“What Color Is Your Parachute?” Deep Dive: The Flower Exercise—Do You Know Who You Are?

The Flower Exercise is an exercise that lets you take a deep dive into yourself. The author describes it as a self-inventory and this is a good way of seeing it. The key difference, though, is that while many online tests, books, podcasts, and articles look at self-inventory as self-assessment (aka this is what I can do and this is what I’m best at), The Flower Exercise looks at your preferences and likes.

It’s wonderful that you are good at accounting but do you LOVE it?

Or even better—what are the aspects of your accounting job that you love?

And which ones of those are transferrable for the job you could love even more?

But like any deep dive (including this one!), The Flower Exercise takes time—so why take it?

What Color Is Your Parachute? gives several reasons and here are a few of them:

1. You will learn to describe yourself in different ways. Each “petal” will open an aspect of yourself for you to discover and share with potential employers or clients. More opportunities, markets, fields, and ideas will become available so you don’t have to go solely by your title.?Who am I? Oh, where do I start?
2. You will know in detail what you are looking for—and will be able to tell others too! This is particularly handy when you want to engage your network in your job search or are looking for a career change. The more specific you are in your ask for help, the more professionally fit you look and the more likely you are to receive a good lead.
3. You might find a new career or life direction in the process. As I was going through The Flower Exercise myself, I was genuinely surprised at how insightful some of the discoveries were. In a way, it seems easy to determine who you are and what you are capable of without self-inventory (“I am a Project Manager, I can manage medium to large manufacturing projects of X million dollars“). But once you dive deeper into your skills, experience, and preferences, you might find a hidden pathway to a large field of possibilities. One more time, I am thinking of career building as wall climbing – sometimes you need to go sideways to go up. And sometimes you take your wall climbing experience and start climbing real mountains. What are your transferrable skills?

As with all my deep dives, I must put a disclaimer that the below overview of The Flower Exercise is merely an attempt at a short highlight of its benefits and practicality. I highly recommend getting a copy of What Color Is Your Parachute? and taking a few days to go through the actual exercise. I assure you, it is well worth your time.

"Use this opportunity. Make this not only a hunt for a job but also a hunt for a life. A deeper life, a victorious life, a life you’re more proud of."—What Color Is Your Parachute?

And with that being said, let’s look into some of the petals.

Flower Exercise Overview

"Determine from the beginning that this is going to be fun."—What Color Is Your Parachute?

Petal 1—I am a person who has these…

Have you ever thought of the people and teams you are the most comfortable working with?

Are they creative and fun? Or are they incredibly smart and motivate you to learn more about things? Do they need your help? Are you partners?

What about people you hate working with? Nobody likes toxic people, yes, but what about those people you are simply not compatible with? Like that overly extroverted sales lady from the other department or that grumpy tech guy who never seemed to have the patience to explain what to do with your bugging laptop?

Try to look for the answers in your experience—remember a few situations from the past where you really enjoyed working with someone. What made it so enjoyable?

Petal 2—I am a person who has these…

Do you want a corner office or work remotely from wherever you wish to be? Do you prefer to have a coffee shop downstairs or a coffee machine across the hall?

This was my favorite visual exercise because What Color Is Your Parachute? suggested using a Pinterest board to look for pictures of my preferred work environment. This is how I learned that I would thrive in a futuristic office or in a remote setting with a great window view. Pinterest has this great way to suggest “aesthetics” and gives you inspiring results if you type in “futuristic aesthetics”, “science aesthetics”, or any other “keyword aesthetics” to search for images of your desired working space.

Petal 3—I am a person who has these…

This is the segment where things are getting less “dreamy” and more substantial.

What is that you can do? And what are the traits that you have?

Out of those—what are the skills and traits you can apply in your next job/ role/career?

Out of those—what are the ones you particularly love and enjoy?

Would they be valuable for your employers or clients?

I personally found the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment particularly useful for this section (there are free online versions of this test as well).

What Color Is Your Parachute? offers another lengthy but valuable exercise: the Seven Stories Analysis.

1. Write one story about some episode of your life when you were enjoying yourself. Include what you wanted to accomplish, some kind of obstacle in your way, what you did to achieve your goal, the result you gained, and any measurable/quantifiable statement of that result.
2. Look through your story to see any transferrable skills you used (the book offers a special grid for this analysis).
3. Write 6 more stories and analyze them for transferrable skills.
4. Discover patterns and establish priorities.

Petal 4—I am a person who has (and loves) these…

Same idea as for the previous petal but this time it’s about what you know.

One important note here is that you should not limit yourself to your work history or education degree. What about your hobbies? Books or blogs you read? Cultures you discovered when you traveled?

One of the brain-stimulating prompts What Color Is Your Parachute? suggests imagining yourself stuck on an island with one person with whom you can only discuss a few subjects. What would you pray those subjects were?

Petal 5—I am a person who prefers a certain…

The first person who names a number loses the negotiation… But do you know your own range?

This part of the exercise suggests you look into your budget, preferences for salary and other rewards, as well as into the job level you are aiming for.

Petal 6—I am a person who prefers a certain…

Do you love where you are? What is that you love about it?

Would you like to move somewhere else? What factors would you consider when choosing between 2 or three places? Is safety your first priority or is it proximity to nature? Would you never live and work in a big city if given a choice or you would be bored to death in the suburbs?

If your company offered you a relocation package, where would you want it to relocate you? Why?

Petal 7—I am a person who has a certain…

This petal goes last in the book but I would argue it should come first—for the purpose in life is more of a flower stem than an “equal” petal, something more foundational than a mere prioritized checklist.

This is why I highly recommend the exercise suggested by What Color Is Your Parachute?—Essay: Your Philosophy About Life.

The book gives some categories to choose from but if you decide not to go with it, you can always take some inspiration online or just sit down and give it a try without any specific categories in mind.

Whatever you choose, make sure to give it a good thought and write it down. Because in the end of the day, your purpose in life is what will make the rest of the petals meaningful and empowering.

I hope you enjoyed this deep dive and found some inspiration for your search. Next week we will look into some useful tips for getting your resume ready and making your job interviews successful. See you then!

(1) The title image is by Tài Thi?n from Pixabay