My life, theme edition.

Sebastian Sanchez

November 10, 2021

OGL482

Professor Willmott
Introduction
Throughout the entirety of my life, I have gone through
many unique experiences that have shaped my
perspective, beliefs, and out look on life. Here’s why.
 For this thematic analysis, I employed a
combination of qualitative and quantitative

Research measurements of information in order to

compile a profile that is uniquely, well, me.
This meant critical analysis of both

Process
quantitative data, acquired by means of
various assessments, and qualitative data,
such as various self-reflection discussions.

and The reason both qualitative and quantitative

data sets were compiled to use in this analysis

Methods
is because human beings are complex by
nature. To provide clarity, we must gather a
substantial data set to draw from.
 My Data
Sources
Highlighted throughout the next few slides will be the
data sources with a categorization of either qualitative or
quantitative and their impact on this analysis.
 Data Sources
• Three Questions (3Q)-[Qualitative]: This reflective exercise required that I answered a set of three
questions written by Leo Tolstoy. These questions served as a great introduction into the core
motivators behind my work ethic and decision-making processes.
• Identities Checklist(IC)- [Quantitative]: While this exercise draws out a certain qualitative potential to
analyze, the focus of this exercise was mainly to take inventory of the multiple roles that each person
abides by in society. For me, this served as a reminder of numerous aspects within my life that I
contribute to daily.
• Values & Dreams(VD)- [Qualitative]: VD allowed me the first opportunity of many to come to look at
the deeper functions that my values have within my life. This exercise also created a great opportunity
for me to analyze the dreams that I have for my life and judge whether they align with my values and
above stated exercises.
• Life Story Narrative(LSN)- [Qualitative]: LSN gave me the space to create a narrative based on my life
experience and reflect on the choices made throughout life that impact the way I think now.
 Data Sources
(con’t)
• Kuder Assessments: Career(CA), Skills(SA), and Work Values(WVA)- [Qualitative]: This combination of
surveys, combined with their ability to distinguish specific situations that require certain judgement
calls, helps separate various categories of thought when approaching a person’s proclivity towards a
particular field of profession choice.
• Career Anchor Assessment(CAA)- [Qualitative]: Thanks to this assessment, I was able to become more
aware behind specific internal motivations for career choices and distinguishing important inclusions
and considerations behind certain jobs.
• Myers-Briggs Personality Test(MB)-[Qualitative]: In preparing to take this exam, I realized that this
assessment would help me by equipping me with the proper tools (information and resources) to
learn more about the personality type I am according to this test. Alongside this result is a parallel
realization that I am now better equipped to understand how my personality type plays into others
and my interaction with them as well.
 My 10 Themes
1. Family 6. Humility
2. Progression 7. Acceptance
3. Consistency 8. Re-
organization
4. Resilience 9. Focus
5. Learning 10. Complete
 • Theme Statement: Through establishing stability and striving for a career that
creates a sense of security, I know that I focus on this path moving forward for my
family.

• Supporting Data:
• Being able to have tender moments of solitude and enjoy silence. This
happens whenever my family and I are together for long periods of time.
(3Q)
• Due to my high valuation of self-respect, this can be seen as a direct impact
and reflection of my time spent with my family and the lessons passed down

Theme 1:
from them to me. (VD)
• Within my roles as a son and partner, I recognize the growth that I can
achieve with both these wonderful people and my presence in their lives.
Through this sense of shared community, I can create specific instances

Family
where I show them my love. (IC)
• As I recognize the future expansion of my family unit, I am aware of the
positive impact that will have on both myself and my partner. This also
means I strive to create a sense of security in my career that allows me to
support this incredible expansion. (IC & CAA)
• As an ENFJ, I find myself wanting to create the best experience for others in
my life. This includes my family for the most part, as I always want to be able
to give back to them and help take care of them for all they have done for
me.(MB)
• With life-style integration being my secondary career anchor, I find myself
taking into consideration the time and place that family has in my life. In
other words, I always want to make sure they are included in all that I do
and have a say in certain parts of my life.(CAA)
 • Theme Statement: Despite being at a point much further along than before college,
my journey has always been one of progression. Not starting at my end goal has
always meant that I aimed to progress throughout each new role and experience to
get to the next level.

