You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself.
 - Alan Alda

Who am I? Where do I fit in? What is my purpose? In my own search for answers to these profound questions, I have absorbed tomes of enlightenment into my pores like steam.  Nietzsche, Jung and Grimm’s Fairy Tales round out my psyche. Over the years I’ve taken numerous tests: Myers Briggs to gage my strengths, likes and interests; Rorschach to assess my personality. 

During the Rorschach exam a psychologist or some other therapist place cardboard cards with ink blots on them in your hand and you have to tell them what each inkblot represents. Some experts believe this test is one way to get into the deepest recesses of the patient's psyche or subconscious mind. Curiously, many of the ink blots reminded me of food. Although black, I swear many blots looked like pieces of chicken. While the cards that had various colors of ink in the blots reminded me of German Chocolate cake. I can’t imagine what that said about me. However, after the exam I went to Chick-fil-A and purchased a 12-pack of nuggets and to Wendy’s for a Frosty. My therapist I suspect had Scotch.

I have and still make Life Lists that have included things like writing a book, mastering the perfect pound cake and buying shoes. Once an item is completed, I check it off. Having mastered the perfect pound cake, I have added another challenge. Written and published a book, bought new shoes: been there, done that. 

I’ve embraced Feng Shui. The only picture of me and my spouse together now resides in the relationship corner in the bedroom. I’ve yet to purge all unnecessary household items or repositioned my couch to attract positive energy.  Alas, Rome was not built in a day. Recently I acknowledged my inner-child, but I think I hurt her feelings by not letting her borrow my new shoes.

Business Tools like The Birkman Method® have proven useful in both personal as well as personnel assessments. Organizations are using it to streamline hiring, establish job fit, reduce turnover, improve retention and resolve other challenges. 
Its Life Style Grid, an important component of the tool is divided into 4 color quadrants; red, blue, yellow and green, and provides information on activities that interests you, shows your style of interaction and examines your needs, actions and behaviors.

Studying the grid, I determined that I’m “green.” Green People are people oriented, outgoing and focused on feelings. They are communicators, so careers like social services and writing are natural choices. Counseling, sales and teaching are also interests of green people (all careers I have enjoyed). Who knew?

Alas, a person’s self-discovery can take years (and often thousands of dollars) in therapy to truly understand him or herself at the deepest core. Thus, my search continues. To paraphrase a famous saying, “I am not there yet, but I will be.”