304. What It Means To Be "In Your Element"

Speaker A: Well, hello, my friend. I'm your host, Kanigraph. Thank you so much for allowing me back into your ears. So what if I told you there was a natural blueprint inside of you that can help and guide you to find the best approach for everything from organizing your space to setting big goals to creating habits, and also for getting clarity on your finances. It's about getting to know yourself better and understanding how you operate. And the key to this lies in our dominant element. What am I talking about when I say dominant element? Well, the elements I talk about are the ancient archetypes. They are fire, earth, air, and water. And these elements or archetypes represent different strengths, tendencies, and even challenges in how we approach everything from organizing our space to handling our finances. And while we're a mix of all four elements, each of us has a dominant element or a dominant archetype that profoundly shapes how we function in our everyday life. The crux is, of course, we're often not aware of it. Plus, our upbringing and our social environment might have taught us that it's not okay to operate how we want to. And as a result, we bend ourselves like a pretzel to fit in. That's what happened to me. More about that later. When you start understanding your dominant element and your dominant energy, your archetype, you can use it to your advantage. Of course, you stop fighting against yourself, against what feels unnatural, and start working with your dominant element, with your inner strength, right with yourself, not against yourself. So let me introduce you to those elements. Fire, earth, air, and water. So fire types are the go getters, full of passion, energy, and drive. And if you're a fire type, you probably take action quickly and you trust your gut. But sometimes you might burn out or feel frustrated when things don't move as fast as you like. Earth types are steady and dependable. On the other hand, if this is you, you like structure and routine, and you're great at sticking with things until they're done. But you may find change very uncomfortable, or you may resist flexibility. Air types are the dreamers and thinkers. Those people thrive on ideas and creativity, and they adapt quickly to new situations. However, they might struggle with staying grounded or following through on their ideas. And lastly, water types, they're intuitive and empathetic. They're deeply connected to their emotions and relationships, which makes them great at understanding others. On the flip side, they might find it hard to stay motivated or deal with procrastination when things feel overwhelming. And if you're curious which element you are, and maybe you have an Idea already. After hearing these four types, I created a quiz and I'll tell you more about it at the end. But also, if you're new around here, uh, and a new listener to my podcast, you might be thinking, Connie, this sounds pretty woo woo for someone who talks about finances. And yes, you are right. Welcome to my cosmos. My approach blends both worlds. I call it spreadsheets and stars. The practical and the mystical, the numbers and the ancient wisdom, the vuvu, because the truth is, how you handle your money is deeply connected to how you're naturally wired. So stick with me, because this gets even more interesting. This isn't just a concept rooted in ancient traditions and astrology. It's also something the renown psychologist Carl Jung has studied in his work. Jung recognized that these four archetypes are connected to the way people perceive and interact with the world. And he gave these four elements different names, but in the end, it's the same. So the fire type he calls intuition type, those are future oriented, vision and possibility. The keywords are future oriented, vision and possibility. The earth types Jung called sensation types. The keywords are grounded, present and practical. The air types he called thinking types, with the keywords analytical, logical, abstract. And the water types he called feeling type, with keywords emotional, values and relational. So not only are the four dominant elements a powerful self discovery tool, they're also grounded in psychological theory. Jung used these archetypes to help people understand themselves and the world around them. And I'm using them to help you and my clients understand your strengths, your. Your tendencies, and your challenges around business, organization and finances. So now, heads up. I use the word element and archetype often for the same thing. You hear me switch between the two of them throughout this episode or also when you hear me talk about it on social media or in blog posts. Now, let's make it a bit more practical so you understand how this can help you. Let's look at an example how each archetype approaches finances. We look at the high road, meaning their strength. We're looking at the low road, meaning their weaknesses. So let's start with fire types. If you're a fire type, you tackle financial issues with headfirst and enthusiastic energy. When money is tight or when the cash flow dips, you act quickly, maybe firing off a bunch of sales offers or cutting expenses fast without much thinking. You love the momentum of immediate