaining projects. An Earth’s behavioral style reminds us of the traits of Earth: steady, predictable,foundational, solid, secure. Earth’s strengths include stability, predictability, a sense of the long term, grounding, and orderly movement. Earth’s challenges include a tendency to be stubborn, being unyielding and locked into old ways of doing things, and an unwillingness to move.
Water: WATER is sensitive to the needs of people and enjoys building lasting relationships in which it can play an encouraging and supportive role. Motivated by stability and harmony A Water’s behavioral style reminds us of the traits of Water: reflective, transparent, life-giving, easy-going, capable of “going with the flow”. Water’s strengths include its vitality, life-giving properties, flexibility, and easygoing nature. It brings balance, is a problem solver, finds solutions, seeks harmony, and is a team player. Water’s challenges include its tendency to quickly lose its identity in others and to absorb without discrimination the good and the bad. It has difficulty saying no. It is a people pleaser, can become stagnant without an outlet, and takes on the toxins around it.
Wind: WIND is also motivated by interaction with people but prefers a fast and changing pace. Initiators who enjoy networking with others in order to get things done and gain attention. Thrive in variety. A Wind’s behavioral style reminds us of the traits of Wind: restless, unpredictable, invisible, quick to move, needs to see things in motion. Wind’s strengths include spontaneity, energy, forward motion, and the ability to supersede all boundaries. It is the element most capable of moving all others. Wind’s challenges include restlessness, unpredictability, and impulsiveness. It loves to stir things up and then leave. It is invisible and hard to pin down. It doesn’t weigh the consequences of its actions, and it has trouble following through and focusing for long periods of time.
Fire: FIRE is motivated to undertake challenging tasks in order to get results. Seek power and control in order to achieve their goals. Tends to move quickly and enjoy initiating projects. Fire’s behavioral style reminds us of the traits of Fire: hot, passionate, all-consuming, uncompromising, gives itself 110% to the task at hand. It has no fear of confrontation. Fire’s challenges include the tendency to burn out quickly and the inability to set its own boundaries. It can destroy as well as purify, it may lack social skills, it may be unbalanced, and it may be insensitive to others’ needs and weaknesses.
So, anyway, I was curious as to which element would end up being my guiding force since I couldn’t figure it out for myself. Well, wouldn’t you know it that it turns out that I am a fusion– a representative of all of the elements and, as it turns out, a perfectly balanced fusion– I scored 49, 51, 50, and 51 points on the different elements.
Here is just a tiny bit of what my profile report said about me as a Fusion:
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You have ability to adapt yourself to work well in almost any environment. You are versatile and can be a solid team player, able to tap into many of the strengths (and experience some of the challenges) of each style as situations require. |
This doesn’t give me the clean-cut insight I was hoping for but it does explain a lot about my personality and inner monologue. I’ll use the rest of the report to help me better understand my tendencies (and to try to outsmart them!) as I work and live.
So, given what I’ve shared above, what do you think your element is? And if you are interested in finding out for sure, check out the web-site to learn more.
