Lately I’ve been reading INTJ Dario Nardi’s new book, The Magic Diamond: Jung’s 8 Paths for Self-Coaching.

The book is easy to recommend if you’re interested in personality type, personal growth, or self-coaching. It is quite a bit thicker than I expected, and just packed with good info. Dario presents various growth pathways for the different personality types, organized into what he calls a “Magic Diamond” model.

It’s clear from reading the book that Dario is very educated on the topics inside, and has also done a lot of testing and more-objective research (i.e. gathering data from others) which provided him with unique insights.

(For all I know, I’m one of those others; Dario wired my brain up to a computer and walked me through some fascinating exercises a few years ago when I met him in Salt Lake City)

Even if you’ve already explored your personality type, I think you can still take a lot of value from the book for these reasons:

• All of the growth pathways are available / possible / promising to everybody, no matter the reader’s personality type. So it’s not like there’s one chapter for you, and the rest of the book is for other people. The more you learn about positive growth and personality type, the more you’ll appreciate this. It’s like a never-ending well of possibilities.
• The book will help you work with, and communicate with, the people around you. At the very least, it should provide you with more questions and food for thought as you explore these relationships. I asked Dario about growth dynamics in relationships and organizational groups, and he said that people who were “less developed,” (my wording, not his) often simply hadn’t been presented with the types of growth opportunities he mentions in the book, but said they would happily take advantage of such opportunities if they came up. So there are a lot of potentially helpful tips for leaders and team-workers here. The book could help you unlock latent creativity in those around you, and make your relationship or workplace more fun, interesting, authentic, optimistic, or co-productive.
• There are lots of little info-nuggets that will help you understand personality type theory, cognitive function, and Jungian thinking. You can turn to a random page and there’s probably something like a callout or some bolded text on the page that will help you build onto your existing knowledge.

This book gets a strong thumbs-up from me.

Some additional self-coaching tips, for those who are walking this path:

• Stay accountable. Engage your favorite method for tracking and reflecting on your growth.
• Stay flexible and keep your models flexible. Hold onto your models lightly, as Linda Berens has said.
• Get outside feedback and input. Self-development in isolation can lead to difficult barriers which may seem insurmountable if confronted alone.
• Take breaks and rest up to enjoy what you’ve built for yourself. This should be a positive learning journey, not a constant fight against pessimism, “demons,” or other draining topics.
• If you don’t finish a book, don’t worry about it. Books can also be “totems or touchstones” along pathways to growth, as Dario might say. (I find that even an unopened book on my shelf provides a sort of latent existential-creative energy)

The author has not received any compensation from Dario. I bought the book myself without discussing it with him—just a happy customer here.

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