action and you're great at making bold moves. That is the high road, but there is a cost to it. So let's look at the low road the flip side is you can jump into solutions without taking time to analyze the numbers or to see the big pictures. You may cut expenses that you later realize, oops, I really needed those tools. Your motivation fizzles if things get slow or complicated and unfinished spreadsheets or unreviewed budgets pile up the minute it's not exciting anymore. Now let's look at the earth type. If you are an earth type, you want solid ground. You deal with money stress by building detailed spreadsheets, planning out every single scenario, and creating a step by step budget. Your gift is really in creating order and consistency. Nothing escapes your attention, and that's the high road. But now let's look at the low road. Your downfall and your downfall. You can spend so much time perfecting your financial plan or getting into every single little detail, right, that you delay actually making financial decisions. You might freeze up if you can't be absolutely sure, and so you don't make a decision, and you might miss windows of opportunities. Now let's look at air types. For air types, finances are an intellectual puzzle. You get a rush from brainstorming creative ways to boost revenue or finding clever new tools to track spending. You're always looking for new approaches, whether it's a funny new app or different pricing structure or another what if scenario. That can be a good thing. It is the high road. But now let's look at the low road. The challenge for you is really you tend to scatter your energy, starting lots of financial improvement projects, but not sticking with any long enough to see real results. What you need is boundaries and deadlines to bring your ideas to the finish line. Otherwise, you also end up in analysis, paralysis, or just too scattered that anything really makes a difference. Now lastly, if you're a water type, money is never just about the numbers. It's about feelings, trust and security. You're attuned to the emotional undercurrents, how financial stress impacts your team, your family, and even yourself. And when things get tough financially, you might focus first on calming your own anxiety or the ones around you, which is really a good thing for making better decisions. That's the high road. Now let's look at the low road for you. It's really easy to get stuck in worry or stuck in soothing anxiety and nerves. You often avoid looking at accounts or numbers, or you hold on to financial habits and expenses that just feel safe to you, even when they're not helping you move forward at all. So those are the four different archetypes or elements. This framework helps you see Yourself and your tendencies with business finances. And the more you understand how your dominant element, your archetype, influences you and your way of approaching things, the better you can create strategies that help you manage your money with more confidence, which reduces financial stress. And it also helps you reach your business goals better. The example also gives you a taste of how an element's high road, the healthy expression and the low road, the unhealthy tendencies, can impact how you approach your organizing projects, your goals, your decision making, and again your finances. Now, of course, this is a very broad segmentation to put everybody in just four different archetypes or four different boxes or buckets. So let's address what it is and what it isn't. So this is not to put you in a box and to say you are like this or every, let's say fire type is exactly like this. It's more a tendency you have and an entry point to get to know yourself better. It's also not about fixing you, you're not broken and no archetype is better than the other. So don't look at it this way, don't look at it being put in a box or in a bucket about you having to fix uh, yourself or what. It's not about that. Instead it's knowing your dominant element that will then help you discover if you have maybe been operating in the unhealthy spectrum of your element. So more on the low road, it helps you see if you were socialized and pushed to do things in a way that doesn't align with your true innate nature. It helps you plan for the obstacles that will come your way when doing things and will make you more self aware when you sabotage yourself. The goal is to help you become more aware of your natural tendencies, positive or challenging, and then embrace them. Um, and learn to make small shifts that lead to big changes. Small shifts in operating less, uh, in the low road and more into the leaning, more into your strength and into the high road. Right? Instead of forcing yourself to follow rigid systems that some gurus tell you about or some productivity experts, but then you realize that they don't fit you. When you focus on your dominant element, you can organize and take care of your finances in a way that uh, aligns with your natural energy. For example, if you're a fire type like me, you need quick wins and immediate action steps to stay motivated. While if you're a earth type, you thrive with long term plans and routines. Earth types don't like quick, quick decisions or quick actions. They want to have a grounded plan. They