You have to know what you’re working with before you can make any sort of paradigm shift in your life.

And you’ll be pleased to know that you’re already perfect for what you’re meant to do. You just have to be shown why.

Many of the other tools I endorse will create profound changes for the better. But they are not what the rest of the show rests upon.

Everything else is supported by the most obvious of strengths: what it is you’ve been proven to do, habitually, regardless of any other variable.

So, what are you doing?

You have a way of acting that is probably hidden from you

Not only is it incredibly bad to try and change your actions, it is incredibly powerful when you learn to enhance their use!

I have run through a handful of strengths tests, most of which I no longer even remember. I’ve also been professionally tested by others to understand what was wrong with me or to discern possible career paths.

Results were derived from all. Some clarified the picture or brought my attention to certain unknown aspects of my thinking, but mostly, they led nowhere.

Then I discovered the world of Kolbe Corps

The Kolbe A Index

…was the test that has had the most profound and most lasting effect on my life.

I wanted to know what actually drove me to do anything as I did. And that’s the key to all Kolbe offers.

They help you see what you’ll DO, no matter what the situation.

This is critical for you to understand. When you’re deciding anything at all, there’s:

• how you think
• how you feel
• and how you act

How you act is independent of the other two

Your wants, wishes, plans, and understanding of all means nothing. There is only how you ultimately will act.

And based on however you’ve been trained – by anyone – your thoughts and feelings will probably be out of sync with the reality of your actions.

This leads to chaos and unhappiness; lives led wrong and dreams unfulfilled.

I completed the Kolbe A Index (There’s also a ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘R’ and ‘Y’.) and saw my life in a brand new light. Nothing changed right away, but the seeds for future course correction were sown.

I’ve been pondering my personal results for 3 years now, while on other missions, with the building of this site forever percolating in the background.

When it came time to start the build of Ken’s Road Trip, I decided to reinvestigate the entire Kolbe experience on a much deeper level.

With my test results in hand as I dug, I came to understand myself and what Kolbe had to offer much better than ever before.

I am a 6481, which puts me squarely in Entrepreneur territory

That doesn’t mean I have to become a entrepreneur or that I even will. (But I am!) 😉 It just means that my test results tend to show up a lot in this career group.

Yet to my happy surprise, being a counselor is something I’ve done pretty much all my life anyhow. So, the test matched what I’d been experiencing.

What does a 6481 look like?

First, some explanatory guidelines:

• 1-3 means I WILL use this action mode predominantly
• 4-6 means I will ACCOMMODATE using this action mode
• 7-10 means I will NOT use this action mode

Now my results:

The Kolbe A Index also measure energy expenditure in each Action Mode

We each have a limited amount of energy to apply to all we do in a day. We can only give so much and then we’re empty. We won’t do anything. And if we try to go past that point, we tend to self destruct.

We also lean more toward certain strengths/action modes than others. So these modes get more of our attention and tend to be how we respond to anything under the sun.

Taken as a percentage of 100, the Kolbe A Index shows that I expend:

• 42% in Quick Start, which targets the FUTURE
• 32% in Fact Finder, which deals with the PAST
• 21% in Follow Through, which involves the PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE
• 5% in Implementor, which deals with the HERE AND NOW

Summary of how Ken acts in any situation?

I spend most of my time and energy in Quick Start, driving toward the uncertainties of the future. I am challenged by immediate deadlines, thrive on suspenseful situations, and run toward complex perplexities.

Then, my Fact Finder strength makes sure I am not wasting my time on low-priority tasks.

That’s me, alright!

But don’t take my word for it. Learn more from the master

I read these three books by Kathy Kolbe, which helped me reshape different pieces of this site and rejigger what my message was:

Conative Connection: Acting on Instincts

…gave me a deeper understanding of the Kolbe experience.

I failed you all by not taking my normal copious and highly informative notes while reading this one.

All I can say is that I had many head shaking moments with a big smile on my face as Kathy told me things that confirmed suspicions that I could never get others to agree with me on.

And she opened my eyes a number of times to ways of understanding my actions that 20 years of prior heavy consideration had not.

It’s rare that I read something that has that effect on me. This particular book did it to me dozens of times. I’ll be rereading it some months from now. I only say that about a very short list of other books. Do yourself the favor of getting this work into your head.

Pure Instinct: The M.O. of High Performance People and Teams

…was helpful but very specific to those building teams in a business setting.

This book is more suited to managerial, CEO and owner types. It’s a great resource for the hiring and promoting of employees

It focuses on specific divisions found in most companies as well as specific events that companies routinely have teams of employees navigate to reach sales goals.

There is an exhaustive array of specif M.O.s to give one a very clear idea of what to expect from whom and why in just about any corporate environment or activity.

I learned a lot but the amount of detail and my one-man operation experience had me skimming pages the closer I got to the end.

Powered By Instinct: 5 Rules for Trusting Your Guts

…turned out to be a game changer and would probably be the easiest to digest for all.

The book is written as one long conversation, which helps quite a bit with context. And you get a much better idea of what anything any of this means by seeing it through another newbie’s eyes.

There are also a number of easy exercises to do that help you understand both where you’re at and how Kolbe can help you use that info to bring clarity to your life.

Their inventory of tools is varied and large

Clicking any link on this page will get you to their site. Then root around and you’ll find corporate, personal, family and consultancy resources galore.

I’ll have a lot more to say about Kolbe as we move along. And I am still integrating my understanding of Centerpointe’s teachings with my Kolbe results, as it is an intriguing and critically important interconnection.

This will require many more posts and it will enter my conversations with all my guests and visitors to this site. Truly, people: game changing material.