SPOILER ALERT: If you don’t want to know what happens in the Netflix documentary “My Octopus Teacher,” watch it before you read!

Can igniting your curiosity feel like saving your life—or maybe salvaging your authentic purpose in the world?  Craig Foster thinks so.  His documentary, My Octopus Teacher, literally glows with the beauty and insight that emerged after unleashing his inquisitive nature in, well, nature itself.

A burned-out filmmaker at the start of the documentary, Foster was filled with doubt about himself and his future.  While he doesn’t share the details of his exhaustion, Foster seems like someone who’s used to having answers.  Clearly without them now, he’s instinctively drawn to follow the example of African trackers he featured in another documentary some 20 years ago—trackers who succeeded by keenly observing the intricate details of their terrain so they came to know and understand its many clues.

It’s a classic Sage response to the world, one that shows up in the relationship Foster forms with an octopus living in the South African kelp forest he swims with each day.  The lightning bolt for rebuilding his resilience and renewing his passion comes when he realizes there’s something profound for him to learn from the octopus.

Foster acts on an essential impulse inside him to observe something in a way that allows him to actually know it–and to learn kinesthetically by experiencing the animal in the environment where she lives.  His resilience is restored when she teaches him what he needs to know for moving past doubt. 

This is my eighth post in a twelve-part series about resilience, and how the unique gifts of each story type make building it more than a one-size-fits-all proposition.  I’ve been writing about the distinct ways an individual or group can lean into their most natural and effective way to bounce back from adversity, and better adapt to the frequently changing world around them.  

This post is about the Sage story type, whose resilience journey often involves a shift from doubt and grasping for answers to embracing the kind of curiosity that allows wisdom to emerge.  

Understanding the Sage’s Gift

A resilient Sage is someone who’s motivated by studying, observing, investigating, synthesizing, and ultimately deriving real insight and wisdom by doing so. Sages are fascinated by intriguing questions, puzzles, and mysteries.  They want to understand and clarify what’s going on around them and share what they’ve learned with others.   

Non-resilient Sages can get overwhelmed by doubt, though—in themselves, in how much they know, in whether or not they actually have the answers.  They can get stuck in a vicious cycle of ruminating and collecting more and more information.  They may never be satisfied enough to actually apply their knowledge, and can also get trapped in a singular viewpoint or defensive posture about their expertise. Sometimes, they even begin to live in a theoretical construct that isn’t connected to the real-world challenges or the emotional needs of themselves or those around them.   

Since Sages have the capacity for developing deep perspective and clarity, their path back to resilience often involves a shift in viewpoint. When doubt is replaced with curiosity, Sages can more readily relax into comfort with not knowing, a love of the question as much as the answer, and an openness to learning new truths.  That’s what happened for Craig Foster. 

Fueled by curiosity, he immersed himself in observation and study of the octopus—and Foster found that there was so much there to know and understand.  He visited her daily for more than a year, plunging into frigid waters for another “lesson.” He was particularly taken by her intelligence, and how her environment required her to be a constant learner as she continuously outwitted the predators around her.  He in turn wanted to know everything he could about her; what she thought, what she observed, what was on her mind as she responded.  

And because he became so immersed in her world, Foster ultimately felt much of the lived experience with her was helping him get to know himself.  He became both interested in knowing something new for science and something new for his own heart. He began to wonder if the relationship might be providing the octopus both stimulation and joy in return.  

Craig Foster literally learned his way back to himself and his life purpose from this octopus Sage.  And what did she teach him?  

• That he needed to observe, pay attention, become more “sensitized to the other(s)” around him
• That just as the octopus came from and returned to the sea, we’re all a part of something that makes us not visitors but participants on this planet even as we come and go
• That wild places are precious and that his energy revolved around knowing them and protecting them (which then led him to found the Sea Change Project as his next big step in life)

Ultimately, Foster learned enough to shift perspective about where he was going and open himself up to change.  That’s a uniquely Sage gift.  So let’s add Sage to the “gift of resilience” story type chart we’re building out in this series.  Here’s where we’re at:

Activating the Sage resilience quotient 

How can you learn from the octopus yourself, in an environment that likely seems nothing like that underwater kelp forest?  

