What is Your Risk Tolerance?

Risk tolerance comes in all flavors. Are you someone who prefers to take the safe route in life, or do you prefer to live life on the edge? 

Are you afraid you might drown in the bathtub? Or are you first in line to go skydiving? 

Risk tolerance types vary; some of us are much more concerned about taking risks than others.

In this episode, John and Kim talk about the different types of risk-taking and how each Life Theme — Love, Justice, Wisdom, and Power — approaches risk differently. Tune in and discover what your risk tolerance might be.

For more information go to johnvoris.com

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Transcript

What is Your Risk Tolerance?

Kim Eley (00:01):

Hello and welcome. We're so glad y'all are back for another episode of Authentic Living, the Podcast for a Better Life. And you're here with me, Kim Eley, and our amazing co-host, John. 

And John, I am really curious to learn more about our topic today, because it is all about risk, right?

Kim Eley (00:37):

Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, and gosh knows, you know, people have very different risk tolerances. But I'm really curious to know how you decided to choose today's topic.

John Voris (00:50):

Well, I was thinking about Christmas, and I'm thinking about gift giving. And the idea is we like to give a gift that the, the individual, the receiving individual would like it, they would help them, they would use it and be a positive impact in their life if we can. And so we go through this decision process of what do I get, Joe, George, or Harry or Mary, whoever it might be. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And so it's all about taking risk, what's safe, what's dangerous, et cetera. And then I started expanding that out and, and thinking of an everyday risk mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and how that comes about and our judgements of risk taking, and if we think it's reasonable or unreasonable we judge other people and how they view risk also.

Kim Eley (01:42):

Uhhuh <Affirmative>.

John Voris (01:43):

So I thought that'd be a nice podcast.

Kim Eley (01:46):

Oh, I think that's a great idea. So, just to clarify, when you're talking about risk for the holidays, you're not talking about standing on a ladder trying to decorate your house with holiday lights and the risk involved in that <laugh>?

John Voris (02:00):

Well, maybe.

Kim Eley (02:02):

Oh, okay. Right. Okay. Good deal. So, so yeah, I'm really curious to know about this, but I, I think, I think there's a lot of risk in, and, and tell me if I'm on the right track with, with giving gifts and, and what we use to, to, you know, say, you know, give to one another.

John Voris (02:26):

That's right. That was the whole, that's how, what started it. And so I wanted to go through that because I wanted the people to really see the power of the life theme.

Kim Eley (02:39):

Ooh. 

John Voris (02:39):

And the power of the archetypes in our life and how it really does resonate everywhere.

Kim Eley (02:45):

Oh, awesome. Awesome, awesome. So I'm thinking that how we react to risk differs. Well, it does differ, right? Yeah. You have some people who are, who are wild cards, who take a chance on anything, and then there's some people who are just very play. It's very safe, <laugh>. 

John Voris (03:08):

That's right. That's absolutely right. The, but—what's interesting is this can go expand actually out even into something like sales.

Kim Eley (03:16):

Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>

John Voris (03:17):

Relationships.

Kim Eley (03:18):

Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>

John Voris (03:19):

There, there are many ways people take risks every day introducing themselves to other people. Some give their public speakers they're, they're risking whether or not they're going to give a good performance. The risk is really everywhere.

Kim Eley (03:36):

Yes.

John Voris (03:37):

So, you know, what I did is I, I looked up some statistics just for fun.

Kim Eley (03:43):

Ooh.

John Voris (03:44):

So what I found was, what I found was for example, it people drowning in a bathtub.

Kim Eley (03:53):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>

John Voris (03:55):

Is one out of 83,000.

Kim Eley (03:58):

Hmm. But Wow.

John Voris (04:01):

But dying from skydiving is one out of 100,000.

Kim Eley (04:07):

What? That's crazy. That's so close. <Laugh>

John Voris (04:10):

Very, so very close. So the chances of drowning in a bathtub is very close to skydiving. Now, that doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's a statistic.

Kim Eley (04:21):

Ah!

John Voris (04:22):

Race, cars, people race. There's not many race car drivers in the world. And the statistic is one out of a hundred die in, in a crash eventually.

Kim Eley (04:35):

Yikes.

John Voris (04:36):

Which is terrible. But bass jumpers is one out of 60.

Kim Eley (04:44):

Eek!

John Voris (04:45):

So driving a, a car and a race is safer than base jumping.

Kim Eley (04:51):

Wow.

John Voris (04:53):

Yeah. And so, and even, but when you get to accidents, daily accidents—

Kim Eley (04:58):

Uh huh <affirmative>

John Voris (04:58):

—16 out of a hundred thousand.

