How to Separate Passion from Pressure

[00:00:00] LinkedIn

Linkedin presents.

[00:00:08] Jonathan Fields

Hey, so I want to let you know about something, especially if you're a coach, consultant, HR pro, or leader. Through our

related research and training organization, Spark Endeavors, we've been developing next generation tools to really

help make better, easier, and more confident career decisions like the Sparketype assessment, a powerful tool that

helped well over a million people now and has generated over 50 million data points, making it one of the largest

studies on work satisfaction in the world. And as the Sparketypes have grown into this global phenomenon, coaches

and consultants, HR pros and leaders, they began asking us for help unlocking the power of the Sparketype tools and

body of work for clients and teams. So a number of years back, we created a professional level training and

certification. The certified Sparketype advisor program and enrollment is now open for the April training and for those

ICF coaches, this training also provides a whopping 40 continuing education credits. So check out the details, see if it

feels right, and apply today to save your spot at Sparketype.com slash pros, or just click the link in the show notes.

Now.

[00:01:19] Guest

How do we turn down that volume of social conditioning to reduce or even eliminate that distortion? The static, the

feedback that can interfere with our ability to accurately identify our Sparketype.

[00:01:34] Jonathan Fields

So can social conditioning or past experiences or internal pressures affect the way that we explore figuring out our

Sparketype the thing that drives and animates us when it comes to work, or for that matter, can they affect any metric

that we might look at as a way to help figure out what really drives us now? How do we potentially turn down the volume

on social conditioning or perceived expectations to really determine what our truest truths really are and express

ourselves in a more aligned way. Well, today's listener Sarah asked these interesting questions after having retaken

the Sparketype assessment about a year or so after the first time and getting results she felt was actually much closer

to who she really was. And a lot of things happened in that intervening year. She shares her experience of supporting

multibillion dollar retail businesses as the head of change management, and helping people and businesses work

through transformation. She's been the right hand to many high level execs and spearheaded big results and impact.

But like so many of us, has done so at her own expense and with a lot of burnout. And after becoming a new mom and

the depths of the pandemic, she resigned from her position. And now Sarah is at a crossroads with a solid foundation of

skills and accomplishments. And this time she wants to create a chapter of work that is more aligned with her innate

impulses, and she shares that she has achieved success in the past with Hustle and No Spark, and this time wants to

find more ease and flow and bring back the spark. And to do this, she wants a deeper understanding of her Sparketype,

especially since, having recently retaken it, she received a result that shifted. It brings her to her main question can

your past experiences, especially challenging or traumatic ones, distort your view of yourself and therefore in some way

affect the way that you might respond to the Sparketype assessment and make a shift in the results that you get? Can

social conditioning external feedback interfere with finding work and expression that is more aligned with us? And if so,

how can we reduce its impact or even eliminate it altogether? And this, of course, as the developers of not only the body

of work, but the assessment where we're always looking at it and re-examining and fine tuning.

[00:03:54] Jonathan Fields

These are questions we've been deep into as well. And on deck with me this week from the SPARKED Brain Trust to

help tease out what really matters and explore some insights and answers. Here is multi-time founder and CEO of

Jadah Sellner Media, the co-creator of the Simple Green Smoothies social and business phenom, sought after advisor

to entrepreneurs and best selling author with a new book she builds. Jadah Sellner. So quick note you'll also hear us

mention this thing we call Sparketypes in conversation. Well, what is that? Turns out we all have a unique imprint for

work that makes us come alive. This is your Sparketype when you discover yours, everything work, life, even parts of

your personal life and relationships, they just make more sense. And until we know them, we're kind of fumbling in the

dark, just like today's listener did. You can discover your Sparketype for free at sparketype.com. You'll find the link in

the show notes. And hey, if you'd like us to answer your question on an upcoming episode. You can also find a link to

submit your question to the SPARKED Braintrust in the show notes as well. Now on to Sarah's story in question. I'm

Jonathan Fields and this is SPARKED.

