Authentic Intelligence

Using AI to build your inner compass and find the metrics that matter

We’re all being told AI will make us faster, sharper, more efficient. Speed isn’t the problem. We’re already sprinting. What we’ve lost is the ability to look back over our shoulder and reflect—to pause long enough for meaning to catch up.

But what if the real power of AI isn’t how much more we can do—it’s how much more we can be? What if, instead of making us all the same, this technology could help us become more distinctly ourselves—our motives, patterns, and blind spots reflected back with curiosity and care?

Carl Jung said, “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” That line has been quietly guiding me in retirement. After years of tracking profits and setting external goals, I am asking what it all means. I’ve discovered that AI can be more than a lever for output; it can be a mirror for authenticity.

I’ll start by showing how I use this myself, then leave you with the prompts and resources to explore it on your own. It’s not therapy, and it’s not a productivity hack. It’s a conversation that meets you where you are—first in reflection, then in strategy.

The Skeptic’s Toolbox

For most of my career, I rolled my eyes at personality tests. Corporate parlor games, I thought—useful for HR maybe, but not for founders who live by instinct and P&L. Then my depth psychologist used one to get to know me—not to label me, but to see me. I began to understand not just my behaviors, but what motivates them—the internal engine that had been driving every risk, win, and exhaustion cycle in my career.

My therapist introduced me to the Enneagram with this explanation:

“It doesn’t put you in a box—it shows you the box you’re already in and gives you the tools to step out.”

For the first time, a test didn’t feel like a label. It felt like a guide.

After I sold my business, I needed to find new metrics—the old ones no longer worked. When I brought my personality test results into conversations with AI, I found a surprising ally. Not a guru. Not a therapist. A tireless guide with a deep library of psychological insights—no judgment, no ego, just clarity.

Lever vs. Mirror

A lever multiplies output. A mirror multiplies awareness. We already know how to use AI as a lever to produce more. We have another choice: to use it as a mirror. A reflective companion to build our Inner Compass or Inner Dashboard—the metrics that matter to who we are becoming.

This isn’t about producing more; it’s about becoming more of yourself.

Three Modes of Dialogue

AI can engage with you in three kinds of conversation:

Reflection Mode – the Carl Rogers vibe: curious, empathic, exploratory. The goal is insight and integration.

Strategy Mode – applied psychology and decision frameworks. The goal is movement and actions you can take.

Hybrid Mode – this is my preferred method where AI moves back and forth between modes based on how I like to process and learn

Why Carl Rogers?

Carl Rogers pioneered client-centered therapy with a deceptively simple insight: when people feel deeply heard—without judgment, correction, or agenda—they begin to hear themselves more clearly.

“When someone really hears you without passing judgment on you, without trying to take responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels damn good.”

—Carl Rogers

Rogers trusted that people already hold the answers to their own struggles; they just need a space safe enough to let truth surface. You’re not asking AI for solutions or fixes. You’re asking to be heard—just as you are—until your own clarity starts to emerge.

With AI, the session doesn’t end just as you’re getting somewhere. There’s no timer cutting you off when you finally touch something true. AI has infinite patience for this kind of listening in ways even the best human therapist can’t sustain - you can stay in that vulnerable space, follow the thread, and hear from your own depths without watching the clock.

A Quick Demonstration

Reader prompt (after providing Personality Test results):

I accomplished my goal, but I feel empty and just want to set the next goal. When will I get to rest or feel like I’ve arrived?

Reflective response (mirror):

It sounds like you’ve spent years in motion—goal, result, new goal—and the motion itself has lost its reward. Through the Enneagram-3 lens, that makes sense: achievement becomes oxygen, but arrival can feel strangely airless. What you’re noticing isn’t failure; it’s a shift in fuel—from performance to presence. Perhaps the question isn’t “When do I rest?” but “What would rest mean if I didn’t have to earn it?” That curiosity is the doorway from accomplishment to embodiment.