Kim Eley (05:01):

Wow. 

John Voris (05:02):

Very High.

Kim Eley (05:03):

Like a daily car accident, like in traffic.

John Voris (05:06):

Yeah, absolutely.

Kim Eley (05:06):

Oh, wow. So,

John Voris (05:08):

So the thing is, is that my only point there is statistics are meaningless.

John Voris (05:13):

We do not face risk on statistics, but there's people who are, are base jumpers that think that let's say skydiving is dangerous or reverse, and yet they're both one out of a hundred thousand—base jumpers are one out of 60. They're both relatively dangerous. So, but how do they make a decision like that? And compare the two regardless of who you are?

Kim Eley (05:45):

Right. 

John Voris (05:46):

You’re in, doesn't matter.

Kim Eley (05:47):

So with base jumping, is it one out of 60 or one out of 60,000? One out of 60 mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. Oh, 60. Oh, wow. 

So speaking as somebody who personally has done skydiving twice and has actually, you might be surprised, flirted with the idea of doing a base jump.

John Voris (06:08):

Oh!

Kim Eley (06:10):

I'm a little more nervous now, now that I've heard that statistic. <Laugh>.

John Voris (06:16):

Yeah.

Kim Eley (06:16):

Yeah. <laugh>. Yikes. Because one, one out of a hundred thousand, it's like, “Oh, okay. You know, but that's a freak accident. Somebody packed a parachute incorrectly.” One out of 60 is like, I'm “Oh, snap.” Yeah. That's a little scary.

John Voris (06:33):

Yeah. That's scary. <Laugh>. Oh, yeah. So if we're not looking at the statistics—

Kim Eley (06:38):

Right.

John Voris (06:39):

—and we're really, are, we're really being motivated by an idea.

Kim Eley (06:43):

Yeah.

John Voris (06:45):

So like there race car drivers are motivated by winning the race. some people like to skydive because of being popular in the industry. And sometimes it's just recognition. But what it gets down to is the number one rule is the human mind only has one need. And that's a perpetual need to express our authentic identity through people and events. 

Kim Eley (07:16):

Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>.

John Voris (07:17):

And so if that's the number one reason, everything else steps to the side, such as risk taking and statistics.

Kim Eley (07:25):

Ah, interesting. So it doesn't matter what the statistics are. It matters who you are authentically. Huh. Interesting.

John Voris (07:35):

But it's all based on I idea, on the idea of what would it be like to skydive, be able to tell my friends I did it.

Kim Eley (07:45):

Gotcha.

John Voris (07:46):

I would have the experience of it, but then I'd able tell everyone that I did it. And so that would be fun. I would really I think I liked that. 

Kim Eley (07:57):

That's—would you go skydiving?

John Voris (07:59):

No.

Kim Eley (08:00):

Oh. Oh, oh. I thought, oh, oh, I thought you were saying you'd like to go theoretical. Oh, theoretically. Ok. Gotcha. Gotcha, gotcha.

John Voris (08:08):

So when it comes to all this and what, what's safe and what's dangerous and what's risk, it's, it all gets down to who we are as an individual in our authentic, authentic identity is what's really moving it forward and making these choices for us in a sense. And so I wanted to go a little further and say that we, the language we use in, in daily events is an illusion.

Kim Eley (08:32):

Hmm.

John Voris (08:33):

So for example, marriage is an illusion that alludes to why two people share the same living space—

Kim Eley (08:44):

Hmm. Ok.

John Voris (08:46):

—does not exist. It does not live out in the field. It's not, doesn't grow out the ground doesn't fly, it has no weight. How tall is it? How deep is it? Right. Marriage is an idea, just a concept that we came up with.

Kim Eley (09:03):

So that little piece of paper that that's marriage certificate.

John Voris (09:08):

Yeah.

Kim Eley (09:09):

So we can say—

John Voris (09:09):

—we're married to you, here's my paper to prove it. <Laugh>,

Kim Eley (09:12):

Here's my paper. Gotcha. But still, it's just a concept. Like you said, you can't go out and go, Hey, let's go look at our marriage <laugh>. 

John Voris (09:20):

That’s right. That's right. So now also brother and sister could explain why two people were living together. Male and female, mother and son, father and daughter. So these are terms we use to explain our position in the world in a sense, or in this case, why two people live in the same house.

Kim Eley (09:41):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> illusion. Gotcha.

John Voris (09:43):

So what happens is our life being gathers these illusions together—

Kim Eley (09:50):

Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>.