Well, we live in a pretty wild world ourselves if you think about it. Predators don’t show up in quite the way they did for the octopus, although it’s not hard to make a metaphor for that.  Resilience in the sea and in the working world always has a survival component to it—and the possibility for the joy Craig Foster felt in coming to know the octopus.   

A resilient Sage needs time to reflect and observe—things that are often in short supply in our fast-paced working worlds.  If you’re drawn to the Sage story type, do whatever it takes to carve some time out for yourself, and consider these questions for building more of that resilience (remembering that these questions help groups with a collective Sage identity as well):

• What could you get curious about in a current situation where you feel stuck?
• What’s the gift in not knowing more than you do right now?
• If you had to stop taking in any new information and act on what you know at this time, how could you apply the insights you already have?
• What’s a new question you could ask to shift your perspective on something? 
• What would you love to learn more about and what kind of learning experience excites you most?  

And remember to love the questions as much as the answers!    

Cindy Atlee is a Creator type (often inspired by Sages!) who loves to help professionals, teams and organizations understand and express who they really are in the world.  She’s the co-author of the Professional Strengths, Values & Story Survey (take the free version here: https://www.storybranding.com/take-the-svss-survey/).  

Do you know what really lights you up at work?

When Morgan Harper Nichols found herself overwhelmed and depleted by what seemed like a dream job as a nationally touring singer-songwriter, she felt like a failure.

She quit, but she didn’t give up. Morgan began cultivating passion in the places where she found real aliveness—poetry and art that explores how creativity helps create connection.  Some years later, an autism diagnosis helped explain her challenges with sensory overload and reading the social cues that help foster relationships.  By then, Morgan had already learned to tap the source of her her own innate resilience.

Hearing other people’s stories and translating them into art brought Morgan to life, and started to answer her essential question about how connection is found and fostered.  She was captivated enough to develop a website where she asked people to submit stories that she then turned into artwork—and gave to them for free.    

Bad business strategy?  Well, today Morgan has 1.7 million Instagram followers; an extensive line of products featuring her signature illustrated poetry; partnerships with a variety of brand names in retailing, art and fashion; and two well-received books under her belt.

She did it by walking directly into the fire of her own aliveness, focusing on her passion and finding the part of her that could connect directly from her heart.  She activated her Lover story type as the conduit for her resilience.  So can professionals and organizations everywhere.

This is the seventh in a multi-post series on resilience and the unique, natural ways that people and groups can build it through story typing.  I’ve gotten this far without actually defining what I mean by resilience, and it’s a little different than what you might think.

One way resilience gets talked about in human behavior is as a form of toughness that can emerge from adversity.  I like how physics looks at it better—as the ability of something that’s flexible to absorb energy and then release it while springing back to its original shape.  Resilience may or may not toughen you up.  But if it’s going to last, it will always gets you back to you.  And that means resilience and authentic identity aren’t really very far apart.  People and organizations that are truly resilient know who they are and how to find their way back to the shape of that.

Understanding the Lover’s gift

In many ways, the Lover story type is the category essence of identity itself.  It shows us who we are at our most alive, most fueled, most connected to ourselves and to others.  And if that doesn’t drive both resilience and authentic identity, I don’t know what does!

The Lover story type has a gift for everyone when it comes to moving from the things that disconnect us back to stronger relationships and true excitement (even zeal) for what we’re doing and who we’re doing it for or with.  And I’ve often seen its power get underestimated inside organizations.

While romance may be the first thing people associate with the Lover story type, it’s not about that at all in professional settings.  Here the Lover is about enthusiasm, passion, connection and commitment.  The Lover story type at work represents the heart of employee engagement and customer appreciation—things that get talked about all the time (more often than they get delivered, many a survey tells us).  From a resilience perspective, all of those things matter.  Maintaining strong social connections makes virtually every list of ways to build resilience.  The relationship-building strength of the Lover leads very directly to a capacity for bouncing back and for overall professional success.

