019. Utilizing The Birkman To Customize Your Life

The Birkman is extremely valuable to have during the college application process. It is also beneficial to utilize during every transformative phase in your life that is yet to come – especially in pivotal times when you need to re-focus on yourself. Thriving during a pandemic is possible, and the Birkman can help you.

Revisit The Birkman And Utilize It To Customize Your Life

The Birkman is an invaluable resource when reflecting on who you are, what you like to do, what you need, and what your strengths are.  

All of this to say that as the holidays approach, when getting together with people relationships can flourish or falter. Prepping for relating to others during normal, happy, or stressful times requires self awareness and self acceptance. 

It Starts With Self-Acceptance

To be the best version of yourself, you need to understand yourself.

My Great Aunt Sarah used to tell us, “remember who you are,” whenever she took us somewhere nice. I absolutely loved and adored my Great Aunt Sarah. 

What I realize now is that she meant don’t embarrass me. But this phrase in that context was flawed. 

Imagine if I lived my life to solely meet the expectations of my old fashioned prim and proper great aunt? 

There’s nothing wrong with prim and proper. And there’s nothing wrong with being old fashioned. But there is something wrong with striving to fit anyone’s else’s image of you, except for you!

The first step in addressing who you are, is self-acceptance. 

In this podcast, I discuss some of the benefits of revisiting the Birkman. The many personality scores accompanied by the correlating needs and strengths are extremely versatile tools for life.

Revisiting The Birkman And When To Do It

There is a lot to unpack when reviewing your Birkman assessment. Outside of applying to college, revisiting the Birkman is useful during times of change, transition, and especially when challenged with relationships.

Relationships

When it comes to relationships, the Birkman is a great resource to living peacefully and successfully with others.

We’ve all felt cooped up this year. Being cooped up with a housemate is a common struggle right now. It’s important to keep amicable relationships. That may not sound easy if you’re feeling frustrated. 

The very organized people could benefit from relaxing a bit. Allow things to get a little messy. On the other hand, messy people can put in extra effort to be a little tidier. 

You and your housemate are dealing with your own stressors. Keep in mind they are being exacerbated by COVID. So everyone needs to work together to meet in the middle.

No one in the situation is inherently bad or wrong. But we are all unique and different. 

We can’t control others. However we can make adjustments to ourselves to improve our relationships. 

Listen to the episode here.

For the blog version of this episode, click here

Self-Accepted Homework

  • Encourage your student to revisit the Birkman. You can do this together, or if they prefer, they can look over it on their own. What we want is for them to re-familiarize themself with the hows and whys of themself.
  • Encourage your student to find activities or hobbies that align with their strengths. Rather than just playing video games in their downtime, they can use this time to explore where their strengths could lead them in life.
  • Reassess your student’s needs. Have they been catering to their needs? If not, discuss ways that you can work together so that their needs are being meant. 
  • Is your student feeding their interests? There is so much information about everything on the Internet. If they have been struggling to find a way to indulge in their interests, this would be a good time to talk it over together and come up with a plan.
  • Consider your student’s personality scores on the Birkman. Have they been procrastinating? Too many video games? If so, look closely at the personality scores. These should remind both your student and yourself about why they have been reacting the way they have. Then, together you can discuss ideas that cater to your student’s unique personality.
  • Be sure to check out our Birkman special for $150 off, ending December 31, 2020. 

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