John Voris (09:51):

—we do it, we, we do it through choice because we have a sense of preference, which is ours, but it's ours. Cause it's what the life theme and our authentic, our archetypes are doing, which is directing our experiences.

Kim Eley (10:07):

Hmm. Which one? Gotcha.

John Voris (10:09):

Justice, wisdom, power, they're all directing our experiences. And so what that does is generate our sense of value—

Kim Eley (10:18):

Mm-Hmm.

John Voris (10:18):

—and our values accumulate into judgments and that shapes our worldview.

Kim Eley (10:25):

Gotcha. So what might be an example of this in, in I r l in real life? What, what might be a good example of I'm going to say a risk and how it's, how it's part of someone's authentic identity.

John Voris (10:47):

Very good. I went and studied stocks, bond real estate and commodities as mm-hmm. In investments, and, and studied the people who made quite a bit of money in doing so. So for example, take stocks.

Kim Eley (11:06):

Mm-Hmm.

John Voris (11:07):

Warren Buffet made his money through stocks in his mind after reading his autobiography, what he did is he said in investment shouldn't be a risk if you, it'll always be a risk, but it shouldn't be an unreasonable risk. If you have enough information. So what he did is he, he was a wisdom person.

Kim Eley (11:32):

Uhhuh <affirmative>.

John Voris (11:33):

Him learning was everything.

Kim Eley (11:35):

Yeah.

John Voris (11:36):

And if you study hard enough, you, you would be able to make a reasonable risk and buy stocks.

Kim Eley (11:44):

Gotcha. 

John Voris (11:44):

So buying stocks really conform to his authentic identity.

Kim Eley (11:49):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

John Voris (11:51):

Okay. So, but if he were to buy bonds that wouldn't.

Kim Eley (11:57):

Ah.

John Voris (11:58):

So I mean, it, it, he, because it's a whole different concept. Bonds are just, you buy a bond quite often, it's a government or, or local institutions. All you're doing is lending and money, and you, the bond and you have income come. It's a steady fixed amount that comes in. And so there's not a lot of excitement to it.

Kim Eley (12:21):

There's not a lot of risk. 

John Voris (12:23):

Not, yeah. There's not a lot of risk, and there's no nothing really to learn.

Kim Eley (12:27):

Right.

John Voris (12:28):

I mean, there's learning involved, but not compared to stocks. My point—

Kim Eley (12:31):

Right. So bonds I've always heard are, are slow and steady earners, but stocks especially there's some stocks that are pretty reliable what are they called? Blue chip or something like that, like the, the, the, the fortune, what is it called? Like IBM and some of the other ones that are kind of steady. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then there's like super risky stocks, like startup companies, things

John Voris (13:07):

Like Oh, certainly. Yes. Oh, absolutely. Well, so now Warren Buffet would, would do a complete analysis what, whatever stocks he was looking at. That's my point. But he's a wisdom person. Right. He's going to take the time to do it.

Kim Eley (13:18):

Right.

John Voris (13:19):

A bond person is, is not that interested in that. Right. They want to find something secure, reliable, dependable, and they don't want to take a great risk.

Kim Eley (13:29):

Gotcha. 

John Voris (13:30):

Am I right?

Kim Eley (13:32):

<Laugh> You are right. Based on my relationship with wisdom people, I would say that's correct. <Laugh>.

John Voris (13:40):

Exactly. So but the idea is that, that this all really is an illusion. And what create what gives us a sense of stability is our authentic identity. And the life theme is, is what's directing our experiences so that we can have a feeling of stability, a feeling of control.

Kim Eley (14:03):

<Affirmative>

John Voris (14:03):

A feeling of being able to predict the future to some extent. I know that when I walk out the door I'm not going to be hit by a satellite, or chances are okay.

Kim Eley (14:16):

It’s bizarre. Very unlikely. Right. So Warren Buffet is a wisdom person. Ha! Have you looked into some other successful investors in other fields?

John Voris (14:28):

Sure.

John Voris (14:31):

Architect. You have Bill Gross, he had bonds, and what he liked, it's a fixed income, and the, there wasn't a great deal of risk of mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. and so what he talked about is the feeling of contentment, the feeling, the, the lack of, let's say the, the, the lack of insecurity

Kim Eley (14:56):

Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>.

John Voris (14:58):

Constantly worrying about collecting the money from a bond. And so what he felt was it's very reliable. That's my point.

Kim Eley (15:08):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

John Voris (15:10):

So then we have Warren Buffett, we, I said, do we have commodities? 

Kim Eley (15:15):

Pardon me? Wait, we, we didn't share Bill Gross. What, what's his archetype? What's his life theme? Love. What is it? Love. Oh, love. Okay. Gotcha. So explain why he as a love person would be attracted to bonds.

