Designed for Life

I have spent nearly a half-century coordinating wide-ranging research on the nature of the person, as it is seen in individual uniqueness and giftedness. I began to sense early on in this process that people demonstrate their uniqueness and giftedness and corresponding motivation from their childhood years. This led me to develop a narrative approach to developing a "profile" of each person that we studied.

It was in the application of this approach that we came to the quite stunning conclusion that each person is hard-wired, so to speak, with a purposed and predictive "pattern" of giftedness. This pattern (which we later called the "Motivated Ability Pattern"Ž or "MAP") is akin to one's DNA. It is baked in to the person's who we are, from the beginning.

As I have highlighted in a previous book, Why You Can't Be Anything You Want To Be, we can resist this reality and even fight against it, but we cannot change it.

A lifetime of research and experience in the study of the person has led me to this point, when I can now propose with clarity that people experience a meaningful life (versus a diet of meaningless striving) based on the extent to which they live true to their endowments. This may seem simple enough, but the culture instead calls out to us, incessantly, to become what others require for our (their) success. Most of us accordingly strive to become, and inherit an impoverished existence for our one shot at life.

The institutions of education, work, and religion are principally responsible for this tragedy. Until people embrace the truth that they can only achieve their objectives by affirming their unique make-up (and the make-up of each person under their authority or influence), little progress will be made. Few will risk defying the spirit of the age and play to their strengths, even though only those who do so will ultimately succeed in experiencing the fullness of life.

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