[00:05:07] Guest

Hi Jonathan and team. My name is Sarah. Uh, my bigger picture context. So I'm fiercely proud of the 15 year corporate

career that I've built. I, you know, was working for progressively bigger and more complex projects. I was working

globally for multiple major brands and businesses. And so what was working is that I was getting results. Right. I can

point to, you know, over my career, you know, tens of thousands of people managers experienced my trainings when I

was doing leadership development work at a at a tech company. And I've shared multi-billion dollar businesses

throughout retail ahead of change management and, you know, helping people and businesses work through

transformations. And I've been the right hand to many execs. And so I can see the results and the impact at the same

time. What isn't working is that I've done it at my own expense, and I've done it at all costs and with a lot of burnout. And

so after Covid hit and after becoming a new mom in the deep pandemic, I resigned. And now I'm at a crossroads where

I've built this foundation for myself in terms of my skills, in terms of my accomplishments at a level of knowledge or

subject matter expertise that I have. And at the same time, I'm super eager to align it with my actual Sparketype. And so

in the past, for past chapters of my career, I've had the hustle sans spark. And for this next chapter, I'm really eager to

have flow with spark, right? And to truly be aligned. And so that brings me to my question, because I so I have some

difficulty getting an accurate read of my Sparketype profile. I took the assessment over a year ago, when the SPARKED

book first came out and the results came back, that my primary is Maven with a shadow as sage.

[00:06:56] Guest

I took it again very recently, a year plus later, and my results came back. And I think this is actually a bit more accurate

for me. My primary as sage and my shadow as scientist with an anti Sparketype of advocate. And so my question for

you is around social conditioning and truly understanding and identifying our Sparketypes. Because what I suspect is

that given the level of trauma that I went through in my childhood and multiple adverse childhood experiences, and

growing up in a very controlling family and social context is that that is very much distorting, you know, my ability to

really connect in with my authentic impulses. And so my question is around how do we turn down that volume of social

conditioning to reduce or even eliminate that distortion, the static, the feedback that can interfere with our ability to

accurately identify our Sparketype. And I'd imagine there's a greater impact for people like me who have been through

trauma and situations that have significantly shaped their behaviors. You know, for survivor and an adaptive

mechanisms. At the same time, you know, we all face some level of social conditioning, right? We can all remember the

parents or caregivers that actively discouraged us from acting on certain impulses while celebrating others. You know,

we all have that shaping. And so any expertise you can share on practices, you know, how do we turn down the volume

of that social conditioning, turn up the volume of our authentic impulses? You know, you know, would be super helpful

because I'm really interested in learning my Sparketype and making sure that I build this next chapter of my career in

alignment. Thanks so much and take care.

[00:08:46] Jonathan Fields

Got us down there. This is such a fascinating question, and there are so many other things that are sort of like that.

Weren't that primary question that are so interesting also that I know are directly in your wheelhouse. Also, that whole

idea of like having built a really successful 15 year career, but that was really misaligned with sort of like the essence of

of who you are, but but still being really successful at it and then feeling the burnout. And then she mentioned

something. You speak directly to this notion of hustle and hustle culture and how it affects us. So maybe let's sort of like

split this into a couple of different conversations. One, you know, sort of like the core conversation around like, how do

we figure out what is like our true essential nature, and we can talk about it in the context of the Sparketypes. Sure. But

I think we can also just talk about it more broadly in the context of how do we figure out what lights us up, how do we

figure out what wakes us up in the morning? How do we figure out what gives us that feeling? And Sarah brings up

some really interesting and I think important questions around, you know, that range from how does social conditioning

factor into it? How does expectations, how does perfectionism, how does past life trauma factor into your ability to get

clear underneath all of that? Who actually am I? And I know this is also something that you spend so much time diving

into personally, like in your own life, and also like working with and advising so many other people. So tell me what's

floating around in your head with with these questions and ideas?

[00:10:18] Jadah Sellner

Yeah, well, I think what's really beautiful is Sarah acknowledging that she's really proud of the body of work that she's

built and something that was in there that she's asking for practices, but she's actually already implementing some

really great ones, which was she was able to identify what's working, here's what's working. And then she was also able

to name. Here are the things that are not working. So that is already tuning in to your own voice, your own selfawareness.