John Voris (15:32):

Well, actually through his autobiography, he talked about the bonds he bought were from companies and, and, and also government agencies that he really cared about.

Kim Eley (15:47):

Ah!

John Voris (15:48):

That was a difference.

Kim Eley (15:49):

Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha.

John Voris (15:54):

We have very cool stocks, of course, Warren Buffet wisdom and the idea—to you have to really investigate your stocks and do a lot of research, lot of work. And, but he's a Love Theme.

Kim Eley (16:06):

Love?

John Voris (16:08):

And so, so in his, both of these, one is love and the other one's wisdom. And they feel I am expressing my authentic identity.

Kim Eley (16:16):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>

John Voris (16:18):

Using my intuition in buying stocks or buying bonds that I feel safe. I feel safer—

Kim Eley (16:28):

Yeah.

John Voris (16:28):

—that I bought something different.

Kim Eley (16:30):

Ah, okay. Gotcha. Gotcha, gotcha. 

John Voris (16:34):

And we have Jim Rogers chose for commodities. And the commodities are what you buy, such as the metals and livestock meat, agriculture. They commodities basic basically used for manufacturing other products, et cetera. But what he focused on was using both logic and observation.

Kim Eley (16:59):

Hmm.

John Voris (17:00):

And he also looked at it from a balanced position—

Kim Eley (17:04):

Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>,

John Voris (17:05):

—which is justice

Kim Eley (17:06):

Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. 

John Voris (17:08):

And so that's, and he made, well, his net was 300 million, and I should said Warren Buffet was 7.7 billion.

Kim Eley (17:18):

Wow.

John Voris (17:19):

And gross was 2.2 billion. That's what his net worth is. So they were able to use their intuition in, in in investing, and they made a lot of money.

Kim Eley (17:30):

Yeah.

John Voris (17:32):

But it's a type of investment related to the type of authentic identity.

Kim Eley (17:38):

Right. Okay.

John Voris (17:39):

And then I did this several years ago. So my power person is the power is real estate. And the reason is they are looking for a token of their power. They need something physical, they need something visible to point to and talk about. And of course, at that time that was Donald Trump.

Kim Eley (18:03):

<Laugh>, that totally fits <laugh>.

John Voris (18:06):

So Donald Trump is definitely a power person. And then that's how he invested his money. And so, getting back to the idea of risk, danger, and safety, as you can see, again, it goes back to your authentic identity, your life theme, and how it's constantly directing you in everything in life.

Kim Eley (18:29):

Right. Okay.

John Voris (18:31):

So it, it is so predictable and it, it, it just, it's always there and always working. And so when you think about the dynamics of your authentic identity, wherever you look in your life, you'll find it, whether it's investing, whether it's relationships, whether it's what you like and care for or dislike, doesn't matter. 

Kim Eley (18:58):

Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>.

John Voris (18:59):

And so I thought that was very interesting. And especially during the holidays. But the idea is that we create the illusion, all this, all this language is illusion that we create in order to refer to or allude to our physical justice position in the world. What are we physically doing in the world? It's based on illusions.

Kim Eley (19:24):

Oh, wow. So I think this is a good place for us to take a short break, but let's dive back into that, cuz I, I think that's really interesting to investigate. Is, is, is concepts and delusions. Ooh, <laugh>. 

(Break) 

Kim Eley:

All right. We are back. And we alluded a little bit to the illusions of risk. Woo. I don't know why I feel like I want to do like a David Copperfield illusion kind of thing, but I think it's really interesting to explore because we have the concepts of reasonable risks and unreasonable risks. And we usually take those to be like rock solid unshakable things, right? Yeah.

John Voris (20:25):

When in actuality they're myths.

Kim Eley (20:27):

Haha. How so?

John Voris (20:30):

Because it's, it, it is dependent on our life theme, which is trying to direct us in one form of expression. And so my idea of unreasonable risk is going to be different than yours in, in many instances, not all. That's only because it's the life theme doing the directing. And so when it comes to the two of us are just going to say, oh, I think, I think, let's say skydiving is unreasonable.

Kim Eley (21:02):

<Laugh>, okay,

John Voris (21:03):

You did it. But for me, skydiving is unreasonable. Why? Because I have no control. I don't know for certain what will happen.

Kim Eley (21:16):

Ah, interesting.

John Voris (21:19):

So you see that's my criteria.

Kim Eley (21:21):

So as a wisdom life theme, I'm thinking. And tell me, tell me if I'm on the right track, you would look into skydiving, well, you probably wouldn't look into skydiving, you'd probably dismiss it, but, but if you were to look into it, you'd be like, you would do research on it. You would ask lots and lots of questions about it. What would go into your thought process with that?