And if this story type seems highly individualistic in nature, it absolutely courses through the veins of many organizations as well.  I’ve worked with two organizations recently who exemplify the Lover.  Both non-profits, they have a moving capacity to see and appreciate their clients for who they are and what’s special about them—and a deep commitment to helping them restore their quality of life and move back toward their joie de vivre.  That commitment makes for a powerful brand identity.  More importantly, it helps them change the world.

So let’s add Lover to the “gift of resilience” story type chart we’re building out in this series.  Here’s where we’re at:

Activating the Lover resilience quotient

Becoming a more resilient Lover (or leaning in to its resiliency quotient) is all about shifting your consciousness from disconnection to relationship, connection, passion—and maybe most of all, aliveness.  Morgan Harper Nichols talks about that in one of my favorite sections of any poem, ever:

“no matter the darkness around her,

Light ran wild within her,

and that was the way she came alive,

and it showed up in everything.”

Consider these questions as prompts for bringing yourself, your team or your organization more to life:

• What are you most passionate about professionally—and how can you share that with others?
• What engages you most at work, when you’re truly in flow and time seems to fly?
• What do you see and appreciate most in the people or groups around you—and how can you let them know about that?
• What relationships need your attention right now, and how can you strengthen them?
• Who are what are you truly committed to right now?

And keep looking for and shining your light!

Cindy Atlee is a Creator type (with a heavy dose of Lover) who loves to help professionals, teams and organizations understand and express who they really are in the world.  She’s the co-author of the Professional Strengths, Values & Story Survey (take the free version here: https://www.storybranding.com/take-the-svss-survey/.  Learn more about the Worklife Reset online program for lighting up your professional life here: https://worklife-bliss.com/. 

I’ve got to stop judging movies before I see them.

I’d heard Nomadland was a little slow-moving, maybe a little bit of a downer.  That seemed like the last thing I wanted to spend time with during a pandemic.  In reality, it was one of the best things I could have seen.

After finally watching Nomadland yesterday, I totally get it. A film about overcoming restlessness won the Best Picture Oscar during a year when the whole world was literally fenced in. In a poetic, elegiac, heartbreaking and heart making way, this movie about the Explorer story type has something more profound to say about resilience than anything I’ve seen all year.

This is my sixth post in a 12-part series on resilience.  I wrote the first five posts last fall, in five consecutive weeks, and then I kind of. . .wandered off.  Like an Explorer.

Each of these posts has been about a different story type, and the highly individualized ways people can discover and leverage their natural resilience based on characters they relate to most.  I’ve also been writing about what each type looks like in a non-resilient state and how to shift that energy back to positive ground.

In the past few months, I’ve taken my own advice and spent time focused on what Creator types like me need to do that (which is imagine and invent/re-invent things).  Among other projects, I’ve designed and delivered a new online coaching program called Worklife Reset with my colleague Dana Theus.  It’s built on helping people find a meaning-based path to professional joy and contribution.  And that brings us right back to Explorer.

The most essential journey any Explorer takes is a search for meaning. That search can come in many shapes and sizes—and can play out quite consciously or very unconsciously.  However it unfolds, the Explorer’s best response to the non-resilient trigger of restriction is activating a growth mindset and moving toward something that matters.

We could all stand to take a lesson from the Explorer right now.  After a long year of restriction and the restlessness that comes along with it, many of us have a chance to make more purposeful and authentic choices for ourselves (and to have an adventure or two along the way!).  Whether we use that privilege and any new-found freedom to be impulsive or to follow a meaningful impulse is entirely up to us.

As one critic put it, Nomadland is about a group of vandwellers who follow the impulse “to leave society in the dust.”  The catalyst for that decision was economic for most of them, and there’s nothing romantic or uplifting about a choice-free descent into homelessness.  The nomads who decided to follow a “houseless” path are a different story, though.  After facing adversity, they chose a life on the road–finding resilience, beauty and freedom there; along with connection to nature, to others and to themselves.

