For over a decade I’ve been intrigued with psychometrics and personality profiling tools. They can be so valuable for gaining insight into who you are and what motivates you.

However, at times they can also make you feel that you’re ‘labelled’ or ‘put in a box’.  And sometimes, (a bit like going to see a recruiter when you want to change career), they aren’t so helpful in opening doors to new possibilities, which in turn, can make you feel stuck. Particularly if you want to do something different!

So when I came across Human Design a few years ago, it really piqued my interest.  Unlike psychometric assessments, which are typically based on your responses to a set number of questions, your Human Design is based on your date, place and time of birth. 

This means that the results aren’t impacted by how you’re feeling at the particular time and day that you submit your response, as is possible with a traditional psychometric.  Additionally, you can’t manipulate the answers…no judgement here, but it is possible that you respond to psychometric assessments based on how you desire to be, even unconsciously, as opposed to how you really are.

I’m aware that hearing the combination of date, place and time of birth might set off some alarm bells, or at the very least, curiosity for some.  This type of tool is most definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but what I will say is that during my accountancy career, my exams covered professional scepticism! I’m not into anything that doesn’t have practical, grounded application, and I like to study things deeply and obtain my own evidence. Which I have. And I also encourage you to do your own investigating.

What is Human Design?

Human Design combines four modalities of ancient wisdom – The Chinese I-Ching, Western Astrology, The Chakra System and The Kabbalah along with quantum physics. Together, this produces what my friend Mel describes, as a ‘weird looking guitar’.  See picture below. This chart is also known as your ‘Bodygraph’.

The shapes on a Bodygraph correlate with the Chakra System, the planetary glyphs down either side correspond with Astrology, the lines are where the Kabbalah comes in (connecting the shapes), and the numbers are from the Chinese I-Ching. The connection to quantum physics, according to Human Design, is because neutrinos (subatomic particles) imprint us with specific information at birth, which it theorises, defines who we are. I’m not a quantum physicist, and as far as I can see there hasn’t as yet been hard evidence to validate this claim, however, I’ve found the chart speaks for itself in terms of evidence.

If you’re looking at the image of the Bodygraph below feeling a little bamboozled, don’t worry, I’ve got you. Even without going fully down the rabbit hole like I have, you can gain transformational results merely by following what’s called your ‘Strategy’ and ‘Authority’. 

Strategy and Authority

Using your specific ‘Strategy’ is how you can best attract opportunities into your life.  And your ‘Authority’ is how your energy is best used to make decisions. 

For instance, you might be someone who can rely on gut decisions, someone who needs to take more time to make decisions, or you might rely on your intuition. The inference is that if you don’t make the most aligned decisions for you, things might not run as smoothly in your life as you hope they might.

This is where it gets contemplative. Your Bodygraph will give you this information or knowledge and then you have to experiment and see what is true for you. And if it works, which is the case for me, and many who I have now worked with, it provides a useful tool to approach life and work.  This is why I love the practicality of the system versus a psychometric.

How Does it Relate to Career?

You can also look at your career through the lens of Human Design to help you gain insight into your purpose and how you want to move forward - what your strengths are, what other people are drawn to in your energy, and what’s your path of least resistance.

If you’re making decisions that aren’t aligned with your Strategy and Authority, you might feel like things are hard work, or that nothing is going right. Conversely, and this is the experiment that Human Design invites us to, if we operate according to our Strategy and Authority things feel more aligned and in flow, like they happen without resistance. 

It doesn’t mean that we won’t face challenges, but when we do, we’ll be able to move through them more gracefully and with more ease.

It shows us our ‘not self’ themes which could be anger, resentment, frustration, or disappointment and that acts as an indicator to make us conscious of the moments we need to course correct. 

It helps us understand where we might be prone to burn out and working too hard, or where we do or don’t have the natural willpower to keep on going.  It tells us if we might be caught up in proving our worth to others or be overly influenced by the ideas and energies of those around us.

And it’s not surprising that when you hear parts of your chart read back to you, that you feel some sort of resonance for something that you already knew somewhere deep inside, but that you’d never put words to. Or like someone has held up a mirror in front of you, “my chart really says that?! I’ve been talking to my therapist about that for 13 years!”, said one client.

All of this from your birth date, place and time of birth?!  Yes. 

This is why I’m now using Human Design as a tool in my coaching business, for those who are open to explore the modality, it can provide practical soul-guided insights that a psychometric just can’t.

If you’re curious to know more, book your Human Design coaching session with me here!