John Voris (21:45):

I want to know as much as possible mm-hmm.

Kim Eley (21:47):

<Affirmative>.

John Voris (21:48):

And I don't want to rely on information from other people. I want to get only expert opinion. Then I, then even the word opinion kind of bothers me. I want to get facts if I can't.

Kim Eley (21:59):

Ah, gotcha. Gotcha, gotcha. What if, here's a hypothetical it wasn't skydiving as a recreational activity. What if you signed up to be part of the military and part of your training involved skydiving out of airplanes as a wisdom life theme? How would you approach that?

John Voris (22:22):

I would first find out that, that that was part of what I would be doing.

Kim Eley (22:27):

Okay. That makes sense.

John Voris (22:29):

See, first, know now, well now to go further, if I knew that that would be part of my activities, then that alone would stop me from protesting.

Kim Eley (22:43):

Interesting. Why?

John Voris (22:45):

Because that was my decision. That was my authentic decision, ah, to go—

Kim Eley (22:48):

Ahead?

John Voris (22:49):

Forward, because I know that's what was coming up.

Kim Eley (22:52):

Gotcha. 

John Voris (22:54):

Some people would say, “well, yeah, I kind of knew it, but no, I'm not gonna do that.” Well, that's not a wisdom person. That could be a justice. Or it could be a love, power, but a wisdom person once they know that really locks them in.

Kim Eley (23:08):

Gotcha. So what are some other reasonable risks? Unreasonable risks?

John Voris (23:15):

Well how about mountain? Climbing and, and base jumping and, but even when you drive a car, that's a risk. But what's interesting is no one really looks at it that much as a risk because that there's 16 deaths per a hundred thousand, which is high.

Kim Eley (23:34):

Yeah. That is high. Okay.

John Voris (23:36):

And so it's like I said, drowning in a bathtub is one out of 83,000.

Kim Eley (23:41):

Right. But yet, no. No. I've never heard anybody say, “oh, you know, Kim, you better not take a bath. Are you crazy? You know, whatcha doing?” 

But I definitely did hear that with skydiving. So that's so interesting. The, the reasonability and the unreasonability, I often heard <laugh>, and in fact it was, it was kind of made into a joke. I think it was people who were studying accidents would say the majority of car accidents would happen within a mile of someone's house. Right. And the old joke was the husband tells the wife, “Oh, majority of car accidents happen a mile away from your home. And she goes, oh no, honey, we should move!” <laugh>.

John Voris (24:36):

<laugh> I never heard that. That's— Never heard that.

Kim Eley (24:38):

I thought that was pretty clever. But it's true. If we, like, especially as Americans, and especially depending on where you live, we're pretty dependent on cars. Right. If you live in a place like New York City or Chicago, you don't have to have a car. But if you're in California like you are, or Virginia like I am, you're not going to get very far if you don't drive a car. So it would, i, if somebody was really paranoid, like I remember some people in my driver's ed class got really scared about driving, you know, they showed us these gosh awful movies, you know, designed to scare teenagers, you know, into, you know, driving reasonably. And some, I remember friends of mine being like, “Oh, I'm not gonna get my driver's license.” Hmm. And I was like, is that reasonable though? Because if you want to hold a job, if you know, if you want to, you know, visit your family, presuming that you could hop in the car and do that, if you want to do almost any function, are you going to basically shut down your life because you feel like it's unreasonable to drive

John Voris (25:48):

Unreasonable for the reason of danger.

Kim Eley (25:51):

Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>

John Voris (25:56):

Hmm. Now that, well, that's going to the extreme.

Kim Eley (26:01):

It, it is. Yeah. I, I agree with that.

John Voris (26:03):

And so that's not, that's not an area that I, I now I think you're almost getting into a neurosis.

Kim Eley (26:10):

Oh, oh, okay. Gotcha. So, okay. So, so when we're talking about reasonable and unreasonable that that's a good qualifier. We're, we're talking about not a neurosis we're talking about with quote unquote normal people.

John Voris (26:25):

It's really somebody Now here's a, here's a difference. I will say this.

So sometimes when I'm assessing someone, I would say, “Well, why do you need a car?” “Why? I need to get around!” “Okay, that's fine. But why do you need a car? Are you gonna walk?” “Well, I can't walk to work.” “Why not?” “Well, because work is 12 miles away, so why don't you walk?” “Well, I don't wanna walk.” “Why?”

Kim Eley (26:47):

<Laugh>

John Voris (26:47):

“I don't want to.” And that's the answer. “I just don't want to.”