Introspection. Reflection. The biggest thing is what do we do with that information when we have those

answers? And it's to be able to double down on the things that are working and to be able to stop, decrease, eliminate

the things that are not. And so and she mentioned projects a lot, which I thought was really cool. And, you know, with

the scientist and, and all of those pieces. So there's the experimentation that is part of us really connecting to our true

nature and what sparks and lights us up. So that constant reevaluating, and I think we're all in this season that has

accelerated us needing to reexamine what is lighting us up, what is sparking us. Also, Sarah mentions that her life has

changed, right? She's transitioned for that from that corporate company. She's a mom. Like all of those things invite

that that we need to reevaluate what really matters. And she's saying, hey, I love my work. I want to do work that lights

me up, but I don't want to do it the hustle way. I don't want to compromise myself, my well-being, my relationships in the

process and just being able to name that out loud and say that now you have an intention of, I want to build something

meaningful, and I want to also have time to make meaning in my personal life with the people that I love. And so, as she

says yes and no to opportunities and invitations, that lens has to be there. That being a mom matters to me. And also

building my body of work matters too. And they need to be congruent and aligned with each other.

[00:12:27] Jonathan Fields

Yeah. I mean, so resonant, I think on so many levels. And I think for so many people, especially over, you know, since

this last 2 or 3 years, I think even a lot of folks who kind of felt like, you know, I'm kind of like going along on cruise

control, like got everything, like relatively figured out. Everything got turned upside down, you know, and some

sometimes in a really bad, scary way sometimes, I mean, she became a mom. Like, how wonderful and amazing and

beautiful is that? And at the same time, of course, becoming a new parent is there are a lot of challenges that go along

with that, a lot of reexamination and a lot of exhaustion that tends to go with that as well. And I feel like we are in this

moment, and Sarah is sort of like framed it so beautifully, where so many things are coinciding to create the perfect

storm of both disruption but also introspection, curiosity and potentially revelation. And then like figuring out, okay, so

what is being revealed and what is that leading me to? And as as you pointed out, part of her question was about like,

how do I how do I really understand what is what are those deeper drivers for me? But you also, like pointed out the fact

that she's already figured out a whole bunch of really clear answers around the larger context of how she wants to bring

herself to whatever she does. So I'm glad that you that you pulled that out, that you teased that out and acknowledge

and celebrate that, because that alone is huge. I think so many of us don't give the the attention or the value to how

important, like really understanding the broader context and culture of the way that you want to step into anything that

you say yes to in the future is and how it how it potentially affects you, both positive and negative.

[00:14:00] Jadah Sellner

Yeah. And I want to speak to that piece around the social conditioning of kind of the wider context of, oh, this is how I

want to build something, but the world is saying that I need to build it this way in order to be successful. Also, what

happens in that social conditioning is that we start to compare ourselves to our past selves. And I think that this could

be the case with Sarah of I had this much stamina before I was a mother or I was able to build and create and serve.

And she talked about results and impact and just being able to see all of that. And when our priorities shift and change,

when the seasons of our lives change, then our pace also changes. Our capacity, our time, our energy, our resources

are being reallocated. And so we have to be super compassionate with ourselves when that happens. Because now

she's got double duty, right? In motherhood and in her career. And so really the social conditioning can be coming from

the outside, but it can also be coming from within that she could be comparing her past self to her current self, of what

she's able to actually commit to and take on. I know Charlie Gilkey, our great friend and part of the Brain trust, talks a lot

about this, of the capacity for the projects that we can take on. And so for me, something that I like to subscribe to is

giving ourselves permission to be a slow cooker and not a pressure cooker.

[00:15:38] Jadah Sellner

So that is a shift from the hustle way that sacrifices your your wellbeing, your life into a more anti-hustle way of being so

that you can build something, have that exhilaration, but also do it in a more sustainable way. So I like to think of I don't

know how many of you have pressure cookers, but we have one at home. It's very complicated. There are all of these

buttons and there's the burn notice. There's just so many options, and then there's the steam that needs to be released,

and it's really intense. Like we have to put like a wet a cloth on top of it to kind of like tame it down and you get

something really quick and you have a nourishing meal, you know, in like one hour or less. And then with a slow

cooker, you have two options. It's like four hours, eight hours, which one? And then you walk away and let things

simmer, and it takes much more time to get the same result of a nourishing meal. But neither is is wrong or right. It's

just an option. And so if you're wanting to get off that hustle train to start to embrace the slow cooker way of being and

knowing that you are not moving as fast as you used to, you're still going to get the same results, but you're not going to

see them as quickly as maybe you have in the past. And that's okay. To just extend the timeline of your ambition and

your dreams coming to fruition.