• Supporting Data:
• Through creating situations of taking care of others, I learned to value being
able to support others (LSN).
• Having established self-respect as my number one value that I prioritize, I

Theme 2: want to always make sure I put my best effort forward. This means not
hesitating to do what is necessary to create environments of personal
growth (3Q).

Progression
• As an individual that has enterprising characteristics, I pride myself on
always challenging the current way things are in any situation to try and find
a better way to execute them (CA).
• With a primary career anchor such as pure challenge, this encourages me to
progress beyond my current capacity in order to grow into larger and better
roles (CAA).
• As an ENFJ, my goal is to create the best situation for others in the world.
This means directly contributing towards a progression beyond what is
already possible in the area in question (MB).
• The difference between myself in 2011 and now in 2021 is astronomical,
demonstrating a clear growth in ability and mentality (LSN).
 • Theme Statement: The journey of progression can only be achieved through the
actions of consistency. No matter the situation or set back in life, there has always
been a theme of consistency throughout all that I strive to do.

• Supporting Data:
• As an ENFJ, to create change throughout the worlds that others experience,
I always strive to create a consistent safe space for others to come to (MB).

Theme 3:
• Through raising Sadie, I found that creating an environment of consistency
was the best course of action to ensure that she had a safe space to grow
into (LSN).
• My goals and dreams are aligned with one another and show a sense of

Consistency •
consistency between the two ( VD).
Despite challenging circumstances in my life, I always managed to push
forward and grow into my next role (LSN).
• While I consistently aim to improve the lives of others, I also aim to protect
my own mentality and maintain a sense of calm and peace in my own life
through genuine and intentional self-care (3Q).
• Living up to my fullest potential means acting with consistency at the core of
all I do (VD).
 • Theme Statement: My path to the point I am currently living in has not been easy.
There have been many times where my values, dreams, morals, and beliefs have
been challenged to grow and adapt to my new surroundings. While some situations
in my life required this, I am proud to say that throughout it all, I remained resilient
and firm in who I am.

• Supporting Data:
• My current struggle with figuring out my contribution to society is a struggle
that I am willing to push through in order to determine what is truly the best

Theme 4:
move for me (3Q).
• Coming from a family background of being Mexican-American in the U.S.,
our family prided themselves on the resilience which they have used to stay

Resilience
and thrive in this country (IC).
• As an ENFJ, I recognize my own determination and unwillingness to
compromise in the face of adversity and contribute this to my sense of
resilience (MB).
• Despite the struggles of a career transition multiple times in my life, I have
always managed to continue pushing forward (LSN).
• With a R/S/E ranking on the Kuder assessments, I support the claim that
being realistic and enterprising can also lead to being resilient (KA[CA]).
• In order to maintain the pure challenge career anchor, resilience is required
in order to make the decision to seek pure challenge anchors sustainable
(CAA).
 • Theme Statement: The halfway point of this presentation and the key realization of
my progression, I realized that as a student in life, learning is essential towards
continued growth and development as both a human being and a contributing
member of society.

• Supporting Data:
• In reviewing Tolstoy’s 3 questions, I realized that I had not taken the time to
consider these questions prior to learning about them in this class (3Q).
• To continue the learning atmosphere in the academic sense, I utilized

Theme 5: •
critically viewing my past careers and current roles in life (IC).
While reviewing a specific chapter within my life of obtaining my dog, Sadie,
I recognized that there were many lessons that I learned throughout this

Learning
process (LSN).
• In coming to recognize my personality type, I learned to associate key
characteristics with being an ENFJ (MB).
• While the idea of seeking challenges was not foreign to me, learning that it
was my key career anchor came as a surprise to me (CAA).
• Utilizing the Kuder assessments also gave me the opportunity to learn my
shortcomings and my different standings within certain rankings of traits
(KA).
 • Theme Statement: Part of the growing process is recognizing that I do not always
have the answers for everything in my life. This comes in the form of acceptance
that I can at times be limited by my lack of knowledge or experience. In other words,
I have a great deal to learn which requires a great deal of humility.