want to have their thoughts thoroughly investigated. Right? Or an air type. They benefit from systems that encourage focus and reduce distraction. And water types. They might need to focus on creating environments that feel emotionally supportive and calming before they can make decent decisions. So it helps really in your day to day to know what your dominant element is. But again, it's only the beginning. It's only the top of the funnel, so to speak, the top of the, um, the understanding of who you are and how you operate best. As you can see, there is really no one size fits all either. So often we're told what works for one person should work for everyone. But the truth is it doesn't. There's no system that fits all and everyone. And that's okay. That is a great thing. And this is what my work is really about, helping you and my clients discover their dominant element, fire, earth, air or water. So you understand yourself better and how you naturally operate. I call it how you tick. And so you can work with your nature, not against it. And as a result you feel in your element. So when you're operating in alignment with your natural tendencies, when you stop forcing and start flowing, that's what I call in your element. And that's actually why I just uh, renamed my newsletter to in your Element. In the past few months I've seen more and more people naming their newsletter and usually when something is trending, my first reaction is to rebel and to not be part of it. But this time I decided to not do that to actually find a perfect name for my newsletter as well. And I found it now with in youn Element. The story around how I found the name is actually an interesting one and I shared it in a blog post. You can go and read it. I will put the link in the show notes if you're interested to know how I got to the name. So this podcast is for business owners and entrepreneurs who are successful but want not just a successful business but also more peace and clarity and control behind the scene. And if you want to go deep, you then go and you take my quiz to find out what your dominant element and archetype is. By the way, the quiz also comes with a custom report about your dominant element and I'm in the middle of updating and overhauling this report. But in True Fire Energy I am m too excited to not share it with you already. Even though the updates are not all done yet, you can still go and take the quests and you will receive the old report and once the new one is ready you will receive the updated new report as well. And then from there you can sign up to my weekly emails in your element where I cover not just tips and insights, what make financial strategies more accessible and money clarity that you can actually apply, but also simple habits and systems I personally use that reduce chaos and actually stick without killing my creativity, without being so rigid. Right. Remember I'm a rebel, but I also share self discovery and self awareness so you understand how you naturally operate and what makes your decision easier. Because finances and being organized is not just about numbers, filing systems or to do lists. They deeply connect to how we make decisions, how we lead, how we avoid, what overwhelms us and what actually motivates us. And that's why I blend this Swiss precision as a financial expert and consultant with strategy and structure for cash flow, decision and systems with a soulful layer infused by astrology that helps you understand how you naturally wired. I call it spreadsheets and stars. The practical and the mystical, the numbers and the vu. At the core is helping you understand your innate nature, how you're naturally wired and how you work best. And when you know how you thrive and learn what drains you, life, business and finances get so much easier. You stop forcing, you start flowing. You're in your element. And from my own, uh, experience, the more I dive into this work myself, the more I understand myself and work with my strengths instead of forcing myself to do the things the way they supposedly, uh, are done. The more clarity I get myself and the more joy and peace I feel while working in and for my business. My innate dominant element, as I said before, is fire. But I have been socialized to operate like an earth type. That's how I was raised by my parents and by my environment growing up in proper Switzerland. While I'm grateful having those skills now to act and to show up grounded, structured, organized, the price I paid for it was that my innate fire, personality and strength have been repressed first by my environment and then later by myself out of habit. And because of that, my fire type can show up on the low road if I'm not careful. I will make a separate episode about this, that if you suppress your innate dominant element, how it then often shows up and sabotages you on the low road. But for now, that's it my friend. That's it for this week. Thank you for listening all the way to the end and for being a supporter of the podcast. If you want to take the quiz, the link is in the show notes. If you want to sign up for my weekly newsletter in youn Element. That link is also in the Show Notes. Have a beautiful and amazing week. Talk to you next time. Take good care and be safe. Bye for now.