Your Inner Saboteur based on your Human Design Type
An exploration of how the science of Positive Intelligence relates to your Human Design.
Dear Human Design hunties,
A wonderful coach on LinkedIn recently introduced me to the Saboteur Assessment.
Created by Shirzad Chamine—a Stanford University lecturer and New York Times best-selling author of Positive Intelligence—the Saboteur Assessment seeks to unmask “the voices in your head that generate negative emotions as you handle life’s everyday challenges.” Aka your inner saboteurs.
According to PQ, there is one master saboteur, The Judge, and 9 saboteur accomplices that work together to hijack your mind, your wellbeing, and your relationships, causing feelings of anxiety, self-doubt, stress, and unhappiness.
As I did a deep dive into PQ and read through descriptions of the Inner Saboteurs, it struck me that these could easily relate to the Human Design types. Here’s how:
Generator Inner Saboteurs: The Pleaser
The Pleaser has a hard time saying no, even to things they don’t want to do. Worse, they often say yes to things they shouldn’t. They use up all their energy attending to the needs and problems of others and, as a result, neglect their own needs, leaving them burnt out and frustrated.
As a Generator, you may have a tendency to give away all your sacral energy to other people’s work or problems. Instead of saying yes only to things that light you up and give you energy, you force your sacral to do unfulfilling work.
This leaves you feeling drained, exhausted, and unappreciated, creating resentment for the people around you over time.
Mani-Gen Inner Saboteur: The Restless
As a Manifesting Generator, you’re a multifaceted being and you thrive when you have multiple projects and activities going at once.
However, there’s a thin line between multi-passionate and restlessness.
With the Restless inner saboteur, you’re constantly looking for the next activity, project, or shiny new thing. You’re easily distracted—bouncing from one thing to the next with a kind of reckless abandon, either in search of excitement, to escape your feelings or avoid your problems.
When you act from a place of restless energy instead of your Human Design strategy and authority, your life might feel chaotic. Instead of your multi-passionate nature serving to help you create diverse, supportive structures in your life and business, you end up endlessly chasing the shiny new thing while getting nothing done.
Projector Inner Saboteur: The Victim
Much like the Victim Inner Saboteur, a Projector in their not-self energy sucks the air from a room.
Sullen, depressed, resentful and moody, the Victim uses their emotions as a way to get attention and affection from others to make up for a lifetime of feeling unseen and unheard. The Victim has a “woe is me” mentality and is unconsciously attached to negative feelings and thought patterns.
Like The Victim, as a Projector in your not-self energy, you can experience a great deal of resentment and jealousy—regularly comparing yourself to others in an unfavourable light and wondering why good things can’t happen to you.
You may also feel lonely or isolated because the heaviness of your aura pushes people away, making them feel guilty or like they’re being pulled into your energetic vortex.
Manifestor Inner Saboteur: The Avoider
The Avoider is focused on avoiding conflict, difficulties and any form of unpleasantness at all costs. Rather than dealing with problems and setting boundaries, the Avoider says yes to things it doesn’t want to do, procrastinates on unpleasant tasks and generally avoids addressing problems, even if they’re important.
Manifestors are powerful catalysts. But when you’re in your not-self energy, Manifestor, you can become avoidant to avoid being controlled. Instead of following your urges and using your powerful voice as a vehicle to bring ideas into reality, you contract and shut down to avoid dealing with uncomfortable emotions or conversations.
You may become passive-aggressive and resentful, your not-self theme of anger hiding out beneath the surface. Or you might engage in numbing behaviours to avoid dealing with the problems in your life.
Reflector Inner Saboteur: Hyper-Vigilant
The Reflector Inner Saboteur was hard for me to pinpoint. Because Reflectors mirror the people around them and the environments they’re in, their Inner Saboteur may be a combination of all the Saboteurs depending on their circumstances.
However, I found that the best fit for Reflectors was the Hyper-Vigilant. This Inner Saboteur is constantly anxious, has chronic self-doubt, and is extraordinarily sensitive to signals from their environment.
If you’re a Reflector in your not-self energy, you may not feel safe in your environment. Because you can sense the thoughts, feelings and needs of those around you, you can become extra sensitive to their moods leaving you feeling both agitated and helpless to do anything about it.
What do you think?
Do these Inner Saboteurs reflect your experience with your Human Design type? Leave a comment to join the conversation.
Until next time my chaos fairies and goblins!
xx Love,
P.S. Ready to Decode your Human Design?
Schedule your one-on-one Human Design Reading to unlock the secrets of your unique energetic fingerprint. As your Projector guide, I’ll guide you through the journey of coming home to your true self and embodying the gifts of your Human Design.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tay Francis (she/they) is a sociologist, researcher and trauma survivor whose passion is supporting marginalised populations and talking incessantly about hidden power dynamics. Tay lives at the intersections of social science, STEM and spirituality. She has a background in psychology, development studies and statistics, and 10 years of experience as a social impact researcher. She’s also a Human Design reader whose insights have appeared in publications such as Yahoo and Best Life Magazine. She writes from her Caribbean home, often during the witching hours, kept company by reruns of a Netflix reality show and her incredibly clingy cat, Princess Maggie.
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As a manifestor, I fully agree with this🤣
Your reflector assessment fits in with an enneagram 6 as well I believe. Interesting that there’s a connection for me between the two.