Does WHO you are jive with WHERE you are?

Welcome to the ArtsBound Newsletter. Every Tuesday, I share three thoughts or insights meant to help performing arts students and young professionals flourish in their life and career. Today we’re looking at how our environment can either help to energize us or drain our energy. In particular, we’ll discuss 1) how archetypes are related to our personal energy; 2) how archetypes show up in our professional worlds (and the performing arts world in particular); and 3) what to do when your environment is a drain on your energy. 

- 6-minute read -

(NOTE: I started ArtsBound because I believe the world would be a better place with more people living their true calling. If you know a student or young professional who is searching for their niche in the performing arts world, consider forwarding this email to them. If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up to receive my newsletter every Tuesday. It's free.)

1. What do we mean by energy? And what is an archetype?

There’s a lot of discussion about energy these days - and for a good reason. There’s an old saying that goes, “You don’t have anything if you don’t have your health”. The word ‘health’ could easily be replaced with the word ‘energy’. In fact, many professionals on the cutting edge of the health and wellness fields speak in terms of the energy exhibited by different organs and systems within the body; this represents a huge shift from a biochemistry paradigm to a biophysics paradigm (if this is interesting to you, you might enjoy my conversation with sound healer Gerald Savage on the ArtsBound Podcast).

Another old adage suggests that our most precious resource is time. However, in his book The Seven Levels of Intimacy, world-renowned speaker and author Matthew Kelly asserts that we all have the same amount of time in a day; it is our energy, however, that will dictate what we can do with the time we have.

Kelly is referring not to the energy in a specific body system, but rather a holistic, integrated Energy (spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical) that all humans experience. This is the energy we are discussing here. In this view, all energy we experience comes from a universal Divine Source. Like an electrical circuit, if we are optimally wired and connected to a power source, we will experience a flow of energy. 

Just like how our energy dictates what we do with our time, our environment dictates what we can do with our energy. This is where archetypes come into play.

Archetypes are patterns of energetic expression. Your archetypal patterns are innate to who you are - they emerge from within your being (this is how they differ from stereotypes, which are external projections). They are like the different appliances we plug into a power source.

We can’t “see” an archetype, but we can recognize it in its various forms of expression. The King, for example, is a very common archetype in our stories; we see him in King Arthur, Moana’s father, and the Godfather. 

If you’ve ever taken a personality test, you’ve learned something about archetypes, even if they don’t have names like the King, Mother, Trickster, Warrior, etc.

Exploring your own archetypal patterns - whether you simply do it on a whim with some friends, or do a deep dive into Jungian psychology - can be a catalyst for significant personal growth. And as I discuss below, finding accord between your environment and your innate “wiring” can have huge implications for the energy you have to bring to your life’s endeavors. 


2. Archetypes in the performing arts.

We see archetypes in our various environments and experiences, as well as in ourselves. 

One popular model for work environments common within career counseling is the Holland Code. John Holland described six “people-environments” (environments defined by the types of people drawn to them). According to the model, you have three preferred people-environments - your “Holland Code” - and every career has its own Holland Code as well. Job satisfaction is then, in part, a function of finding the right fit. 

In his book What Color is Your Parachute, Richard Bolles summarizes Holland’s six archetypes in this way (page 75 in the 2013 edition):

  • Realistic (R) = people who like nature, or plants, or animals, or athletics, or tools and machinery, or being outdoors. 

  • Investigative (I) = people who are very curious, liking to investigate or analyze things, or people, or data.

  • Artistic (A) = people who are very artistic, imaginative, and innovative, and don’t like time clocks.

  • Social (S) = people who are bent on trying to help, teach, or serve people.

  • Enterprising (E) = people who like to start up projects or organizations, or sell things, or influence and persuade people.

  • Conventional (C) = people who like detailed work, and like to complete tasks or projects.


For example, journalism has the code AIE. First and foremost, journalists like to write and create narratives (Artistic). They also have a curiosity to learn all the details of the story (Investigative). And they must have a sense of initiative to start a project and pursue leads, as well as the bold persistence to ask difficult questions of people and the persuasiveness to get good answers (Enterprising).  

You can go to THIS WEBSITE to explore the codes for other careers.

After a bit of time working with the Holland Code, it struck me that there is also a unique breakdown of personality types that are drawn to work in the performing arts. I’ve articulated ten of them:

  • The Rock Star - the powerful, audience-loving type

  • The Idol - the attractive, success-seeking type

  • The CEO - the organizing, visionary, influence-seeking type

  • The Humanitarian - the compassionate, empathetic, change-the-world type 

  • The Aristocrat - the refined, status-conscious type

  • The Bohemian - the especially creative, non-conformist

  • The Lover - the devoted, passionate type

  • The Professor - the investigative, knowledge-seeking type

  • The Wizard - the craftsperson with super-human skill

  • The Provocateur - the mischievous, scandalizing-type

(I describe each of these types in much greater detail in my article “Ten Personality Types of Performing Artists: Which Are You?”. 

Read the full article HERE.)

You can, of course, see parallels in other models (includes Holland’s). But I think this formulation can give us a clearer picture of the expression we see in the performing arts specifically.

Being aware of your archetypal patterns and attending to them in a constructive way is like maintaining the appliances you use day-in and day-out. Doing so keeps them in good working order and avoids malfunctioning.

Below we’ll look at what happens when our environment doesn’t agree with our unique personal energies (archetypes), and what we can do about it.


3. What do you do when your environment is a drain on your energy?

When you are aware of your archetypes, making the most of their strengths, and managing their weaknesses, you will experience a tremendous flow of Energy. Furthermore, when you are in an environment that’s aligned with the way you show up in life, you will feel a sense of oneness with the world. These are the days in which you feel you can do anything.

But there are many ways in which your environment can impede that flow of Energy. Perhaps your boss or colleagues don’t recognize the unique value you offer the organization or company. Or perhaps you are being asked to do work that doesn’t suit your skills. These are the equivalents of trying to count your daily steps but neglecting to put on your FitBit, or trying to make an omelette with a toaster. 

When your archetypal energies and your environment are this out of synch, one of two things will typical happen:

  1. You unplug from your power source and shut down; or

  2. In an effort to work the way you were meant to, you attempt to draw more power than your circuits are ready for... and you blow a fuse. 


Neither scenario is good.

When you are in an environment that is clearly draining your energy, there’s only one thing you can do:

Leave.

You have to close up shop and make your way for a space that is more affirming of who you were born to be and the work you were born to do.

But leaving doesn’t have to mean quitting your job or dropping out of school (although it could). Leaving an energy-draining environment can be achieved along a spectrum of severity and with varying degrees of nuance.

I wrote another article called “5 Ways to Leave an Energy-Draining Environment at Work or School” that goes into more detail.

You can read the full article HERE.

See you next week!

Lee


PS - I started ArtsBound because I believe the world would be a better place with more people living their true calling. If you know a student or young professional who is searching for their niche in the performing arts world, consider forwarding this email to them. If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up to receive my newsletter every Tuesday. It's free.

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