I recently took a male archetype test, mostly out of curiosity. I wasn’t really expecting it to tell me anything I didn’t already know about myself. But when the result came back, I had to smile.
The Sage.
According to the test, the Sage is someone who looks beneath the surface. Someone who searches for patterns, tries to understand what is really happening, and tends to think things through before acting.
That sounded familiar. Very familiar. I’ve always been someone who thinks. Sometimes too much.
I’ll analyze a conversation after it’s over. I’ll think about why something happened, what someone really meant, what I could have done differently, and what might happen next.
Give me a problem and I’ll probably want to understand it before I decide what to do about it.
The test described the Sage’s inner voice as:
“Think it through.”
I laughed when I read that. Because that might as well be written on a sign above my head.
But then came the part that made me stop.
The shadow side of the Sage is detachment. The tendency to understand life instead of actually participating in it. To analyze feelings instead of feeling them. To keep thinking about a decision instead of making it.
That one hit a little closer to home.
Because there have been times in my life when thinking felt safer than acting.
If I could analyze something enough, perhaps I could eliminate the risk.
If I understood every possible outcome, perhaps I wouldn’t make the wrong decision.
But life doesn’t work that way.
At some point, you have to stop thinking and start living.
Interestingly, the test also showed that my Sage isn’t alone. I have a strong Lover and Rebel streak running alongside it. The result was 33% Sage, 29% Lover, 29% Rebel, and 8% King.
And suddenly, the combination made even more sense to me.
The Sage wants to understand.
The Lover wants to experience.
The Rebel wants to challenge the expected path.
Maybe that explains some of my journey. I spent years thinking my way through life. Then something inside me finally said, “Enough.”
Burnout forced me to stop.
Travel gave me space to experience.
Bubbles gave me a way to create.
The Fringe show gave me a way to tell my story.
And now, perhaps, I’m learning to bring all those parts of myself together.
The test’s suggested growth move for the Sage is simple: act at about 80% certainty. Don’t wait until everything is perfectly understood before taking the step.
That might be one of the most useful lessons I could take from a personality test. Because there will never be enough information.
There will always be another question.
Another possibility.
Another reason to wait.
Sometimes clarity doesn’t come before the decision.
Sometimes it comes because of the decision.
Maybe that’s the next chapter of my life.
Less analyzing the bubble.
More blowing it.
Less wondering where it will go.
More enjoying the journey.
I don’t think discovering my archetype tells me who I am. But perhaps it gives me another mirror.
And sometimes, a good mirror doesn’t show us something new. It simply helps us see something we’ve been looking at all along.