Expand Your Archetypal Toolkit

Archetypes are multi-faceted and multi-dimensional. They’re 360 degrees by nature. Archetypes are patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that form the stories of your life. Archetypes represent our habits, life lessons, and assignments. Archetypes can inform our soul’s purpose. Befriending our personal archetypes opens the door to our true Self, which is Sacred. Archetypes represent the roles that we play and aspects of our character…I could go on.

Even though each of your personality archetypes can do a full 360°, they are not infallible. Every task in life requires specific skills and characteristics for optimal performance. Let’s face it. Not every task at work, for example, is going to suit your personality. While you may be in a position to delegate some tasks, or to collaborate with others, sometimes you will need to draw on archetypes that are not a part of your personality. When your personality archetypes are not up to the task in front of you, then you can always recruit a fit-for-purpose archetype to tackle those random, out-of-the-box tasks.

Recruiting a fit-for-purpose archetype comes with benefits. When you recruit a fit-for-purpose archetype, that is, one whose qualities align with the demands of your task, it can lead to better outcomes.

Let’s say that you’ve identified the Alchemist as a fit-for-purpose archetype for a research and development project. The Alchemist archetype can provide you with innovative solutions. This archetype thrives in environments that encourage experimentation and ideation that can lead to groundbreaking products and services. Taking on an Alchemist mindset helps me to do this.

By strategically recruiting archetypes that align with the specific needs of the task, as a teacher, I’ve found you can enhance learning efficiency, maintain learner engagement and drive innovation.

Different tasks require diverse perspectives and approaches. By recruiting fit-for-purpose archetypes, you can tap into a wider range of archetypal narratives, strengths, and areas for development. All of which serves to enhance your creativity, intuition, innovation, decision-making and problem-solving skills.

When your personality archetypes are not up to the task in front of you, then you might ask yourself, should I be doing this? Or you could say, I’ll try the archetype on for size. Maybe I can learn something new.

By assigning a task to a fit-for-purpose archetype, you might be surprised at how well you can encourage and support, not only your own growth, but the growth of others.