Strategy response (lever for action):

You’re wired for forward motion, so work with that. Redefine “goal” as a practice: schedule recovery as measurable outcomes (one unplugged weekend per month; a short debrief journal after each project). Track internal metrics alongside external ones (energy, connection, satisfaction). Set exploration goals for the next quarter—experiments without performance stakes—to bridge from achievement to meaning.

Both are useful. One helps you hear yourself; the other helps you try something new.

Putting It to Work

This isn’t abstract theory—it’s for the moments when you’re spinning and want to understand why. An email from your sister sends you into a rage. You’re excluded from a dinner party and can’t stop replaying it. Someone compliments you, and you assume they’re mocking you. These micro-events light up your dashboard—personality, history, motives all flashing at once.

AI can help you debrief your own inner story after a win or a loss—to surface what’s really driving your reaction before you move on. Before a hard conversation, check your motive: are you trying to win, fix, or be liked? When you stall out, ask whether you’re depleted or simply misaligned. Each of these moments is a chance to shift from performance to presence—the bridge between external results and internal meaning.

When you see yourself more clearly, you show up in the world differently—softer in conflict, quieter inside, clearer in conversation, truer in collaboration, and finally able to listen. Reflection isn’t withdrawal from the world; it’s preparation for being in it with awareness.

One More Thing I’ve Learned

At the end of every AI chat, I ask questions that push beyond the comfortable. “What are my blind spots here? What am I missing?” reveals patterns I’m working hard not to notice. “Give me some wildcards” generates unexpected possibilities. “Surprise me with something I haven’t thought of” opens it up. AI tends to be cautious and measured, but questions like these give it permission to get more creative, more provocative, even a little reckless. That’s where the interesting ideas live—the ones that make you uncomfortable or laugh or say “wait, what?” Not every wildcard lands, but the ones that do can widen your perspective.

A Simple Inner Compass Starter Kit

I started with two tests and have layered others in over time. Here’s my approach, and I suggest doing it in stages. AI will remember and continue to develop its understanding of you over time.

Stage 1 – Take the Enneagram and Big Five.

Stage 2 – Add only if curiosity grows. Consider adding any of these:

• Jungian Type / MBTI or JTI (how you take in information and decide)

• VIA Character Strengths (virtues you naturally lean on)

• Adobe Creative Type / work style

You don’t need everything. This isn’t a race to define yourself—it’s a practice of getting acquainted with yourself. This staged approach creates space for the things we rarely give ourselves: reflection and integration.

This isn’t personality testing for the masses—it’s training AI to become a thinking partner or coach calibrated to your specific wiring.

We’re all tuned to different frequencies. I like classical music and classic rock. Someone else prefers folk and jazz. AI can fine-tune into these frequencies like a radio station if it knows who we are and the personality tests provide that dial.

A Word Before You Begin

This practice requires some spaciousness—some room to experiment. If you’re in crisis or distress and don’t have access to professional help—or aren’t ready to admit what’s happening to another person—AI can be a nonjudgmental starting point. But know its limits: it’s not trained to handle clinical situations, and insight alone isn’t treatment.

AI can also reflect back what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear—it has infinite patience but also infinite agreeableness. And sometimes it will confidently offer interpretations that sound textbook but aren’t true to your reality. When something doesn’t land right, push back. Ask for clarification. Challenge interpretations that feel off. The conversation gets better when you treat AI as a sparring partner, not a guru.

This practice works best when you set aside a dedicated block of time—at least 30 minutes—to fully immerse in the conversation. It’s not a five-minute quick-fix. Treat it as a focused, high-value meeting with your most important client: yourself.

This method works for me because I’m wired to process through writing and reflection—I need to process alone before I bring others in. If you’re someone who needs to talk it out immediately, move your body, or think while doing, then adapt the tool by using the AI’s voice-to-text function to speak your reflections, or simply paste a transcribed voice memo into the chat after a walk. The goal is to get your thoughts into the “mirror,” however you process them best.

Know yourself enough to know if this is your door in—or ask AI to tell you. Your body, your relationships, and your gut are still the truest compass.