Kim Eley (26:50):

Right.

John Voris (26:51):

It’s really about desire.

Kim Eley (26:54):

Right. 

John Voris (26:55):

And wants, yeah. And the logic of it is, is irrelevant. It's David Hume, he was a 17th century Scottish philosopher, said that logic and reason are actually the slaves of our passions.

Kim Eley (27:14):

Ooh.

John Voris (27:15):

And that's interesting. That's exactly right. And that's what we've been talking about. It's the illusion of the, of language.

Kim Eley (27:23):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> 

John Voris (27:24):

How we feel about them and how you feel about risk. What is safety to you. How you feel and how you feel about danger. Because there's a many people do cra—in my mind, crazy things. 

Kim Eley (27:41):

Mm-Hmm.<Affirmative>. 

John Voris (27:42):

How about scuba diving in caves. <Laugh> now that, oh, that would, that terrified me. I couldn't do it. Okay. <laugh>. Because there's nothing about that I would be certain of.

Kim Eley (27:54):

Right, right. 

John Voris (27:56):

People do die and in that situation. Yeah.

John Voris (28:00):

But they're getting a thrill and excitement that I would never get.

Kim Eley (28:05):

Right.

John Voris (28:06):

Okay. Right. So, so you, it gets down not logic and reason. In fact what really what we really do is we feel what we want and then we use logic and reason to get it.

Kim Eley (28:19):

Ah, okay. Gotcha. Gotcha.

John Voris (28:23):

So getting back to risk and getting back to what's unreasonable and reasonable, it's all about feel. But what's interesting is we start this feeling even in the womb.

Kim Eley (28:36):

Really? Yes.

John Voris (28:38):

Doctors would explain that the personality, the way in which the, the—I guess in utero.

Kim Eley (28:48):

Oh yeah.

John Voris (28:49):

Would express themselves as a certain type and kind.

Kim Eley (28:54):

Hmm.

John Voris (28:55):

Similar to personality, but the other one is when you can be three, four, or five you, or even younger too mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And we, we have a sense of right and wrong already.

Kim Eley (29:13):

Hmm mm-hmm. <Affirmative>.

John Voris (29:14):

And a good one. Good example of that is children who were molested.

Kim Eley (29:21):

Hmm. Yeah.

John Voris (29:23):

Very young. But this is wrong. They just know it.

Kim Eley (29:27):

Yeah. 

John Voris (29:28):

Where did they get that?

Kim Eley (29:29):

Yeah. 

John Voris (29:31):

Well tha—talk to genetics that I, I explained in another podcast, but also do the expression of genetics and how that generates and, and gets our sense of, of, of values. Right, wrong, good and bad. Prepared to be triggered.

Kim Eley (29:46):

Right. Right.

John Voris (29:48):

So they are triggered. And so this is what it means to be human. It's just these are the capacities and, and faculties that we have that we're born with, and then we go out in the world and trigger them, but we trigger them in a way that conforms to the authentic identity.

Kim Eley (30:08):

So you saying that is interesting, and we talked a little bit about this, but when, when you, when you mentioned triggering, I was thinking of gift giving and risks involved because so many people feel triggered by the fear of giving the wrong gift and things like that. How, how does, how does the risk involved in gift giving relate to each archetype?

John Voris (30:38):

Well know that you are let's see, let's say am I, I'm giving a gift to an archetype. Okay.

Kim Eley (30:47):

Yeah.

John Voris (30:47):

So, well, it's you give a gift of that will empower the power.

Kim Eley (30:53):

Mm. Okay.

John Voris (30:55):

You would give a gift that a caring gift to the love person. You would empower or enhance the wisdom of the wisdom person.

Kim Eley (31:08):

Mm-hmm <Affirmative>.

John Voris (31:09):

And you would give a sense of something that would balance out something they feel you feel is missing in someone else's life. And that would help them balance out their life in the justice person—justice.

Kim Eley (31:20):

Mm gotcha.

John Voris (31:23):

So when you think about, okay, let me ask you, what is the most memorable gift you've received?

Kim Eley (31:31):

Oh gosh. It would be my kitchen mixer because I was not expecting it, but my husband absolutely knew that I wanted to have this standup mixer. I was just thrilled.

John Voris (31:50):

And why?

Kim Eley (31:52):

<Laugh>.

John Voris (31:52):

Why did you want a mixer?

Kim Eley (31:54):

I wanted a mixer so that, because I love to cook and bake and so I wanted to use the mixer so I could cook and bake delicious stuff for, for me and my husband and my family.

