Meeting the world

We meet this world, and head and heart and gut respond.

Follow the head, or follow the heart, or follow the gut? There is rarely time to consider – so for each of us just one of the three takes the lead as our primary guide through the complexity of the day. We may change over time, but for today, at least, we are head types, and heart types, and gut types.

In each new situation, the response of the head – and therefore of the head types – is to remain objective and logical: to observe and assess, and then decide.

The response of the heart – and therefore of the heart types – is a longing to have some kind of emotionally meaningful interaction with the people around.

The gut response – and therefore the response of the gut types – is to see the situation in practical or functional terms: to engage in an unselfconscious and open manner, and see how it goes.

To see the process in action, imagine this example of meeting the world: you walk into a room full of people you do not know. How do you respond?

If your head response is dominant, you feel your thought processes going into overdrive, trying by a grand feat of mental calculation to work it all out: to work out what is going on and therefore what to do. You can almost hear the cogs turning in the brain. The head wants to observe and assess and decide before engaging with the new situation.

In contrast, if your heart response is dominant, you feel your heart beating strong and longing to reach out to the hearts of every other person in the room, to affect them emotionally, to make them love you, straight away. You want to put your heart on your sleeve, and you want everyone there to do likewise. You want to be emotionally close to those people, as soon as possible and for ever.

And if your gut response is dominant, your response is all about practical and direct engagement with the situation as you find it. You trust your gut instincts and you go with your intuition. You offer to others – and you expect in return – the practical simplicity of ‘what you see is what you get’. Your approach is direct and open, very present tense, very here and now.

Each of us has just one of these three as our primary influence – we are head types, or heart types, or gut types – so our three-zone map of the individual becomes a three-zone map of humankind.

Some people have one of the three resources as their primary influence and keep the other two resources equally in reserve. In this case we say that the individual’s ‘home base’ is in the center of one of the three zones – indicated by points THREE and SIX and NINE on the diagram.

Other people still have one of the three resources as their primary influence – but also have one of the other two resources as an ever-present secondary influence, significantly stronger than the third and final resource. In this case we say that the individual’s ‘home base’ is not in the center of their ‘home zone,’ but off-center, over toward that ever-present secondary influence – indicated by points EIGHT and ONE, and TWO and FOUR, and FIVE and SEVEN on the diagram.

EIGHT, for example, would be the gut type with an ever-present secondary head influence stronger than the heart influence; while ONE would be the gut type with an ever-present secondary heart influence stronger than the head influence; and NINE is the gut type with head and heart equally accessible and available, both kept equally in reserve. The same logic applies for heart types TWO and FOUR and for head types FIVE and SEVEN, each having a primary and secondary influence.

Each of the nine ‘sectors’ on the diagram represents a different, distinctive interaction of head and heart and gut – and so a different, distinctive approach to the challenge of how to meet the day and engage with the world.