[00:17:05] Jonathan Fields

Yeah, I love that. And it's a great invitation for anybody to just breathe a little bit. Um, so many of the answers that are

really valuable to us, whether it's the question that we're talking about right now or like almost anything, that is a deeply

meaningful point of curiosity for us, there are two ways that we can actually come to like new insights or new

realizations or two ideas, like two broad ways. One is analytically and the other is is through insight. Like the analytic

way is sort of like where you can literally say, here's the formula, here's the set of data, here's the process I use to get to

the answer. And that's the thing where people are used to being being able to sort of like say, okay, so heads down, let

me push through the scientific method through the process, analyze all the data, gather more data, do more stuff. And

I'm going to get to that answer. And there. And we tend to have some level of control over how slowly or quickly we can

push through a fairly well defined analytical process to get to the answer that we want. And sometimes those are really

powerful and necessary answers. And sometimes there is legitimate urgency that says like, do the thing. The other way

that we get to the answer is through insight. And insight is different in that these are the moments where somebody sort

of like an idea, a solution, like the answer to a big, complex question literally drops into your orbit and you know, you're

walking down the street one day and you're like, literally this thing that I've been trying to figure out for years.

[00:18:28] Jonathan Fields

The answer just came to me. I wasn't thinking, I wasn't trying. Insight based solutions are generally things where you

cannot track the process through which they came in any kind of linear, analytical or replicable way. And the interesting

thing is, the data that I've seen shows that insight based solutions tend to be the more powerful paradigm shifting, you

know, like course changing solutions. And those tend to happen exactly to your point, when we work really hard and

then create space. Yeah. And just step back when we sort of like pulse and pause and like we go and like we work hard

and then we just create intentional space for the answers to just come. And that almost always takes time and space

and peace of mind. So we need to build that into the process. So I'm not actually suggesting that Sara or anybody

listening to this like just choose one or the other. But these are these different modes of problem solving and know that

we can lean on both of them, and often they both have value and they add to the process.

[00:19:36] Jonathan Fields

But building space for answers to simply come in a way that you might not understand, but your brain has been working

on in a lesson conscious way in the background, creating the space for all of that, and to also sometimes slow down

because it requires space, it requires a gentler pace for that often to emerge. I want to make sure that we do address

Sarah's question around, sort of like the more central point to which is, okay, so how do I get a beat on what that

deepest impulse is for me? When I wake up in the morning to work and know that what I do is going to be meaningful

and purposeful and joyful and energizing and exciting. And it's not just a reflection of some sort of social conditioning or

past experience, potentially including trauma. And, you know, this is a question that's come to me in various different

ways over the years in the context of the Sparketypes. And so a couple of things that I would share around this one,

when we developed the the assessment itself and the language around the assessment, you know, we took a lot of

care to try and develop language. That was what we call longitudinal meaning. It is it's looking back over like a really

long perspective in time. And we're trying to identify states that tend to exist on almost a more primal level rather than a

learned level.

[00:20:55] Jonathan Fields

So we try and address that to a certain extent, in the fundamental way that we put together the questions in the

assessment. That said, every assessment, every typing methodology, we are all limited by two really big constraints,

whether it's us, Myers-Briggs disc, you know, like strengthsfinder all sort of like the major indexes. We're always

constrained by these two big things. One is the depth and quality of experience that somebody brings to the moment

they take the assessment. And the second is the level of self-awareness that somebody brings to the prompts and to

the questions at the moment that they take the assessment. Those things can and do change over time, especially in a

moment like we've been in where a lot of people have literally been shaken deeply to reexamine a lot of past

experiences, a lot of like what made them, what made me, me. A lot of, you know, is this the real me, or is this the me

that I've been living up to through others expectations and what I found? I'm curious whether you've seen this in people

that you've worked with too. Is that a huge amount of external, expectation based living and identity formation has been

shaken loose over the last few years. People have gotten to the point where they're like, you know, like life is.