John Voris (32:07):

Why?

Kim Eley (32:10):

Oh because I love cooking for them. I, it, I don't know. I just really enjoy it.

John Voris (32:18):

Because, because that's expression of your authentic is love. Right?

Kim Eley (32:20):

Right, right.

John Voris (32:22):

So the mixer, you see my, the connection.

Kim Eley (32:25):

Yes.

John Voris (32:27):

So you think of what does that person like the most, I, I like doing for my family. Okay. What do they do know that I can enhance?

Kim Eley (32:37):

Gotcha. Gotcha. And the, the cooking and baking, everybody gathers around and is connected through the food. So the, the mixer is, is a tool that enables me to further that connection. <Laugh>. Absolutely.

John Voris (32:55):

So one for a wisdom person for me, think of what, in what way did that individual expand their knowledge? What do they like to do that that helps 'em do that? And so for me, if it would be a coupon at a local bookstore, it would be wonderful!

Kim Eley (33:15):

<Laugh>. Awesome <laugh>.

John Voris (33:17):

And there's, there's many others. There's technical people out there that are in the wisdom and they would have a different type and kind of gift that would help them mm-hmm. <Affirmative> their knowledge base. And so it, the idea is to give something to them that would expand who they are already.

Kim Eley (33:42):

Right. Right. Gotcha. Oh, very cool. So if somebody is puzzled, they're like, “Oh, snap, I need to get a gift for my,” let's say teacher or my colleague or you know, “I need to purchase this gift, but I don't know what to get.” Well, the very most helpful thing would be to do an assessment. Right? And that, that would be a darn good gift, John. I think we could say that would be a good gift. 

But how, how would you know, what, what, what could be a way for people to, to figure out, let's say you're buying something for your teacher, how would you figure out, you know, maybe what archetype they are? What, what life theme they are?

John Voris (34:30):

Oh, what course are they teaching?

Kim Eley (34:33):

Ah, so an English teacher versus a <laugh>. I don't know why this came to mind. Mortuary services teacher <laugh>. That was kind of weird. <Laugh>. So it depend on what they're teaching. Tell, tell us more.

John Voris (34:53):

Well, so, so an English teacher I could easily see one of the gift would be a dictionary.

Kim Eley (35:04):

Ah, lovely words!

John Voris (35:06):

Goes back to the 17th century or 18th century because things, language does change. Let's say anything, well, anything affiliated with literature, sometimes there's a book series that you can get so, but always, always look at what is in present in their life now.

Kim Eley (35:27):

Gotcha. 

John Voris (35:32):

So hearkening, with so many tests, with, with personality, et cetera. Or they'll ask hypothetical questions and, and that, that demand imaginary answers. And so you, you'll get a general idea, but that's all you'll get. But if I ask you, what car do you have right now? And you say and you say, let's see, you had a Prius and what, what was the other one?

Kim Eley (36:00):

Other one? Oh, Prius. And, and now we have a Tesla. Tesla.

John Voris (36:03):

So—so what that does, it tells me a little bit about the two of you, not just you.

Kim Eley (36:09):

Right. Right.

John Voris (36:11):

So and so it's a fascinating—fascination with machinery—also it's to help the planet.

Kim Eley (36:19):

Yes.

John Voris (36:20):

Okay. So that tells me that it could be that your husband could be could be either justice or love.

Kim Eley (36:32):

Hmm. 

John Voris (36:33):

I guess is justice.

Kim Eley (36:33):

He is justice. You're right. <Laugh>.

John Voris (36:37):

And so the machinery gave it away. And so many wisdom people buy drive a Tesla out of the being fascinated with the mechanics of it.

Kim Eley (36:48):

Right.

John Voris (36:50):

If I can understand. Sure. So so back to the English teacher would be to what period of history is—

Kim Eley (37:00):

Mm-Hmm.

John Voris (37:01):

—and sometimes buying old books, for example.

Kim Eley (37:06):

Ah!

John Voris (37:07):

Oh yes. So my daughter's got me a book, Edgar Allen Poe, that was printed in the 1800s.

Kim Eley (37:13):

Oh, cool.

John Voris (37:15):

And so I also have a one that's about Plato that was printed in 1700.

Kim Eley (37:26):

Wow. Plato.

John Voris (37:28):

Yeah.

Kim Eley (37:29):

So what does that mean to you? Why do you prize these books?

John Voris (37:37):

Oh, because there's knowledge in there, right?

Kim Eley (37:39):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm.

John Voris (37:40):

And so that knowledge can may, this type of type and kind of knowledge could possibly enhance my state of awareness.

Kim Eley (37:50):

Yeah.

