Early in life, we begin to exhibit a certain unique imprint or affinity—an intrinsic impulse—for work that makes us come alive. This work gives us the feeling of being Sparked. These imprints not only determine what type of work or effort we’re drawn to (and repelled from), they also tend to come with a host of common behaviors, quirks, and attachments. I call these imprints “Sparketypes®,” which is an easy shorthand for the source code level driver of work that makes you come alive. Not just for now, but for life.
For most people, discovering your Sparketype is like meeting your true self. There is an immediate, intuitive knowing—an undeniable truth that explains so many past choices and outcomes. It empowers you to not only understand who you are and why you do what you do, but also how you contribute to the world on a very different, more intentional, and fulfilling level.
It sparks your life and ignites those around you. Discovering your Sparketype is often described as a “homecoming.” A recognition that, “yes, this is me, and it’s worthy of my time, energy, and attention.”
While words like “life purpose” or “singular passion” often lead people down a path of confusion and futility, rather than clarity and action, finding your Sparketype gives you the exact opposite. It equips you with insight that immediately rings true, a sense of direction, and the freedom to finally lead from a place of truth and potential. It allows you to let go of a lifetime of scattered and perpetually unfulfilling wheel-spinning. It frees you from all the less-nourishing distractions, and allows you to devote your energy to finding the incredible, vast kaleidoscope of pursuits, careers, projects, and adventures that let you express your unique imprint on a level that makes you come more fully alive.
You don’t have to buy into any one origin story, catchphrase, or set of beliefs to experience the self-evident, sustained nature and guiding influence of your Sparketype. You just have to discover yours, then weave it into the way you live and give. The feeling it gives back to you, the way those around you begin to respond when you live, play, and work from this place, will be all the validation, all the proof you need.
Now, of course, a few questions immediately arise.
HOW MANY SPARKETYPES ARE THERE?
The quick answer is ten. Funny enough, we began with a slightly larger number, 7.8 billion, the number of people in the world. We’re each unique, so there must also be 7.8 billion unique imprints. We cannot be distilled, right? Not so fast.
Your Sparketype is a bit like your DNA. On the surface, it may express itself in billions of unique, gloriously-you-and-only-you ways. But when you start to peel each person’s purpose, engagement, meaning, expression, and flow onion, billions of valid, surface-level, time-limited, circumstance-driven expressions reduce down to a remarkably small set of source code level elements or imprints. This leaves us with ten distinct DNA-level drivers. The Sparketypes.
YOUR SPARKETYPE HAS THREE ELEMENTS.
We’re all a blend of a number of different Sparketypes, but every person has a distinct Sparketype Profile that is made up of three key components. These represent your strongest impulses at both ends of the spectrum, the work that fills you up, as well as empties you out.
- Your Primary Sparketype. Think of your Primary Sparketype as the thing that generates the strongest impulse to exert effort for no other reason than the fact that it makes you feel alive. It is the underlying driver or source-fuel for the work that gives you the readiest access to flow, energizes and excites you, gives you a sense of meaning and purpose, and allows you to feel like you’re expressing your fullest self and potential. Expressed in a healthy and constructive way, it’s a big part of any number of jobs, experiences, hobbies, passions, and devotions that make you come alive, even when the work is hard.
- Your Shadow Sparketype. Your Shadow Sparketype is also a big part of you, sometimes even a close second behind your Primary. It is not, however, your strongest impulse. It’s easy to think of your Shadow Sparketype as your “runner-up” Sparketype. And, it may be a very close second. But, while there is a lot of truth to that, a much more nuanced and important-to-understand relationship almost always exists between your Primary and your Shadow. Your Shadow Sparketype most often reveals the work that you may well enjoy and have developed a high level of skill around—but, when you’re really being honest, it is also the work you do largely in service of doing the work of your Primary Sparketype better. Think of it as your Primary Sparketype amplifier.
- Your Anti-Sparketype. Your Anti-Sparketype is the type of work that is the heaviest lift for you. It takes the most out of you, and requires the greatest amount of recovery even if, objectively, it’s not that hard. There’s just something about it that leaves you empty, as opposed to making you come alive.
HOW DO YOU DISCOVER YOUR SPARKETYPE?
This is where things get even more interesting. Some people stumble upon their Sparketype on their own. These individuals are incredibly rare. Many people understand that a certain type of activity or job makes them feel a certain way, but they don’t know why, and can’t easily reproduce that feeling in pursuits, jobs, organizations, or industries. This may be you, and if it is, you’re in the right place.
Even more often, people have no real sense at all for the type of work that makes them come alive. No clear understanding of what that deeper impulse is that might allow them to feel—to know—they’re doing the work they’re here to do. No sense of how to discover that DNA-level driver of effort that lights them up, and keeps them sparked for life.
WELCOME TO THE SPARKETYPE ASSESSMENT®.
Realizing this huge gap in awareness, we set out to develop a tool—the Sparketype Assessment—that would allow anyone, anywhere, to rapidly discover their Sparketype. While it took more than a year to develop (and that grew out of decades of prior investigation, collaboration, and integration), this online assessment can be completed in a matter of minutes. It takes the average person about ten or twelve minutes and it reveals your full Sparketype profile—all three elements. If you haven’t already discovered it, you can find it now at Sparketype.com.