Understanding the Explorer’s gift

Being an Explorer type doesn’t mean you’re going to set out for a life on the road. If this type is deeply core to who you are, you’re likely to be naturally independent, authentic and motivated to follow a unique path, though.  You may be energized by scouting for new opportunities, possibilities or approaches.  You’re probably excited by new experiences, and/or to seek growth and meaning in the things you do.

And that’s where the Explorer story type has a resilience gift for all of us, especially right now.  The most important journey any of us takes is the one where we find ourselves.  What better time has there been to find out who we really are and follow a growth-minded impulse towards more meaningful choices?  It’s the antidote to restriction and restlessness in anyone’s life.

I’ve always been inspired by this section of a poem by T.S. Eliot.

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.

—T.S. Eliot, from “Little Gidding,” Four Quartets (Gardners Books; Main edition, April 30, 2001). Originally published 1943.

The vandwellers in Nomadland learned to become still by being on the move, and to listen to the voices insides themselves.  Once you’re open to that kind of exploration, you can find your own unique path forward and recognize the resilience-building gift and focus you can best activate in the world.  Here’s what that looks like for the seven types these posts have explored so far:

 Activating the Explorer resilience quotient

Becoming a more resilient Explorer (or tapping in to that energy) involves a shift from feeling restricted to taking on a growth mindset and meaning-based focus—all of which can be fueled by having new experiences and making new discoveries.

Consider these questions as prompts for your next steps:

• What impulse would you most like to follow in your life or your work right now?
• What do you need to leave for the time being (knowing as the vandwellers do that there are no final goodbyes)?
• What “survival” skills do you need to learn?
• What kind of adventures would you like to have?
• Where could a growth mindset take you (one where development is always possible and options are easy to see)?

I’m personally not planning to leave society in the dust any time soon—but I do plan to following the most authentic impulses as I dive back in.  Hope you’ll join me!

Cindy Atlee is a Creator type who loves to help professionals, teams and organizations understand and express who they really are in the world.  She’s the co-author of the Professional Strengths, Values & Story Survey (take the free version here: https://www.storybranding.com/take-the-svss-survey/.  Learn more about the Worklife Reset program here: https://worklife-bliss.com/.

• Is it Hidden Figures, where a trio of brainy scientists solve a huge scientific problem while fighting significant racial and gender bias?
• Is it Soul, where a talented jazz pianist rediscovers his passion while restoring inspiration across the universe itself?

When I first heard the term “narrative intelligence”—and found out that I’d pretty much devoted my life’s work to it—I was surprised.  The term seemed kind of wonky and cerebral; squarely located in the linear, left brained side of existence.

I learned that narrative intelligence was about recognizing and reading motivational patterns.  It’s entirely true that those patterns provide the structure and foundation for all the tales humans remember and tell.  Still, deconstructing something as sweeping in scope as a truly meaningful story into a cognitive pattern felt much more scientific and academic than the work I did helping build brands, cultures and leaders.

I liked the phrase “story typing” much better. Helping people and groups see who they were through the lens of a story type felt more creative, intuitive and vital to me. It seemed more about feeling one’s way into a character that could capture individual or organizational essence in a heart-felt, right brained way.  It was high concept in nature, and more like art.

I was completely missing the point.  And overlooking the real reasons why the frameworks and methods I love are so powerful.  

There’s no either/or here when it comes to narrative intelligence vs. story typing; only a both/and.  That’s because working with story and narrative is actually both right brained and left brained; concrete and conceptual; scientific and artistic.  And that’s exactly how people really show up and operate in the world, too!  Look at what actually happens in Hidden Figures and Soul:

• The female scientists in Hidden Figures used their heads in working out how to safely launch astronaut Neil Armstrong into orbit—along with a lot of heart and courage to fight the considerable racial and gender bias that stood in their way. They were brilliant, but that wouldn’t have been enough to break down the barriers.
• The jazz pianist in Soul was propelled by the passion and emotion of his artistry—and he would never have found that if he hadn’t developed his skill and capacity for playing in the first place. Great artists feel their music deeply and profoundly. They also practice it. A lot.

