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July 22, 2007
Who Are You, Really?: Understanding Your Life's Energy
This post is for my fellow self-improvement junkies, if your eyes glaze over and head starts to spin whenever the topic of personal growth comes up, feel free to skip ahead to the next post. I'll be there in a minute.
Friday I visited a little out-of-the-way shop which sells import goods and lots of other interesting stuff, including a nook in the back of the store filled with overstock books all on sale for a fraction of their original price. Seated on the floor I looked over the shelves of books, needing something, anything interesting to help me introvert over the weekend. After perusing and rejecting several options I pulled "Who Are You, Really?: Understanding Your Life's Energy" by Gary Null, Ph.D. off the shelf. Intuitively I knew, this is what I need today.
Dr. Null believes each person's life energy fits into one of seven categories, Dynamic Aggressive, Dynamic Assertive, Dynamic Supportive, Creative Assertive, Adaptive Supportive, Adaptive Assertive or Adaptive Aggressive. He explains briefly how natural life energy works and the effects of conditioning on life energy before heading into detailed explanations of each energy type. Reading definitions of the energy types I could recognize some of the people in my life, almost as if he knew them personally. I read the chapter on Dynamic Assertives and recognized myself, then read the chapter on Dynamic Supportives and felt like he had been following me around with a note pad. I couldn't decide which embodied the true me. Before I finished the book I was emailing recommendations to others, read this book. He explores each energy type at it's high point and low point, stressing the strengths and pitfalls of each, he gives suggestions for avoiding those traps, for staying on the high side of your energy type as much as possible, while accepting low points as normal, he also advises on highly compatible as well as highly incompatible energy types. I couldn't leave the book down for long, it took me less than twenty-four hours to complete it. At the end of the book is a simple assessment for each energy type, true and false questions. As it turns out I was right, I scored equally high (7 of 8) on both Dynamic Assertive and Dynamic Supportive. This book has earned a position in my "reference" library, those few books I turn to again and again when I'm needing insight.
(Update 6-7-2008 follow up post on this review )
Posted by Anna at July 22, 2007 9:01 PM
Comments
I am reading Gary Null's Guide to A Joyful Healthy Life. Oh my god! I am in love with Gary. He has helped me out soo much. I found out that I am a creative adaptive. I always thought I was just a little nutty, but it goes to show it is MY energy type. Gary is awesome!! I have been listening to him on the radio for 15 years. I am 29. My dad turned vegetarian 15 years ago and gary is his best friend!!
Posted by: Dawn Moe at September 27, 2007 7:03 PM