Humor: A Day in the Life After the CVI

We take a break from all the seriousness in the world to engage in a humorous look at how the four different Core Values Index personality types might engage in daily activities.

If you haven't taken the Core Values Index yet, head over to https://whatsmycvi.com and take the assessment. It's easy and only takes about 10 minutes. To summarize for the impatient, there are four core value energies. Everyone has a particular combination of these within their personality.

• Builder: Power and action
• Merchant: Intuition and human connections
• Innovator: Wisdom and problem solving
• Banker: Knowledge and justice

Let's get started and see (with a sense of humor) how people with these core value energies in their "prime" spot might go about their day.

Making Breakfast

The Merchant is the person most likely to make a dish they saw in an episode of Sex and the City, all while taking selfies during the entire process. If the dish turns out well, they'll take pictures of it and post it to social media. If the food doesn't look good, they'll still post pictures to social media of them making duck faces with an "Oops!" emoji — anything to get people to look at their profile. They openly brag about the fact that they used white truffle oil and saffron on their Eggs Benedict a la Carrie.

The Merchant is the person most likely to make a dish they saw in an episode of Sex and the City, all while taking selfies during the entire process.

The Builder will be up at 4:30 AM, make breakfast, eat breakfast, and complete half a dozen things from their TO-DO list before anyone else in the house wakes up.

Like an episode of Chopped, the Innovator looks at what is in the refrigerator and cupboards, then creates an omelette with a bizarre concoction of ingredients based on what was available. It probably has artichoke hearts and white truffle oil in it, along with a side of caramel-coated popcorn sprinkled with curry powder. At least they think it was curry powder. They post a picture of the bizarre dish to social media with the caption, "Made breakfast with what I had on hand. Felt creative. Might go to Starbucks™ later."

The Banker gets out the toaster, which was purchased after a lot of research, from the cabinet where it lives. They choose the bag of small-sized bagels (better because of the surface-area-to-cream-cheese as compared to standard bagels), and using the pre-cut slice as a start, they finish cutting the bagel in half. The bagel is toasted on setting 4 plus the 'bagel' setting (because it only toasts the cut side), and while it is still hot, they put a specific amount of cream cheese on it (so it can warm up). Then the Banker spreads out the cream cheese, avoiding the center hole. They clean the toaster tray before returning the toaster to its assigned cabinet space and then eat the bagel.

Going Grocery Shopping

Bankers go online and get a map of their local store and identify which aisles contain the items they need to buy. They have an app or a spreadsheet that they use to keep track of what they need to get based on a two-week rotational plan, and then they organize the list based on where each item is located within the store. They print the list in a readable font and walk the store in an efficient manner, never having to backtrack to the produce section because they forgot to get peaches. A Banker is most likely to say to their family, "I didn't get it because it wasn't on the list."

Innovators are like Bankers in that they will find a way to efficiently walk the aisles of the store with as few back-tracks as possible. They just won't Google a map of the store first. An Innovator is the one most likely to memorize their shopping list because they came up with a handy mnemonic to remember everything they needed to buy.

Merchants spend more time fussing about what they're going to wear than they spend in the grocery store itself. They might have a list, but half the items in their cart will be spontaneous purchases, four or five of which they spotted on the racks next to the checkout stand. 75% of their time in the store will be spent chatting with someone they ran into that they knew from high school, or spent talking with a friend on their cell phone as they walk the aisles.

A Banker is most likely to say to their family, "I didn't get it because it wasn't on the list."

Builders walk into the store a bit irritated because someone cut them off in the parking lot and stole their spot. Once inside the store, they quickly and efficiently move from one aisle to the next, never backtracking because that wastes time. They look for the shortest check-out line, and get irritated because no matter which one they choose, all the other checkout stands seem to go faster. The bread gets smooshed because they shoved the bags into the back of the car without noticing they'd placed a whole watermelon on top.

Planning a Birthday Party

The Banker makes several lists well in advance of the event, and a master list to keep track of them all, denoting the specific action items that must occur and when they must take place. They follow those lists when inviting attendees and make careful notes of who RSVP's and what food or beverage items will be brought by which guests. The event itself goes without a hitch, except for a few Merchants that forgot which day it was and therefore didn't show up. They develop an ulcer fretting wondering if they forgot some trivial detail.

The Innovator calls a nearby restaurant and books a private room, then schedules the catering. They choose four dishes, two of which are vegan and gluten-free. The non-alcoholic beverages are pre-chosen as well. The event is a bit more expensive than if they had held the party at their house, but it was handled with a 15-minute phone call and there was just one bill.

The Merchant spent almost two weeks fretting over the location, the food and beverage choices, and most importantly of all, the guest list. Printed invitations were chosen and hand-written notes were inscribed inside, all mailed out in decorative envelopes (with hand-written addresses) and stamps carefully chosen to match the theme of the party. Twenty guests were invited but 32 showed up because everyone knows that Merchants always throw the most memorable parties. Once the party starts, the Merchant does all the talking, they become fast friends with every guest, and every guest goes away feeling like they were the most important person there.

The Builder calls the Banker to make the arrangements and asks the Merchant to invite the guests. Done.

Buying a New Car

The Innovator starts out with a list of what they want in a new car based on features and capabilities. They spend two weeks researching available options, including several days of reading forum posts from vehicle owners complaining about whatever problems they had and which dealerships seem to be best (and worst) to work with. They select a dealership, phone ahead and tell the salesperson the specific model and feature package they want and offer a price that is precisely $300 above dealer invoice (a figure they know in advance). The sale is agreed upon and the Innovator picks up their new car that same day.

The Merchant saw a video on YouTube of their favorite celebrity who mentioned a new car they'd bought. Within two hours, they are in a dealership sitting in cars just like the celebrity, fretting over which color to get. Two hours later they drive off with their new car, after paying full MSRP, and five minutes later they get pulled over for taking selfies while driving down the interstate freeway.

The Builder has their current vehicle up on a rack in the service department at the dealership. The service manager comes out and tells them their transmission needs $2,000 worth of work and the car's warranty expired a week earlier. The Builder walks over to the sales department and 30 minutes later picks out a brand new model. They trade in their old car, which is now parked out back, for two thousand less than they'd get for it on the open market. They get a speeding ticket driving home.

The Banker spends six weeks researching car models, reliability reports, and tax incentives for hybrid and electric models. They make nine phone calls to five different insurance companies seeking rates and coverage options. The Banker creates a big spreadsheet with complex mathematical scores assigned to each researched vehicle that rate and rank reliability, maintenance schedules, insurance rates, and amortization schedules. They end up keeping their current vehicle, which already has 210,000 miles on it, because they can't bring themselves to make the decision to actually go buy a new one.