Most tools that coaches and consultants work with focus on one side of those equations or another, though.  There are instruments and methods to assess strengths and capacities; others to explore values and beliefs.  Very few address both, even though real people in the real world are shaped by the same dynamic combination of these that drive every beloved character in every story we remember and retell. 

The answer to meaning and motivation is yes.

Narrative intelligence and story typing help people see, understand and respond to what’s really going on inside and around them.  They both address two deeply meaningful questions.  Should we pay the most attention to our thoughts and perceptions? Or should we focus more on our emotions and feelings?  The answer to both those questions is yes.      

I should have learned this back in coaching school, where the training program’s core mantra was shared repeatedly:  Your clients are creative, resourceful and whole.  We may well have a preference for one side or the other—my Creator self certainly does—but we have to tap our heads and our hearts to be whole.  Developing ourselves (and our organizations) is about doing both.

The goal of coaching (and many types of consulting and facilitation) is fundamentally about helping our clients be whole.  Whole people and groups can know and leverage all of who they are; problem solve more effectively; see others in a truly clear-eyed and appreciative way; develop more resilient responses to their experiences; and much more! 

Take a look at the chart below and let me know if any professional (or person) you know should give up on one side of the pairs.  Together, they create a narrative structure that produces meaning, motivation and engagement.

Also think about whether you or a client needs to focus on one of the pairs (or one side of one of the pairs) to move forward.  The key to developing who you want to be or what you want to do is almost always to focus on something in one of those boxes.  It’s also the key to living your story and experiencing a whole-human existence–where you are more confident, resilience and adaptable, and where your performance power is aligned with a great truth of our shared story-based existence.

Also remember that while the framework remains the same, the shape of these patterns will ultimately be very different for every individual and group.  Okay, I’ll have to admit that I wouldn’t have had the mental prowess to get Neil Armstrong around the block (much less into outer space).  I would have had a much better shot at becoming a renowned jazz pianist.

I don’t share the same story types as those NASA scientists (they were Sages using their brain power and Everypersons fighting for justice).  I’m a lot more like Joe (a Creator fueled by his artistry and a Lover with a deep appreciation for his own aliveness).  We all have story-based, narrative intelligence-driven motivational patterns.  The difference in them is what makes us unique and compelling.  The common ground is what makes us human.

Like Johnny Lee in that old country favorite, I’ve been lookin’ for something in all the wrong places.

Not love, though! Here I am, writing a series of blog posts on resilience—and I’ve fallen into a kind of non-resilient trap. I’ve been looking for resilience in the wrong story type (emphasis on wrong for me; not for everyone).

There are no bad story types in the 12-archetype system I work with and write about—only poor ways of experiencing or expressing them.  There are lots of bad story type fits, though, when we unconsciously take on a story type that we haven’t developed in ourselves and doesn’t resonate in some essential way inside us. We’re most likely to do this when that story type represents a societal norm or collective tendency, which can make it seem like that’s just the way to be in a given situation.

So my response to this now six-month long pandemic has been to try acting  a lot like a Hero. That’s a highly admired, highly rewarded story type in most Western cultures—one that offers many gifts and contributions. I walked right into it, deciding it was time to get stuff done, do it now and not let things get in the way.  I didn’t really think much about it consciously.  I just. . . did it (like Nike says I should!).

So since March, I’ve converted all my existing trainings to online only; developed and marketed two new programs; written more chapters in my book; ramped up a coaching collective; completed two branding projects; remodeled multiple rooms in my house; re-organized pretty much everything I own and packed up a lot of it; volunteered for a voter education initiative—and committed to writing a blog post on resilience for 12 consecutive weeks.

