Here are your results
Your Primary Drive Is:
Significance
Never one to risk wasting your time, talents, or the opportunities that come your way, you have a strong sense of purpose and conviction. You are always filled with ideas and methods to help innovate; this leads others to either be drawn to your confidence and energy or somewhat intimidated because they feel like they can’t keep up. Knowing your “why” has never been an issue which leads you to be someone who wants to get busy making things happen now, even if you know you aren’t as ready as you’d like to be at the present moment.
Those who don’t know you well may consider your desire to accomplish your goals and willingness to challenge the status quo as impatience, greed, or hubris. In truth, you are merely remaining steadfast in doing what you believe will make the most significant difference. You value doing the common things in life in an uncommon way and will go to great lengths to make even the smallest moments memorable. You genuinely believe that all people are unique and that while serving others is critical, you can’t do so at the highest level without maximizing your abilities and the value you can provide.
Strengths
- Visionary: In many regards, the flow of ideas never stops for you. Your mind finds inspiration in the smallest bits of information as you perceive things in a deeper way than most. This further ignites your passion for your work and pushes you to create at a pace others would find daunting.
- Willpower: You don’t just set ambitious goals, you achieve them. For you, there is always something in the works which means you are constantly stretching your abilities as well as refining old ones.
- Passion: You have a unique gift to add more meaning to every moment. Whether it’s telling a story, giving a speech, speaking to a loved one on the phone or providing someone with feedback you are always willing to go the extra mile when and if needed. This same gift allows you to see value in things others might miss at first glance.
Snares
- Perfectionism: Not every project will go as planned, and there will be moments when you fall behind in your own goals. There will also be moments when your bandwidth won’t be able to match your ambition. What matters most during these moments is your composure. Perfection doesn’t exist, only progress. Despite what cheesy motivational posters say, resist the urge only to set goals so lofty that it takes everything working seamlessly for them to be accomplished. Life happens.
- Short-Tempered:Passion is a double-edged sword in many areas of life. When things aren’t going your way or feel others are wasting your time, your resting level of anxiety and frustration are prone to rise. If you aren’t careful, these emotions can lead you to make decisions that are devoid of sound strategy and lead you to fall behind your competition.
- Stagnation: Our most extraordinary ideas come to us when we are relaxed for a reason. Just as the body needs rest from intense exercise to optimally recover, the mind needs rest to work through complex problems. If you never turn-off or make room for hobbies or downtime, you will negatively impact your mind’s ability to draw connections between seemingly disparate ideas. Lateral thinking happens during what we perceive to be lazy moments. Relax, write it down and come back to it, or risk the consequences of longer-term information overload.
As you review and share your results, remember nobody fits neatly into only one category. Life and our social nature cannot be forced into a vacuum, as people and their relationships are far too complex for that.
This quiz is a starting point, albeit a critical one.
Specific drives and even our responses to situations will vary depending on the context, including cultural values, our motivation to engage with a given activity, our mood, the physical location we find ourselves in, the company we keep, and numerous other factors.
To become better people, all of us must engage with activities that make us reflect more deeply on our tendencies, behaviors, state(s) of mind and perceptions of what drives us and others frequently.
To derive more value and growth, share your results with others, and join the conversation.
Share the quiz!
There is an abundance of scientific literature that debates the accuracy and validity of many existing tests like this of which you can learn about in my book. Amidst these debates, people forget that we benefit from merely taking the first step by taking part in reflective activities of any kind.
From an accuracy standpoint, nothing will ever be perfect- and perfection isn’t necessary for progress.
Human nature may be predictable, but all of our behaviors are not.
For more accuracy, we strongly recommend you engage with this quiz multiple times, whether in varying emotional states, physiological states (fatigue, alert, happy, stressed, etc.), physical locations, times of the year, and even when around friends.
You can continue your journey by learning more about drives, leadership and communication by listening to episode 130 of our podcast, reading my book, or taking my online course Bought-In.