[00:22:17] Jonathan Fields

Life is. It's tender. It's fragile. It's sometimes short. And I realized that I have been living into other's expectations and

other's conditioning, um, and potentially into, like, trying to keep myself safe based on past experiences. And I'm just

not okay doing that anymore. And there's a level of of deeper discovery and questioning and self-awareness of a

deeper set of, like, true identifiers and impulses and drivers that I've seen emerging. And I would invite people to really

embrace that process, honor it. You know, there's there's a level of truth that I think a lot of folks have been mining,

sometimes intentionally. Sometimes it's just been like, they've been dropped into that place. Yeah, that's revealing

things. And, you know, I think it's a really it's a powerful and important moment. And and I would invite, like Sarah and

anyone else who's sort of like moving through that to say, say yes to it. Like, if you need help moving through it, please

get help moving through it. Yeah. Not everyone is equipped with the skills or resourced in a way where you can do it

yourself, but it's an important and a powerful process. So I think part of what's gone on over the last few years is there's

been an organic disruption that has led to a level of self-inquiry and self-discovery and revelation. And and like Sarah's

been listening to that, it sounds like.

[00:23:44] Jadah Sellner

Yeah. And I like that you mentioned the safety piece, because a part of our trauma response is to build that sense of

safety and trust. And so you're in that survival instinct. And when you can actually start to ask the deeper, more

insightful questions, that means that you've been able to build trust and safety within your own self, your own world, to

to get curious about what those answers might be. And I think what you said is creating the space to listen and usually

what that looks like. It's actually very hard when our lives are very full and busy and there's a lot of commitments, but

even just having an unstructured day, like on a Saturday or a Sunday where you don't put any commitments on your

calendar, where you have to show up and be somewhere, ideally, it'd be great if you could have a sabbatical or go on a

retreat or different things like that, but sometimes it might just be a day in your week. And I know that that is when my

my inner voice gets a lot louder, when there's not structure of places where I have to show up or be on or respond or

react to. So and I know that can also be hard if you are a caregiver. But if you can, you know, do a childcare swap or do

something where you can just have your home to yourself or or somewhere to just listen and and things without you

having a plan or a to do list. Having a journal and a pen next to you just to see what just comes out of you. My best

doodles, ideas, revenue, anything that I'm like sitting questioning on if I give myself unstructured, unscheduled day. A

lot comes up in those moments and seasons to get curious. I'm also curious if you have a practice to create that space,

to listen to your authentic voice and truth that's not coming from outward expectations.

[00:25:45] Jonathan Fields

Yeah, I love that you just mentioned journaling because I've been somebody who my whole life I've been like, I know so

many people who journal and it's so helpful to them. And I've never been a journaler until I took a creative sabbatical a

couple of months back. And and I journaled through most of it. I journaled 10,000 words, which was purely reflecting on

my experience of being sort of like stepping away and having more space and being less structured and all the stuff that

was coming up through it. I'm like, I'm like, oh, this journaling thing, there's something to it, actually. It was really helping

me process. And while I'm not going to be very likely a sustained daily journal or like I've sort of fallen into like a couple

times a week type of mode, and I find that super valuable. And then two other practices like, to me, there are three

things that I think are two of them have been like years long touchstones for me. And journaling, I think is going to be a

third a third addition to it. One is a daily mindfulness practice. It is, for me, the most powerful practice that I have found

to allow me to start to see myself, the world around me, the way that I relate both to myself and to others more clearly.

Mindfulness practice doesn't fix anything or solve anything. What it allows you to do is see more clearly, to get closer to

reality, to get closer to the capital T truth. Your capital T truth, then you have to, like, figure out what to do with that.

[00:27:11] Jadah Sellner

Yes.

[00:27:12] Jonathan Fields

So it is a a revealing and clarifying practice. It's sort of like it's a practice where it's, you know, it, it clears the muddy

water. Um, then you, then you see what's there. Yeah. That is incredibly powerful. And also, for me, nature, regular

immersion in nature. There's something that happens to me when I'm just out in nature, whether it's walking down the

block with a whole bunch of trees, you know, like, I'm incredibly privileged right now to be living in a place where, you

know, I'm in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, I can be walking in, in completely immersed in nature in a matter

of minutes. But even when I was living in New York City for 30 years, you know, in, I would walk three blocks and be in

Central Park or I'd walk two blocks the other way and be walking along the Hudson River, because I knew what it did to

inform me. Um, so those three things a mindfulness practice, regular immersion in nature, even if it's city based nature

or just like being around it. And, um, the much newer experience around journaling. Um, there, I found that to be super

powerful for me. What I mean, beyond journaling for you, what what have been practices that you found really useful?

