Human Design: How to discover the real you

Take the case of Caroline. She was travelling abroad with two friends in a country which was unfamiliar to them. They arrived late at the hotel and took separate rooms. The next morning Caroline went to pick up her Manifestor friend Sarah for breakfast, but she was nowhere to be found – she’d just upped and gone. One hour of worry later, there she was, panting through the lobby in her jogging outfit. She had needed to run and it had never occurred to her that her friends wouldn’t understand. She found the consternation of Caroline and her ‘pointless worrying’ hard to deal with. But now, when they travel together, this Manifestor has made an agreement to keep her friends informed of what she is doing.

If you do learn to keep others in the loop, life becomes easier. Admittedly, you don’t care about being understood – you just want to get things done. But for the sake of peace, if you’re working into the night at the office, pick up the phone and inform your partner. If you’ve gone off to save the world, let someone know what you’re doing! And if you have a Manifestor child, educate them to inform you before going off and doing something – just dress it up as a request, not a restrictive rule!

FAMOUS MANIFESTORS

Jennifer Aniston, Neil Armstrong, Al Gore, Paul McCartney, Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donald Trump and Liv Tyler.

I think it’s fair to say that the common thread binding these people together is the indefatigable, nothing-is-going-to-stop-me, must-keep-manifesting theme. It is somehow apt that the first man on the moon was a Manifestor who had to find his meaning in life by going into orbit, and that Al Gore is someone who is determined to change the world.

As a Manifestor, you must also recognize that your mere presence will push all sorts of buttons in people. Not everyone appreciates a whirlwind. You may rattle people and send them off – balance. This is your catalyzing nature in action, so be watchful of your impact – in the home and socially – recognize who’s getting upset and don’t take it personally.

The upside is that you do have a tremendous ability to motivate and propel others. You can make people walk on hot coals and bring them through unscathed. You are a truly catalyzing force. But a Manifestor design does not mean you are infallible. You can appear pushy, forceful and even intimidating, wanting to move ‘less – able beings’ out of the way. Learn to appreciate that people will try their best in your company and allow them to do so.

There is also a chance that in your childhood you were discouraged and blocked from your natural manifesting. Teachers and parents may not have understood you. ‘Sit down, be quiet and sit still’ is the worst thing a Manifestor can hear, and this can lead to rebellion or an inner rage building up until it blows. Even worse, you may have shut down and may still be denying your true expression.

Also, be watchful of people taking advantage of you. You might find yourself expected to constantly fetch and carry, fixing everything for everyone around you. You’re a Manifestor, not a slave. You’re on this Earth to catalyze action, not to perform duties for others.

As a Manifestor, you have a big responsibility to be clear about to what and whom you lend your manifesting abilities. When you’re clear, or moving forward, you’re a sight to behold. When you’re unclear, or blocked, you’re liable to tear the world down around you. Once you understand that the world doesn’t necessarily operate on your level, you’ll find it easier to engage with others and their slower way of getting things done.

What I will say about life with a Manifestor is that it can be fun – because who knows what’s going to happen next?!

TYPE 2

THE GENERATOR

‘Listen to your gut!’

A Generator always has a defined Sacral, but neither this centre nor any of the other motors – Heart, Emotions and Root – are connected to the Throat by an active channel.

You are a workhorse with endless life – force energy radiating outward, but don’t find it that easy to make things happen. Some effort is required before you get into your full stride and reach your potential. You are not designed to initiate but to wait. Your motto is: ‘Wait, respond, then get going!’

Being a Generator makes you relatively one – paced but highly effective and your momentum is a joy to watch because it is Sacral – powered, therefore remarkably enduring. You are the Duracell or Energizer battery which keeps on going and going when others are fading. Your challenge is to know how and where to best apply this enormous energy.

Waiting for the right projects, opportunities and people and honouring your gut response are your keys to finding fulfilment. When you chase or initiate without waiting, life can go wrong. It’s when you attract opportunity or respond after exercising patience that things tend to work out.

We live in a time when everyone wants to act now, get going, waste no time, achieve asap. This expectation may taunt you into getting a move on, but don’t be misled into thinking you must launch great initiatives. You first need the energy to generate within you; only then is it capable and effective. So sit down, be patient and master the art of waiting torespond. View yourself as a magnet and let people and openings seek you out. And they will. It is an energetic law of life that magnets attract.