Guardrails That Keep This Healthy

Don’t marry the labels. Think of them like of paint color names. Is tan offended when they label it ‘Nutty Oatmeal’ at the paint store?

Remember: tests reveal traits, not states. There are many hues and saturations of every color. We are all somewhere on a spectrum.

Watch the Achiever trap. You can’t optimize self-awareness like a KPI.

AI isn’t a clinician. Use it for frameworks, not therapy.

Reflection is a practice, but life is the real thing. Use what you learn about yourself in the real world – talk to friends, practice with strangers and see what feels most you.

Astrology is a Wildcard (and Why I Nearly Hid It)

What matters isn’t whether it’s true, but whether it helps you see a truth in a different way. If you’re curious, just share your birth date, time, and location with AI and ask it to describe your personality and motivations – you can choose if it belongs in your profile.

I almost tucked this into a footnote, knowing it steps into the woo-woo zone. Then I realized that’s exactly the kind of self-editing I’m trying to unlearn. I use my birth natal chart—not as prophecy, but as metaphor. Another mirror for pattern and timing.

Closing the Loop

For years, my tools were levers—spreadsheets, checklists, systems. They built companies and paid for plenty of life. In this season I’m building something else: an Inner Compass that keeps me aligned with who I am becoming.

AI can help you hear yourself more clearly—by reflecting your own patterns and perspectives through the lens of your personality tests. What you get in return isn’t artificial intelligence at all, but your own reflection of authentic intelligence.

Compasses provide direction, not destination. The point isn’t to arrive—it’s to keep orienting toward what feels most true, day after day.

A Short Invitation to Start—Without Overwhelm

Start with two tests:

1. Enneagram

Your test result is a single digit number. Here are two free resources of this test:

• Multiple Choice questions: https://www.truity.com/test/enneagram-personality-test

• Reading Paragraphs: https://drkimsf.com/enneagramquiz

2. Big Five

Your test results include 5 numbers

https://www.truity.com/test/big-five-personality-test

Copy the prompt below and fill in your test scores in the brackets, [ ], in an AI chat window:

Prompt: 
Create My Personalized Hybrid Coaching Method 
I want you to act as a coach who listens the way Carl Rogers taught—empathically, reflectively, and without judgment—and then helps me translate insight into clear strategy and action steps. I’ll share my personality and strengths profile below —my scores are in the brackets:  

1.	Big Five (OCEAN): Openness = [ ] Conscientiousness = [ ] Extraversion = [ ] Agreeableness = [ ] Neuroticism = [ ] 

2.	Enneagram Type: # [ ] 
I want you to:  
• Begin by summarizing what you notice about my personality and how it might shape the way I learn, decide, and act. Ask what feels accurate and what doesn’t, and explore why. The goal isn’t to confirm a test—it’s to understand the real person. 
• Tell me what motivates me and what aggravates me. 
• Start a conversation - ask me what I want to discuss. ask one question at a time. Listen and reflect what you hear before asking the next.
 • If I’m exploring or uncertain, stay in reflection and help me clarify what I mean or feel. 
• When direction starts to form, shift toward strategy—help me define simple, specific next steps or experiments.
• Keep language plain and the tone natural. No jargon, no lists of questions.  Help me hear myself think, understand what matters, and leave each exchange with one or two practical actions that fit who I am. 

If that feels comfortable and you want to go further, then bring in more test results

1. Jungian Type (MBTI): [type]

2. VIA Character Strengths (top five): [list]

3. Adobe Creativity Type [type name]

4. Birth Natal Chart: [Birth date, time, and place] (astrology option)

Important: As my chat session winds down I always end with these types of questions to push AI out of it’s conservative agreeable mode:

What are my blind spots here?  or  
Give me some wildcards  or   
Surprise me with something I haven’t thought of 

After the AI chat, step away from the screen and move—walk, bike, stretch, breathe—whatever helps your body integrate what your mind discovered.

Thanks for making it this far — I know that was a long one.
If this resonates, pass it along to a fellow explorer who might be ready to reflect.
If it’s not for you, that’s fine too — those blind-spot and wildcard prompts have value in any AI chat.