But let’s face it.  That’ a lot of activity, and none of it is particularly heroic.  The real Heroes right now are essential workers, parents home-schooling their kids, ordinary folks turned social activists, people moving forward past lost jobs or businesses.  I’m privileged in a way many others aren’t to choose the things I’ve done this year.

I could have brought a different energy to them, though, especially since I’m a Creator by nature, not a Hero.  The “get more done, faster” approach isn’t a very high-level, fulfilling version of that story.  And, it left me teetering pretty close to the most typical non-resilient state for a Hero type—exhaustion—without having the energy-shifting gifts of mastery, achievement and feeling like I was really making a difference to shore me up for a rebound.  I didn’t necessarily need to do fewer things.  I needed to focus on how the doing of them inspired me and how my imagination could help me re-invent my contribution in the world.  That’s what resilience looks like for me.

Understanding the Creator’s Gift

I’m a Creator type (energized by inventiveness, imaginativeness and ideas) who unconsciously took on the determination, drive and action orientation of a Hero. Are those Hero qualities great things to have and worth awakening if you don’t? Definitely, and I have a variety of approaches to doing that. Should they be playing lead guitar in your existential band if you’re a Creator? Not if you want to feel as energized and inspired as you need to be.

This is the fifth post in my weekly series, and I’m shifting my approach to writing it.  I’m not driving to post it by Wednesday morning.  I’m not going to worry about making it 1,200 words long.  I’m not going to spend a lot of time researching great well-known examples of Creator types and how they demonstrated resilience.

Instead, I’m just going to share my personal experience of being a Creator when I’m most on fire and most resilient.  That happens when I’m leading with who I am—one of the three worklife “bliss” principles I’m integrating into a book, new training series and almost everything else I’m doing and being right now.  I guess we really do need to teach what we most need to learn!

The bliss principles I’ve been developing, along with colleague Dana Theus, are inspired by Joseph Campbell’s invitation to “follow your bliss.” Campbell never meant you should be pursuing your pleasure (a common misinterpretation).  His version of bliss was about being the person you were uniquely meant to be on a path that was purpose-built for you to follow.

When I imagine how the world would be if everyone did that—and the way people would re-invent themselves to make an essential contribution—I’m in Creator bliss.  When I imagine how my work helps other people do and be that, I’m feeling charged up and alive.  And that means I’ve insulated myself from the non-resilient state of lifelessness that’s most common for Creators.

So here’s the other great thing about developing worklife bliss and leading with who you are. Resilience builds in virtual lock-step with bliss. That works in reverse as well, though. The more you lead with something you’re not, the more likely you are to experience a double whammy of non-resilience (the one associated with the type you’re not and the one most common to your authentic self).  This is not a two-for-one deal you want to buy!

What you want is to build resilience by tapping directly into the energy and authenticity that finding the real and most animated “you” produces.  Then you need to activate it in ways that unleash the pure, unmitigated joy of knowing and being who you are; expressing it with boundless enthusiasm; and saying to the world “come and get it.” That’s how you become more resilient and more like your best, most resilient self (whether that’s a Creator a Hero or one of the 10 other story types that can shape your bliss).  Speaking of those types, here’s where we on building out the resilience-by-type chart:

 Activating the Creator resilience quotient

Becoming a more resilient Creator involves an energetic shift from feelings of lifelessness and depletion into a different space filled with ideas, inventions and expressive approaches.  Consider these questions as prompts for your next steps:

• What are you doing right now that doesn’t have much life for you—and how can you re-imagine it in a more meaningful way?
• What needs to be re-invented or re-designed that would make a difference for you?
• What do you most need to express in the world right now—and how can you do that?
• Who or what inspires you most—and what message is waiting for you in that inspiration?
• Who are you as a Creator? COMPLETE THIS STATEMENT:  I am a (insert multiple descriptive adjectives) Creator who (insert an intention, an idea, a purpose or a promise you want to make).

By the way, I wrote 1,202 words in this post—not 1,200.  Does that make me an over-achiever?