So if you are wailing something like, ‘Why does everything I start or chase turn out bad?’ or ‘Why can he make those things happen but I can’t?’, my answer would be: ‘Because you haven’t learned to wait and attract.’ Don’t initiate. Wait.

Your mistaken self – perception is that you have so much energy that you can automatically make things happen. That’s probably fuelled by people describing you as purposeful and dedicated. You walk into the workplace and your life – force energy radiates, lifting everyone else. Here comes the real worker, the real juice – the Generator. You can save the day – and you even believe this yourself. Whether it feels right or not, you have a tendency to wade in and answer the call. Hours later, you’ll be head down, hard at work and look up to find everyone has gone back to sleep. Then you’ll have a quiet word with yourself and ask: ‘Why does it always fall to me? Why did I ever get involved?’

What you must realize is that the only things which prove fulfilling are things which duly arrive after you have exercised patience; openings or possibilities which arrive at your door or make your phone ring.

Then what’s crucial is your response. This response is governed by an inbuilt guidance system, the Sacral gut response, signalling who and what warrants your commitment. This is the core secret of your inner being, one that opens the doorway to what’s right for you.

You’ll recognize this gut sensation in the form of an involuntary reflex or sound, or the rising or contracting of energy, pulling you to or pushing you away from something. The sound is that familiar ‘a – huh’ which says ‘yes’ or that ‘uh – uh’ which says ‘no’. You need to attune to this sensation because it is, quite literally, your inbuilt indicator.

You’ll sense your gut in response to questions that people ask of you: ‘Can I ask for your help?’, ‘Do you want to go on a date?’ or ‘Are you hungry?’ But it also kicks in with much more profound questions that life asks. Test yourself the next time someone asks you something, but be aware that you might be waiting for an instantaneous gut response and, half a second later, the Mind will get involved. Don’t allow it to distract you. That’s not where your answer lies. Listen to your gut.

Also, observe inner musings which don’t require a direct question. If you are sitting in a restaurant, looking at a menu, going through the entrée choices, your ‘a – huh’ or ‘uh – uh’ will kick in. Listen to your gut.

Your process is played out thus: wait for what life offers, listen to your gut response, then get going.

Gayle is a Generator and has learned more and more to attune to her gut response. She was once being pursued by four potential suitors and was torn about to whom she should commit. After a Human Design reading, she needed to distance herself from the fog of her fears and presumptions, none of which played a part in a natural gut response. She stood in her bedroom, looked in the mirror and created a yes/no question for her gut to answer. One by one, she named the four men. ‘Should I go out with Doug?’ She felt that ‘uh – uh’ for no. ‘Should I go out with Marshall?’ Again, she felt ‘uh – uh’. ‘Should I go out with Michel?’ Once more, ‘uh – uh’. Finally, she came to Nick and felt a clear ‘a – huh’. There was her ‘yes’ answer. Somewhere in her being, Nick resonated with her and this was her clear guidance to give him a chance.

The mistake Generators can make is to think too much, allowing the Mind to override the Sacral. When this fog blurs the gut response, you find yourself committing to all kinds of wrong people and wrong pursuits. And then, the trouble for the Sacral is that once it is committed, it has to follow through and complete the experience, however inappropriate or ill – fitting. Quitting is a poor option – and this is one thing that requires understanding – because once your energetic momentum gets going, it’s engaged. Your nature builds up such a head of steam by waiting and waiting that it doesn’t know how to stop the momentum. It’s like asking a thundering express train to stop at a moment’s notice.

As a non – Generator, you might see someone running towards disaster but you’ll be powerless to stop them. You must wait for them to return to their senses in their own time – exhausted, unfulfilled and ready to try again.

Generators must be wary of other people seeking to harness their energy, to take advantage of them. A lot of them are found in the service industry, on the factory floor, or as assistants, secretaries and personal trainers, with a treadmill – like momentum that keeps things ticking like clockwork. That’s because Generators provide the juice for most things.

FAMOUS GENERATORS

Muhammad Ali, Fred Astaire, Beethoven, Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher and Oprah Winfrey.