John Voris (37:52):

My knowledge, which is what I, which is what I, I do every day.

Kim Eley (37:55):

Yeah. What does the, the fact that you have an 1800s or 1700s volume, what does that mean to you?

John Voris (38:06):

As I think of the people who touched that?

Kim Eley (38:09):

Ooh, interesting.

John Voris (38:11):

I mean, to think about a book lasting that long, it's ama—it's amazing.

Kim Eley (38:14):

Right?

John Voris (38:16):

And so I just think about all the people that had touched that it read it and read it and studied it. And then I also look at the ink.

Kim Eley (38:25):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

John Voris (38:25):

I look at the, the—how they peled in those days, which is very different. And after a while you can read it, it was a little practice. You know, the, the very old English, it seems like language changes about every 200 years that Yes. Used from one type to another. Anyway, so the idea, and of course it was my daughter that gave it to me.

Kim Eley (38:46):

There we go. Awesome. 

John Voris (38:48):

Well, it all comes together.

Kim Eley (38:49):

Yeah.

John Voris (38:50):

So when it comes to gift giving, think about what do they, what do they like to do? Now also, I will have to throw in here rejuvenation because that's something that the audience probably is not aware of, but what you do to break away from your daily life and enjoy yourself, that's very separate from what you actually do. That that is a focal point of gift giving as well.

Kim Eley (39:16):

Oh, excellent. Yes. That's a, a really good point. And it's so interesting as part of Authentic Systems, the rejuvenation, because I found it surprising that what someone does for the rejuvenation almost seems counter in a way to their authentic identity. Like when you shared with me as a love person that I enjoy, like for instance, I love movies and television shows that are about chaos and utter confusion and, and things like that, which seems to, to go against my love theme. But really I love that kind of thing because I love bringing, you know, bringing the chaos together into harmony. <Laugh>

John Voris (40:04):

Very good. Yeah. It's yeah, absolutely. That's how that works.

Kim Eley (40:07):

Yeah. Yeah.

John Voris (40:09):

You step into your version, your style type in kind of, of chaos, the unknown, what I like to do is take long trips and so my news, I know where I am, yes, but I don’t know, when the someone is coming out of another side street, the people, what they wear, what they're doing, all this is different and new and every moment is new. And so that's rejuvenation for me.

Kim Eley (40:34):

So that's rejuvenation for you, I'm guessing, because as a wisdom person, you like knowing about things. So going on the long trips is pleasant surprises.

John Voris (40:49):

It's controlled chaos.

Kim Eley (40:51):

Controlled chaos. What a good way to put it. Okay.

John Voris (40:55):

Yeah. Because I'm in control of the chaos that I'm involved with some people go to the beach and watch the ocean, but maybe take a walk. Some people like to go to the gym and because it, but when you look at their authentic identity and compared to the gym, you'll see how it is different and how their regular self is being put on hold for a while.

Kim Eley (41:19):

Fascinating. Oh my goodness. So I think that's a really good point is to, is to incorporate or, or identify how that person with that life theme incorporates rejuvenation into their, into their world.

John Voris (41:34):

That's right. That's right. Excellent. So if you want to buy a gift for them, and you know what they do when they get off work, for example maybe they, maybe they like computer games.

Kim Eley (41:46):

Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> mm-hmm. <Affirmative>

John Voris (41:48):

In a computer game, they would love it. 

Kim Eley (41:50):

Yeah. 

John Voris (41:51):

That's the idea is either rejuvenation or something to help them express their authentic identity either way would, would work.

Kim Eley (42:00):

Oh, fascinating. So on that topic, I think this would be an excellent time to mention that if people wanted to do an assessment, first of all, that would be an amazing gift. But also you know, how, how would they go about doing that, John? What, what, what would they do?

John Voris (42:18):

You can email me, email me directly, john@authentic-systems.com or to go to johnvoris.com.

Kim Eley (42:27):

Excellent. I highly recommend it because truly, truly, truly, it has changed aspects of my personal life, my professional life. I, I can't, I can't state enough how much I use Authentic Systems, truly. So I, I would definitely suggest that people look into that. And if people just had questions in general for you, john, are you open to that?

John Voris (42:52):

Absolutely. And I do respond on the email. Yes.

Kim Eley (42:56):

Excellent. All right. Well, thank you so much. This has been fascinating and I always learned so much, and I, I'm, I, a lot of this is going to totally stick with me. So thank you so much for sharing that. And listeners, I hope this was amazing for y'all as well, an eye-opening, if it was, share with us what you learned and we'll look forward to seeing you next time.

John Voris (43:20):

All right.