I'm Not a Flake. I'm an Innovator.

So Many Hobbies

I've had many hobbies and recreational pursuits in my life. From grade school through high school, I was into sports. Baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, skiing and swimming. I got into band playing trombone. In middle school, I got into computers by writing BASIC programs on a Commodore Vic-20 (I actually made a career out of software development). Being a child of the late 70s and early 80s, Dungeons & Dragons™ figured prominently in my youth.

As an adult, my hobbies shifted less frequently but got a bit more expensive. I got into playing guitar and synthesizer, and even dabbled in recording my own songs in a make-shift home studio. In the mid 2000's, I wrote, produced and directed a short film.

In the 80's and 90's, I spent a lot of time hiking and backpacking area trails and wilderness areas. To stay in shape, I got into mountain biking.

In late 2006, I got into motorcycle adventure touring, traveling solo all over the western United States and Canada on my Suzuki V-Strom 650.

In 2013 I wrote and published a novel. And then I wrote four more and have yet another in the works.

Around 2017, I got into aviation and built a flight simulator in a spare bedroom.

Between all these big hobby periods, like mortar between the bricks in a wall, my side activities have included writing and publishing a general interest newsletter, nature photography, wedding and sports videography, fishing, and even a brief stint deer hunting.

Since quarantine began in March, 2020, I've gotten into cycling.

Are you seeing the pattern here? I try something new, work with it for a bit until I've achieved a certain level of accomplishment, then I abandon it for the next shiny thing.

I never understood why I kept repeating this cycle until I took the Core Values Index psychometric assessment. The CVI taught me something about myself that explained my seemingly incessant need to Try Something New.

I'm not a flake. I'm an Innovator.

The Core Values Index

When you complete the CVI, your personalized assessment report describes your emotional hardwiring. Each person has a certain ratio of four personality types. These are listed as scores from 0 (none) to 36 (maximum) for each type, all totaling exactly 72. This means if you have a high amount of one personality or energy type, you likely have correspondingly lower scores in one or more other core value energy types.

The four core value energy types are:

• Builder, which represents power and action.
• Merchant, which represents love and connection with others.
• Innovator, which represents wisdom and problem solving.
• Banker, which represents knowledge and justice.

Each person has a unique combination of these emotional personality types within them.

My core values index profile is 27-Innovator, 17-Banker, 15-Builder, and 13-Merchant. I am described as an "Innovator/Banker."

The driving desire of someone who's primary core value energy is Innovator is to solve problems. Every hobby I've ever had in the past and ever will have in the future is a reflection of my desire to solve a problem or learn something new. Once I have effectively solved that problem, I get bored with it and want to move onto something else.

Changing hobbies is natural for me.

The hobbies I've kept the longest have the greatest depth and opportunity for growth and learning, giving me continued reason to keep solving problems.

Prior to taking the CVI, I thought I was just a flake who got bored easily. Instead, I am an Innovator who loves learning new things. I am an Innovator who's talent and innate contribution to the world is to find solutions to difficult problems.

Conversely, the core value of who I am and what I can achieve is wasted if I do the same thing day after day without any opportunity to grow and find answers to new challenges.

Discover Yourself

Although you may or may not be able to relate to my experience, this article is about discovery. This article is about using an 8-minute personality assessment that is both simple yet powerful to discover the reasons behind your behavior and how you see the world.

The CVI is about discovering yourself and what makes you unique.

The CVI is about learning the reasons why you prefer some activities over others. The CVI explains why you naturally get along with some people and not others. It explains why you react to stress in particular yet predictable ways, depending on which core value energy is your primary or top score. (See "Conflict Resolution" within your full CVI report.)

Since taking the Core Values Index, I have learned to accept my Innovator-ness and have stopped judging myself when changing hobbies. That's who I am. That is how I am hardwired.

As I write this, I am contemplating making yet another big change in my recreational life. This would entail completely abandoning one hobby, selling all my stuff, and investing in new gear and going in a new direction. (Why does it seem that hobbies get more expensive as you get older?)

This time around, I am going into my research and self-analysis with a clear head and an understanding of my emotional make-up (remember, my secondary core value energy is Banker, and Bankers love to research things). Why am I considering the change? What will the new hobby bring to my life? What juicy problems will I have to solve? How long will it take me to solve them? How long will it be before I am satisfied and feel the need to pursue new challenges doing something else?

With my full Core Values Index report in hand, I have the information I need to make the best decision.