[00:28:26] Jadah Sellner

Yeah, I for me, I'm you know, I've said this before, but I'm a verbal processor. So for me, having a community of people

that really get my heart understand my values and what I care about, what matters is very important. Important for me

to have what I call my support squad. And so it's like I have my life coach and my therapist that I can verbally process

with and complain and vent and all the things, and then also get back into a more empowered place of of thinking, but

just being able to share out loud what it is I'm struggling with, what I'm sitting with, what's a question? And I have really

great friends who don't give me answers even though I'm like, can I please have the answer key? Please, please. So

really being able to share those pieces and have it reflected back to me what they are hearing has been a very helpful

practice for me. I've been playing with walking meditations, which has been really cool. Um, I think it's called Street

Wonder. Um, basically where you're walking and sitting with a question.

[00:29:30] Jadah Sellner

I know we've done this on one of your retreats many years ago where you just sit with a question and walk with it and

let the signs and the things that you see, whether you're in an urban city or in nature, what comes as you sit with that

question. And that's been very helpful for me to just listen to my feet on the gravel or the grass. And that just awakening

my senses has, has been really a new practice that's been really fun for me to to walk and to listen and that's it. Like

just to sit with the question and listen. So I would say the verbal processing with friends, a coach, a therapist as a verbal

processor has been very helpful for me. Walking meditations, sitting with a question or standing and walking with a

question to listen to those answers. And then, yeah, just the unscheduled, unstructured day in a week is very helpful for

me to then just have a pen and journal nearby to see what starts to, to come out and what I start to, to doodle.

[00:30:34] Jonathan Fields

Yeah, I love that. And I do want to circle back to, um, Sarah's experience also in having so part of what she shared was

like she took the Sparketype assessment originally, um, and then about a year or so later after, like all of these major,

major shifts and changes in her life, she took it again. So what's interesting to note is that something inside of her said, I

have been through some major things, some major disruptions, major amazing graces and blessings. But I sense that

something in me has changed or shifted, or my level of experience, the depth and quality of my experiences, and my

level of self-awareness and self-inquiry may have shifted on a level where I feel compelled to go back and explore this

assessment again and see if maybe it's going to tell me something that feels closer to to what feels real and true to me.

That alone, I think, was a really powerful impulse that she followed. And what's fascinating to me is that what came out

of that is that she then did the assessment again, sort of like coming to it from this drawing upon a different level of, of

self-awareness and experiences. And she came up with the scientist and the very fact that she went back to do this,

she had a new question that she then has been like going deep into trying to deconstruct. How do we tease out the

difference between conditioning, between sort of like innate expression, stuff like this that she then, like, came to us

and wanted to ask this question, which is like, these are all powerful scientists behaviors. Yes. You know, like the

scientist is all about deep into burning questions, complex problem solving, figuring the thing out. Like, I think just

literally like her, what she's doing in the process of coming to us and like pursuing and exploring and going back and

saying, like, let me figure this out more is probably pretty strong reinforcement that, like this, it sounds like this is pretty

close to like the essential nature of who she is.

[00:32:30] Jadah Sellner

And she also said this one resonates with me more like she felt that in her knowing that this feels more aligned with

what? What lights me up.

[00:32:40] Jonathan Fields

Yeah. And and we always tell folks who ask us, you know, like, how do I know this is true and real? And it's sort of like,

listen to like, how are you responding to it?

[00:32:50] Jadah Sellner

Yeah.

[00:32:51] Jonathan Fields

You know, if if you take the assessment and you're like, okay, whatever, it could still be very real. But like we like, I'm

always if you have any question, I'm always somebody who I tend to get very visceral, intuitive, um, hits about about

things. And I think most people do. We just tune them out. Yeah. And I to me, like when you like somebody says it feel

this feels right. That to me is a huge sign. Like the other thing is, like any other of the major assessments, it's

impossible to create one single tool that is 100% right for 100% of the people, 100% of the time, it just doesn't exist. So

we have done some some research in the past. We're going to do an update of this soon that showed about 92, 93% of

folks who take the assessment share with us that is anywhere from very to extremely accurate, which is fantastic.

Yeah. You know, and then if you fall in that 7 or 8% of people where you're kind of like wondering then like, do what

Sarah's doing, keep questioning like, like borrow the book from your library and go through chapter by chapter, the

descriptions of each type and see on a deeper level what really resonates with me. Like, does this feel like it's really

speaking? Am I getting a physical or emotional or intuitive reaction to this? You know, explore deeper. If you're a verbal

processor, like you were saying, like talk to others like take the assessment. Um, have have somebody who really

knows you or like somebody else do it. Also both borrow the book or take the book out from the library and read it, like

together and then talk it through.

