My "Kolbe A" Test Results Help Me Simplify

The "Kolbe A" Test Helped Me Find My Instinctual Business Strengths in just 36 Questions! How this works - I don't know - but it amazes me.

Disclaimer (to save you time):

If you are someone who sees problems but comes up with solutions, sees opportunities all around you, has way too much on your plate, can't ever get satisfied with enough knowledge or insight, has way too many skills and ideas, you may be able to relate to, and enjoy, my story below.

If you're more of a stable Mable, and are just looking for a way to know more about the type of job you would work well in, then this may not be something you will enjoy reading, and I recommend you jump straight to the bottom to see how you can take the Kolbe A Index to find out your personal strengths. 

* * *

Around December 2020, I started my typical path of trying to clean up the year's files and piles, and start getting ready for 2021.

Over the course of a few weeks, I spent hours looking through various online planner options and downloading countless ideas and giving out my email address to way too many companies.

The more I looked at planners, the more the web browsers were advertising more,

and more,

and more, options to me.

I had fallen into an internet tunnel of nothing but planners until I finally clicked on a new topic to try to break that cycle. ;)

I blessed a few of those entrepreneurs too with some purchases as they did a great job convincing me their planner was the result of many years of their own struggles and they finally found the secret sauce that helps them

do it all and

have it all.

I believed them, and I carefully scrutinized as many pages as they would show me, and I agreed that it would be wiser to buy their premade templates then to keep belaboring this issue for myself, or try to reinvent the wheel.

I wanted to start 2021 off correct - without any more procrastination or excuses for failure. I love fresh starts, so I had to make a decision and just go with it. Time was running short. 

And so I purchased, printed, hole punched, stapled, stacked, labeled... and did all I could to try to fit my life into these planners pages. I even watched a few webinars and was blessed, and refined no doubt, to learn new ways of thinking about goal setting and productivity.

I could do this.

2021 would finally be the year I get off the vicious cycle of productivity paralysis and defeat.

I am smart enough.

I am creative enough.

I am organized enough.

I have plenty of will to succeed, and I now have

over $100 worth of templates.

Nothing should stop me...

if

I 

could 

just 

figure

out

my 

goals...

.

.

oops, next obstacle...

What were my goals to fit into these beautiful and ready planner pages?

I have soooooooooooooo many BIG goals!
(truly at least as many as o's in there)

Just choose one and go.

No, I want to choose the one that's the right one.

I at least recognized that the size and scope of my goals are massive, and being that I am now in my mid-forties, it's looking less and less likely that I will be able to follow them all through from imagination to manifestation. :(
(I still hold out some hope that God will somehow miraculously bring me a team of awesome people to just do whatever I say and poof... it all get's done.)

If I have to narrow my goals down to focus on what I actually believe I can accomplish in 2021 - which do I choose?

Maybe I can juggle at least these big four? 

So, no kidding, I printed FOUR copies of one of the planner's pages and labeled every one of them with the specific business or goal I needed to get done. I believed myself - this was doable.

I then planned how I would do it... I would use TIMEBLOCKING and just work on ONE STACK of planner pages on Monday, the next one on Tuesday, the next on Wednesday... and so on and so forth.

I only have about two hours a day I can commit to any of these business or personal goals, but if I could JUST BE CONSISTENT (once I named, defined, and listed them out ... each with their S.M.A.R.T. attributes), I could get to the end of 2021 and feel some sort of accomplishment.

That's what I was missing at the end of 2020. What did I accomplish?

I know I did a lot - but at the end of the year, I couldn't name one goal I had that year that I followed through to the end to see it accomplished on purpose. Perhaps it was because for the first time ever my 2020 New Year's Resolution was to not have any new goals and to just do what I could with whatever the day brought and find some sort of contentment or joy in that being enough. I thought this was a wise plan. This way I wouldn't feel like a failure for not getting my goals met. (Secret's out: I still felt bad at the end of 2020 when I couldn't name a specific thing I accomplished - specifically set out to do and did successfully.)

Well - you know how 2020 went... right? Not only was my own life in some transition, but our entire world went topsy turvey... so, I know I did what I could each day, because we all (my children and I) stayed alive and for the most part moving forward with our life paths and responsibilities (health, education, etc). I definitely did drop the ball on the book I was writing and was supposed to publish in 2020. I also picked up a brand new business idea and social cause to work on. I wasn't without things to do, but it honestly felt like my life was a flurry of activity with no specific momentum going any particular direction.

Reminds me of the truck I just saw a few weeks ago spinning his rear tires in the ice and snow. It didn't matter how much he pushed his gas pedal, his truck's wheels just kept spinning and spinning - he wasn't going anywhere UNTIL he changed his strategy.

Well - fortunately, I just had a strategy change. 

It was the end of January - and I STILL had not pinned down my specific goals and written them down on these beautiful planner pages waiting for my agreement with them! The goal to decide my goals had moved from "by Dec 31st" to "the first week of January" to "January 31rst". 

I gave myself permission to take the whole month to figure these out, because after all - it would be better to lose a whole month defining my goals, and then committing to take action on them - so that I could spend the other 11 months of the year actually seeing things get accomplished!  Sort of like FASTING my first month of productivity in hopes that the last 11 months would actually be productive.

I truly wasn't trying to procrastinate - I truly was trying to crack the code on deciding who I wanted and needed to be in 2021 to move forward with the gobs of responsibilities, obligations, passions, goals, and projects I have hitting my brain on the daily.  

