What Your Favorite [insert] Says About You
By: Peggy Willms
(4 min read)
Growing up, we were often asked, “What is your favorite color, car, food, movie…” Those answers sparked small conversations or maybe armed your classmates with Secret Santa ideas.
The questions are no longer open-ended. Your response dives deep into your soul. The headers now: “What does your favorite [fill in the blank] say about you?” Apparently, your answers define your buying habits, behavior, emotions, and even a best-fitting profession.
With the rapid technological growth over the last decade, it is not shocking that there are over 2,500 personality quizzes. Many organizations use Myers-Briggs, Strengths Finders, DISC, and Enneagram, just to mention just a few. These answers allow leadership to either clump together like-minded people to solve problems or create efficiencies or for them to toss in a mixed bag of opposites and watch them duke it out.
I have always been addicted to “figuring out” people, and these tests immensely guided my corporate wellness career and also propelled me into “intuitive” coaching. When you have the data, oooh, it makes things fun. You feel psychic. I use the 5 Love Languages, Right/Left Brain, Learning Styles, and The Power of When (biorhythm/chronotype) quizzes with clients (family, friends, and often collaborators; they are so lucky). Frankly, this data allows me to work “with” my clients—not “for” them. Collectively, with this information, we are leaps ahead of the game, designing habits to assist them in reaching their health and wellness goals. You will not be happy shaking your bon bon in a 5:00 AM Zumba class if you are not a morning person. If you are a right-brain thinker, you may want to draw or paint your way to defining goals, whereas left-brainers are addicted to spreadsheets and to-do lists. If you marry a person with “touch” as their primary love language and yours is a zero, well, get ready for those arguments if you know what I am say’n say’n.
If you haven’t read the fine print from these online tests, you may not know your answers are being tracked and sold. Gone are the days of paper trails and shredding, Baby Boomers. Technology has rapidly algorithmed you to death. Your answers to fun Facebook quizzes, tracking of your clickbait history, and buying trends are sold to other organizations such as marketing firms which, in turn, allows them to manipulate advertisements to lure you into buying crap at 2 AM.
This morning, after brewing my coffee, I headed outside to my lounge chair as always. I scanned my flowers and plants and wondered which ones were my favorite. Do I have a favorite? And, if I do, I am sure there is someone out there who has figured out why that is. So I shall take you down a flower lane a bit. Men, don’t stop reading now. You might learn something about your mother!
My mother HATED flowers. If I could expand the font to 1,000 points to emphasize the word “hate,” I would. I always found it quite peculiar that her house was filled to the brim, but there were no flowering plants. However, she always had gardens and flowers outside the home. Hmm. I know she hated being told what to do and hated holidays that made demands… Valentine’s Day. Maybe she considered them a waste of money and didn’t want to contribute to the billions spent yearly. Maybe she had a childhood trauma or memory that sparked the loathing of budding stems. She certainly didn’t have anthophobia (an extreme fear of flowers). I shall never know. She must HATE the smell in Heaven.
On the contrary, my grandmother loved roses. Red roses. She would hold them, adoringly analyzing how the velvety petals danced together. She had a lengthy sniff and stare routine, and it always concluded with an exhalation of wonderment. I can see her happily dancing in Heaven’s gardens.
I love anything that comes out of the ground. Trees, bushes, and vines with or without flowering buds, but my favorites are those with massively bright colors and those that rapid cycle. You know the ones, “OMG, there is another lemon. Look, look, the plumeria is happy this morning; there is another blossom.” I feel like Mother Nature tosses me a gift every morning. Nurturing them with sips of water and fertilizer gives me a purpose. They are alive because of me. ME. They need me. When there is a limp brown leaf, or bud-lacking desert rose, I am hot on the trail to find the solution. But if I do lose a plant, I, too, wither in sadness.
My love for flowers reminds me of those who are Foodies. The excitement, the smells, colors, and tastes. You get it.
According to the data collectors, my grandmother’s love for red roses symbolized love, desire, and unconscious beauty. My mother’s disdain for blossoms, well, that is a mystery. My love for all things growing might be as simple as they need me, or I love the extra oxygen boost.
Apparently, there is a reason you love or do not love flowers. If you get bored today, here is a fun site to see what the data collectors have for you. https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/flower-meanings-amp-what-your-favorite-flower-says-about-you-235726
I am off to water and clip my budding gems. And like my grandmother, I stop and smell the roses along the way. Do you.
Peggy Willms
All Things Wellness, LLC
peggy@allthingswellness.com
The information provided is the opinion of the author. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice: diagnosis or treatment. The author, the business, All Things Wellness, LLC, and its owner Peggy Willms, are not liable for risks or issues associated with using or acting upon the information in this article or website. We assume no responsibility for tangible and intangible damages such as physical harm caused by using a product, loss of profits or loss of data, and defamatory comments. This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn from qualifying purchases.