[00:34:14] Jadah Sellner

Yeah.

[00:34:15] Jonathan Fields

Um, and I think these can be really good processes for figuring these things out and, and always acknowledging that,

you know, if you, if you take the assessment once and then a year or two later, you take it again and you get a slightly

different result. It's not necessarily that this impulse has changed. It's much more likely, in my mind and my experience

that you have simply your your depth and quality of experience, your level of self-inquiry, self-discovery and selfawareness

has shifted in a meaningful way in the interim. And very often, it's in a way that allows you to get closer to

what the real answer is for you.

[00:34:49] Jadah Sellner

Yeah. And giving yourself permission to lean into that natural impulse, because I think a part of that social conditioning

is like, oh, I'm not allowed. I shouldn't, that's not. And when you remove some of those social structures and really just

tuning in to your own truth, then that's where the answer comes.

[00:35:09] Jonathan Fields

Yeah. I love it. So Gretchen Rubin is an old friend of mine. She has this other fantastic assessment called The Four

Tendencies, which is about how we meet our expectations. And I remember taking it once and it came up as the

questioner and and then I took it again and it came up as the questioner, and then I and then I texted Gretchen and I

said, you know, I took this twice, and I don't know, I'm just not sure if I'm a questioner. She literally responded, she's

like, dude, reread your text.

[00:35:37] Jadah Sellner

Yes, yes. You're questioning the questioner, right?

[00:35:42] Jonathan Fields

So it's sort of like that, which is why I like reflecting back with Sarah in particular. Like literally like this whole thing that

she's exploring right now is sort of like, it's almost like checking every box of like a scientist shows up. So super fun,

super powerful. Jada, as always, so grateful for your your wisdom, your heart, your input. And Sarah, I hope this

conversation was useful for you and anyone else who's also just trying to to figure out, you know, like, like, how do I

understand me on a deeper level so that I can feel more confident or like resourcing that and taking action behind it

and building around that? Any final thoughts before we sign off for today?

[00:36:16] Jadah Sellner

I just have this beautiful vision of people gathering around with Sparketype, like the Spark book and just having these

conversations by a cozy fireplace and and reading yours out loud and hearing other people's. That's just kind of the

vision that landed with me. And I just thought that was a beautiful one that I wanted to share. So. Sarah, invite some

friends and everyone share their Sparketype.

[00:36:41] Jonathan Fields

I love that, and it's so funny you said that, um, in some of the beta early work that we were doing, we had somebody

who was in our community who was is leading women's retreats, who is sort of like doing some grounded theory based

or like applied testing with these ideas. And she was she was bringing women on retreat and actually doing exercises

very similar to that with sharing. And she shared such powerful, powerful experiences with us when she was doing this.

So, yeah, the idea of sharing and just intimate circles is something that I think can be super both really fun and

rewarding and powerful too. As always everybody. Jada, thanks so much, everybody. Thanks for listening and we will

see you back here next week. Take care. Hey, so I hope you enjoyed that conversation. Learned a little something

about your own quest to come alive and work in life, and maybe feel a little bit less alone along this journey to find and

do what sparks you. And if you'd love to share your own moment and question with us, we would love to hear from you.

[00:37:42] Jonathan Fields

Just go ahead and click on the submissions link in the show notes to get the details on how to do that. And remember, if

you're at a moment of exploration, looking to find and do or even create work that makes you come more fully alive, that

brings more meaning and purpose and joy into your life. Take the time to discover your own personal Sparketype for

free at sparketype.com. It'll open your eyes to a deeper understanding of yourself and open the door to possibility like

never before. And hey, if you're finding value in these conversations, please just take an extra second right now to

follow and rate SPARKED in your favorite podcast app. This is so helpful in helping others find the show and growing

our community so that we can all come alive and work in life together. Until next time. I'm Jonathan Fields and this is

SPARKED. This episode of SPARKED was produced by executive producers Lindsey Fox and Me, Jonathan Fields.

Production and editing by Sarah Harney. Special thanks to Shelley Adelle for her research on this episode.