 January came and went.

I didn't even remember where I put that planner.

I still kept falling into the same traps of temptations to research, building charts, creating new systems, dreaming about new systems that could solve world-size problems, looking up facts and numbers, consuming the news with the intention of solving problems - and taking a gazillion screenshots that I intended to go back to in order to solve those problems, listening to more business podcasts (I call this "ear candy" now), and reading random books I want to read for information when I can squeeze it in the mix of all the things I am "supposed to be doing" to try to take care of myself, run my household, take care of my children, and try to grow my business...es.  

Even when I resolved to turn off the social media and apps craziness (tons of rabbit holes there) regarding the political messes happening, I found that my brain just kept finding another way to escape into these "passions" that didn't seem to add any value to my life.

That was until I somehow clicked on an ad for a 5 Day Detox & Declutter Challenge. Since one of my many goals was to also have our household become more minimalist this year, I thought this could be a good place to focus some time. Long story short, I ended up attending the challenge in the mornings and I almost clicked out of it when I realized it was a male leader who was talking calmly and methodically and telling a long drawn out story. This was not my typical bells and whistles try to impress me webinar. I'm not sure why I stayed with it - other than it was first thing in the morning and perhaps it was the easiest thing to do in order to convince myself I was doing something "productive". 

But about thirty minutes in, I was hooked. The things he was saying were making so much sense to me. Instead of feeling condemned that I will often spend 1-3 hours in the early morning hours with intense creative energy - writing, designing, and creating systems and things to make life better (for either us or others), he was validating that it was not only okay to do this but preferred for highly successful entrepreneurs to spend their first hours with the Lord and with their own brains - thinking! 

There was way more than that included in his presentation... in fact, it turned out he was focused on decluttering as a method to building business (which I had no idea he was going in that direction when I signed up).

One of the things he recommended was to take his Marketing DNA test. 

I did, and I was AMAZED at how it specifically described me. Highly Analytical and Empathetic. It gave so much detail, but in short, I started to get a picture of who I am - and instead of trying to lay that down to try to fit the mold of who I think I should be, I started to believe that I should start focusing on doing the daily work and tasks that naturally compliment those traits about myself.

He also recommended the Kolbe A Test. Since I was fully committed to finishing this journey out for 30 days, I took the Kolbe A Test. Once again, I was absolutely amazed at how answering 36 questions in a matter of minutes could describe who I am by a complete stranger who designed this test over 30 years ago!  Literally, everything in my results made sense to me about me!

The presentation was beautifully done and very thorough. 

Since taking the test, I have noticed that I no longer feel this pressure to play all the roles of whatever business or company I run. I no longer feel this need to be the main or sole player of my household, business, kid's homeschooling, our finances, our yard care, and even some of the business ideas I have. It's like pressures of responsibility are dropping off. I still have the responsibilities, but I feel permission to outsource and delegate a lot of those things - just knowing, these are not my strengths - no wonder I procrastinate or resist them. There are plenty of things to do in my day - and not enough hours to do them. If I can find people to fill in those positions who WANT to (or NEED to and are willing), then I can bless them and in turn bless myself with getting to do the things I naturally want and crave doing anyway. Win, Win!

 It makes me think of this analogy.

If I were trying to bless a family in need by buying them a house - I wouldn't think I have to be the sole source of their blessing. I wouldn't fend off other people standing there offering to contribute to their cause. The goal would be that they are blessed - not that I would be the sole person responsible for blessing them 100% at my own expense. I am willing to do that if required, but I wouldn't feel bad about my insufficiencies in being able to do that if there were 100 other people contributing and we all celebrate when the family gets their house. 

I'm not sure then why I have hung onto this idea that to start or run my businesses (which are great ideas and big ones too that will bless many), that I have to be the sole person to do all the roles. It's partly due to not knowing how to delegate, not knowing who to delegate to, and holding onto the poverty mentality (AKA - looking at money logistically rather than with faith filled action).

Well... it's 2021... and thankfully, I have been able to spend loads of hours listening to, reading about, and watching amazing men and women who are highly successful and have figured these things out. I may not have it all figured out yet, but I do know I at least have come to the realization that the things I was already drawn to, and doing naturally, almost obessively - are not things I need to feel guilty about - or try to schedule out of my day... those are the very things I need to work with and be proud of as I utilize those intuitive skills and passions to be productive in my working hours. 

Not being MORE productive... but being productive in the RIGHT tasks and in knowing how to define WHAT those are - and being okay with not doing it all!

Appreciating my unique strengths, and welcoming others to help me with theirs.

==>>>Take the Kolbe A™ Index<<<===. It only takes a few minutes... seriously, and I believe you too will be amazed at what you can give yourself permission to do without feeling like it's the wrong thing. 

We're each on our own journey. 

"Be yourself. Everybody else is already taken."
- Oscar Wilde

Find out your natural strengths/instincts you were born with and how you can use them to be the most productive, stress-free version of yourself.

When you click the link to ===>>> Take the Kolbe A™ Index <<<===, you will be able to scroll down and jump right into Question 1. Super simple. Takes about 15 minutes. 

 To knowing our strengths and sharing them with our world,

♥ Rachelle Suzanne (9-7-1-4)

P.S. I did sign up to get their affiliate commission after I decided to write this, so if when you click my link, I will receive a commission credit once you purchase your test results. Thank you for your support, and I sincerely hope this has blessed you.