The common theme here is the bundles of energy that sustain prime ministers and presidents and artistes. Plus, there is a perseverance and unstoppable momentum about them. Whirlwinds in their own right, I suspect many of these greats nevertheless needed to wait and allow the Sacral energy to build before releasing themselves into full flight. And I would love to know how much gut instinct played its part in the decision-making of Thatcher and Clinton!

If you are a Generator, you represent 37 per cent of the world’s population and appear as someone with enough power to raise the dead. Your energy turns heads when you enter a room. You’re viewed as capable and unflagging. I bet you’re someone who rolls out of bed, cooks breakfast, drops the kids off at school, goes to work, gives your all, fixes other people’s stuff, works out at lunchtime, impresses the boss some more in the afternoon, goes home, does the laundry, fixes the dinner, bathes the children, puts them to bed then turns to your partner – and collapses in a heap. No one, except other Generator types, can hope to keep up with you.

The problem is that you can arrive at the end of your days feeling you’ve accomplished a lot but still feeling unfulfilled. That’s because, in the large part, you’ve just been going through the motions. Life is not just about ticking boxes and keeping others happy. Herein lies the key to a Generator design: only engage with people and activities that resonate, otherwise you’ll discover the flip – side to your type and become the pure couch potato who has given up, exhausted with life and fed up trying. Or you can become someone who is wiped out, prone on your bed, waiting for energy to be regenerated.

I would also advise everyone not to throw too much, all at once, at a Generator. However capable and energetic they seem, there’s only so much responding they can do. You’ll know they’ve reached their limit when their hands go up and they say: ‘Enough!’ Or when, feeling overwhelmed, they’ll simply ask for space.

As a parent of a Generator child, your task is to clue them into their gut response if you want them – and you – to avoid tears and frustration. There is no point in handing a child a trumpet and expecting them to master it if it doesn’t resonate with them. It’s a waste of time for dads to coach their boys in baseball or football if this fails to excite. Parents need to understand the distinction between their expectations for their children and what actually resonates with those children.

Likewise in relationships, it is asking for trouble to declare to your Generator lover that you’ve decided what you’re doing for the weekend and drag them off to the beach for a picnic without first sounding out their gut response. Partners should learn to ask Generators open – ended questions which start with queries such as: ‘Would you like to do this today?’ or ‘Do you think it’s a good idea if we…?’ Don’t worry about being ‘man enough’ and taking control; honour the Generator nature, not the ego. These people require consultation if your relationship is to work.

Over the years, I’ve met thousands of Generators and have tried to point out what makes them tick. Some of them get it straightaway, but far too many have fallen prey to conditioning and are slogging away as workhorses in situations where their unstinting efforts are taken for granted. It is indisputable that wrong people and projects will fly high because of a Generator’s input, but that’s not the point to their life. They need to find where their amazing source of energy is best directed and appreciated.

Geraldine is a hardworking mother with three delightful but extremely demanding children. She saw it as her duty to fulfil any demands they asked of her at any time. However, despite the pleasure she derived from this, she was exhausted and more than a little frustrated that she rarely had the time and energy for anything else. In a classic Generator situation, the attention and demands of others were depleting her. Since she could not afford a nanny, there seemed no solution and she gradually found herself getting more and more worn out.

At my reading for Geraldine, she had no idea she had such a bountiful Sacral. She just assumed she was being run ragged and operated on auto – pilot. When she learned that she had an infallible inbuilt indicator system capable of letting her know which activities worked best for her, she immediately began changing the way she lived.

She actually saw the importance of educating her children to approach her in a different way. Instead of being bombarded with ‘I want’ demands, she coached the children to ask open – ended questions which required a yes/no response. She was subtle enough to disguise this shift into a playful set of new rules. To her delight, the questions elicited a reliable gut response and now she only commits to the activities which resonate. This, in turn, has empowered the children to be more resourceful and they’re delighted to see Mum having more satisfaction – and energy – in her life.

I tell all Generators to acknowledge the blessing they are. As a Generator, you may well be harbouring fears that you’ll miss the boat if you don’t act now or that everything will go wrong if you don’t jump in and seize control. But trust your nature. Trust the person you born to be – and wait to respond.

TYPE 3

MANIFESTING

GENERATOR

‘Moment of Truth’

A Manifesting Generator has a defined Sacral connected through any sequence of active channels to a defined Throat.

You are a potential powerhouse and bundle of energy combined, but require the tight rein of patience before releasing your considerable resources effectively.