We’ve all had a moment where we aren’t just reminded of our parents; we’ve become them.

Maybe it’s a certain gesture, speaking in a certain way, when a particular phrase comes flying–involuntarily–out of your mouth, but we’ve all been there.

The inevitable has happened.

You’ve become your mother. Or your father. Or another influential caregiver from your childhood.

Since this episode is scheduled to air on Mother’s Day, I’m thinking about parents and parenting.

How much of who we are do we owe to our parents? And how much of how they are–and were–do they owe to us?

In This Episode:

• How self-parenting empowers you to change your relationship to your past
• The power of allowing yourself to hear your inner voice

Learn More About Phyllis Wilson:

• Website
• Instagram: @Alright_Podcast

We all love a Personality Quiz, right?

You get to see yourself through a lens you may never have considered looking through, and discover things about yourself you never thought about before, and who doesn’t love an excuse to think and to talk about themselves for a few minutes?

There has been a boom of Personality Quizzes and Typology Assessments over the last 10 years, and even more so since the pandemic.

And it makes sense why.

In particularly chaotic and challenging times, we tend to look for something, anything, to help us make sense of things, to make sense of ourselves, and to reassure us that not only are we equipped to survive this chaos, but that we are able to thrive beyond it.

As we’re digging into the questions of who or what can tell us who we are, and the limitations of any person or tool that attempts to do that, I’m thinking about typologies.

Our interest in them, our reliance on them, and what that means–what we’re making that mean–about ourselves and about each other.

In This Episode:

• The two fundamental problems with typology tests
• The long history of typologies, from Hippocrates to Myers-Briggs
• How employers began using typology tests and the consequences of relying on them
• How we could move beyond the existing limitations of typologies, and why we would want to

References:

• What Personality Tests Really Deliver | The New Yorker
• Job hiring increasingly relies on personality tests, but that can bar people with disabilities

Learn More About Phyllis Wilson:

• Website
• Instagram: @Alright_Podcast

Who are we really?

Are we the roles that we play? The work that we do? Are we defined by our relationships?

Is that who we are?

If I asked you if it was possible for anyone else to tell you who you are, you’d probably say absolutely not! Because you define who you are, right?

Which is true. But it’s also not the whole story.

We all tell others who they are all the time. And accepting or rejecting what other people tell us about ourselves isn’t as simple or straightforward as we might like it to be.

Today, I’m thinking about the complexity of identity.

Yes, we choose who we are, and how much any particular role defines us. But we also can’t disregard, dismiss, or discount other people’s perceptions of us, because they, too, make us who we are.

In This Episode:

• How social media has challenged and expanded our perceptions of who we could be
• The paradox of possibility and our inescapable internet pasts
• The impacts of our split-second perceptions of others on their careers, relationships, and even lives
• An invitation to take notice and take action when it comes to perceptions

References:

• The Dropout Podcast
• The Dropout
• Monica Lewinsky: The price of shame | TED Talk
• Monica Lewinsky on Pivoting to Producing, Hollywood Mentors and Her Copious Notes on 'American Crime Story: Impeachment'

Learn More About Phyllis Wilson:

• Website
• Instagram: @Alright_Podcast