One of the gifts about living at this time in history, with the technology and knowledge that we have, is the myriad ways we can understand the complexities of individual human beings. We get to see each other from a million different angles. We can dive deep into our motivations, our pasts, and what drives us as individuals. While we may push the envelope of our comfort zones, we’re also pushing our ability to engage with the world and each other in more intentional ways.
I love utilizing personality assessments and self-discovery tests to learn more about me and what I need but I also crave clarity about my loved ones, my kids, my team, and my community! And as an entrepreneur, I’ve found that when I prioritize staying curious about why humans live, speak, and create the way we do, my business benefits from what I get to learn.
A very consistent teacher and fascinating device for insight for the last handful of years for myself (and many others around the world) is the Human Design chart!
What is Human Design?
Human Design is a powerful, complex, and insightful system that combines elements of astrology, the I Ching, the chakra system, and the Kabbalah to provide a unique and personalized map of your life. Developed by Alan Krakower (aka Ra Uru Hu) in 1987, Human Design offers a deep understanding of your strengths, challenges, and optimal ways of navigating the world.
At the core of Human Design is the concept that each person is born with a unique design, a combination of traits, and energies that make them distinct. A individual’s ‘human design’ is determined by the positions of the planets at the time of their birth and is represented graphically in a body graph chart (which is so visually interesting). Once you input a few bits of your personal data, much like getting your birth chart, you can peruse a ‘map’ that outlines key aspects of your personality, relationships, and even your life path. If you haven’t yet downloaded your unique chart, you can do so for free right here!
Human Design organizes individuals into five main types:
- Generators
- Projectors
- Manifestors
- Manifesting Generators
- Reflectors
Your type determines your unique energy dynamics, strategy, and how you can best navigate life. You can go as deep as finding the best ways to support your sleep, work, and even your digestion!
Let’s dive into what the Human Design system is and 3 different ways you can use it to profoundly impact your business, your creative work, and building a more connected community of colleagues.
01) Better Your Decision-Making
The Human Design system reveals insights into your energy type, natural tendencies, and decision-making style, which can help you get a full, clearer picture on the who you’ve been. From there, you can make a better roadmap forward for where you want to go.
Your decision-making style is what Human Design calls ‘your authority‘, or the unique way you are wired to make decisions. By understanding this, you can reshape your decision-making approach to find clarity quicker and ensure your choices are aligned with your true self.
For example, if your authority is Emotional Authority, you may find it helpful to wait for emotional clarity by riding out your emotional waves before making major business decisions. This could prevent more impulsive, spontaneous, or “I just felt like it!” choices and lead to decisions that are more in tune with what you truly want.
Diving deeper into your Human Design chart can also help guide you in making decisions that align with your strengths and unpack compatibility and potential challenges in business partnerships, like making informed decisions around selecting compatible business partners!
And knowing your energy type through Human Design means also knowing when you’re working inside of your best energy… and when you’re not. This can be helpful to know when, where, and with whom to make the most clear, aligned decisions — even the small ones! Fine-tuning your ability to make moves is a powerful skill to gain as any kind of business owner or entrepreneur.
02) Enhance Your Team Dynamics
Sometimes the life of an entrepreneur can be a little isolating, so one of my biggest needs (and ways I grow myself and my business!) is making sure I intentionally integrate myself into a community of other entrepreneurial, business-building, big-dreaming people. That goes for my team AND my colleagues! I want to understand how they work and identify their unique strengths and contributions. Leveraging what you can learn from Human Design can help any kind of collaborative, creative, or team dynamic!
Different energy types in Human Design have distinct working styles. Generators may thrive in consistent, focused work, while Manifestors prefer initiating tasks and working independently. Knowing someone’s energy type and how that interacts with yours can help you know what kind of work you can do together!
And when it comes to a team, role placement, communication, and how you can support them can all be massively benefited buy knowing their energy type. It can even help you conduct better meetings, one-on-ones, and managing timelines. For instance, individuals with an undefined Throat Center may need more time to process information before expressing themselves, but someone with a defined Throat Center may excel in communication, making them more suitable for client interactions and presentations.
03) Maximize Your Time
As an ADHD-diagnosed, work-from-home entrepreneur, knowing how I spend my time and energy is vital to being able to run my business — rather than it running me. Knowing your specific Energy Type through Human Design, like whether you’re a Generator or Manifestor, will help you see your unique energy cycles.
Aligning your daily and weekly work schedule with your type’s energy cycles can optimize your productivity. For example, Generators may benefit from consistent, focused work periods, while Manifestors might find success in bursts of intense activity followed by deep, intentional rest.
By respecting your unique energy flow, you can avoid burnout and increase overall efficiency in your entrepreneurial endeavors (and life in general!) When you integrate a system of work and rest that’s based on you, and not on what the latest ‘workflow trend’ is, your work is better and your rest is deeper. In the short and longterm, your business will grow because you’re now giving yourself a better balance of energy and your business can get the best out of you.
Ever since learning about and creating better boundaries for my own work style, I can feel the difference between my old patters of burnout and recovery and what I see now as a better balance between short, focused work hours, and protected off hours. I no longer waste hours doing drained, half-focused work!
I see this benefit in my team, too. My internal energy can adapt to their external energies, which can help harness and harmonize the collective energy of a team and enhance productivity. Our workflows are all super unique (truly) but our output, numbers, and ability to surpass our goals only ever grows!
Take Human Design Insights Even Deeper
These 3 ways to leverage Human Design are just a small window into what this system can do you in your life and any parts of it! The clarity you get from learning more about yourself and others can only ever benefit how you engage with the world and the work you do in it. If your curiosity is burning for more about Human Design and other self-discovery systems and assessments, or what I like to call “where the woo meets the work,” I’ve got a few roads you can take and resources that will help you:
01) Want to learn more about Human Design? Tune into Human Design Expert, Jenna Zoe, and I chatting on this episode of the Goal Digger Podcast! With her mantra and message being “less resistance and more ease,” you’ll see why I love her approach to how Human Design can impact success!
02) Ready to become your truest self and curious about my own journey? Dive into my NY Times bestselling book, How Are You, Really?, filled with stories and guided lessons designed to teach you how to ask the better questions that help you build a vision for your life that is unapologetically true to who you are and what you want.
03) Curious about my take on manifestation as an entrepreneur? Listen in on my thoughts in this episode of Goal Digger about whether you should hustle harder or manifest more, or tap on this Goal Digger episode with Dr. Tara Swart all about the neuroscience of manifestation!