• Supporting Data:
• Accepting the new reality that I am a dog owner meant also accepting the
truth that I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning (LSN).
• In taking these Kuder Assessments, I understand that I had much to learn,

Theme 6: •
even when it comes to myself (KA).
While I understand the outcome of Tolstoy’s questions, the process of
answering them showed my lapse in understanding of how I viewed my

Humility
purpose on earth (3Q).
• Despite having a solid understanding about ENFJ’s, I still find myself learning
more aspects of what it means to be an ENFJ and the subtleties that come
with that personality type (MB).
• The fact that I am still an undergraduate student in ASU and have not
graduated is a fundamental cornerstone behind the humility that I still have
much to learn both academically and in life.
• As part of my values, living up to my fullest potential cannot happen without
a certain amount of humility in the process (VD).
 • Theme Statement: Throughout my life, there have been many transitions into many
fields of interest and study. I find that in order to transition effectively and make the
most out of these experiences, there must be an overwhelming sense of acceptance
in all I do.

• Supporting Data:
• Taking care of Sadie helped me accept a new chapter in my life where I
could find a better balance in taking care of my mental and emotional health
(LSN).

Theme 7: •

•
Learning that I identify as an ENFJ meant accepting another lens through
which society can understand me (MB).
I find that accepting things comes as a natural part of my aptitude in the

Acceptance
workplace, especially when considering my career anchors (CAA).
• Having an R/S/E assignment done after completing the Career assessment
on Kuder supports the idea that in order to maintain a realistic mentality, I
must be willing to accept things that may come or go in my life (CA).
• The A/S/C result from the skills portion of the Kuder assessments
demonstrates that I accepted the role of a professional dancer for many
years, as this is a largely artistic field (SA).
• Writing the LSN allowed me the necessary time and space required to
recognize the past careers that I have been a part of, along with creating the
necessary connections towards appreciating the time I spent as a
professional dancer in particular (LSN).
 • Theme Statement: Despite having grown much throughout my journey through
many learning lessons, one of the most important lessons that I learned, which
translates into this theme, is the idea of re-organization. In order to progress to the
next level within one’s own life, a re-organization of one’s priorities must be done in
order to advance.

• Supporting Data:
• Learning how to take care of Sadie after having been traveling for years as a
dancer meant learning how to shift away from being single-minded and into
being considerate and caring of another (LSN).

Theme 8: Re-
• Distinguishing the different personality types and traits associated with
those specific types allowed me to think differently and imagine a different
dimension with which to view people from (MB).
• Having the goal of traveling with my partner makes me appreciative of the

organization
shift away from simply wanting to travel by myself to certain places (VD).
• Seeing the different identities throughout my life and the impact those
identities have on others makes me grateful for the shift into being more
considerate of my family and friends (IC).
• I have learned over the course of many years to shifting my attentions away
from always having everything figured out and committing so wholly to a
particular subject without fully understanding the impact that it has on my
life and simply learning how to navigate in the sea of uncertainty (3Q).
• Identifying my top five values meant being able to more clearly identify the
areas in my life I wanted to prioritize without compromising the presence of
others in my life, along with recognizing the growth in my perspective (VD).
 • Theme Statement: To have focus, in my life, means to understand my own
surroundings in all areas of my life and deliberately choosing to continue forward
with one aspect in that life at a time.

• Supporting Data:
• While learning more about my values, I realized that because self-respect is
my top value, I truly am focused on continually avoiding character and
morally compromising situations (VD).
• My single-minded goal for my career to dive into software engineering is

Theme 9: •
largely due to the focus I have on providing a more stable and set future for
my partner and I (IC).
As someone who values the challenge in whatever topic I choose to study

Focus
and thrive in, it takes a high level of focus to complete these tasks and
understand the material beyond just a surface level understanding (CA)
• I ensured that even with a career transition away from dance, I prioritized
the needs and wants of Sadie in order to create a better future for her and
to ensure she was taken care of (LSN).
• In getting to my final semester in undergraduate school, the focus required
to complete these four years was something that when I was 18 I lacked.
However, coming back into school at 24 meant I gained the necessary focus
in life to complete my degree.
 • Theme Statement: As my personal narrative story shares the closing of one chapter
in my life and the opening of another, I realize that a theme of completeness has
also been present this entire time. I see things through until the end, no matter the
outcome.

• Supporting Data:
• In completing the assessments necessary to develop my own self-
understanding, I realize that I am capable of so many feats I previously
thought impossible (KA).

Theme 10: • While pure challenge keeps me satisfied in my pursuit of the end goal of
whatever it is I pursue, the reality is that the close is still part of the journey
and must learn to be okay with completing things (CAA).

Complete
• During my time as a dancer, I made sure to accomplish my goal of traveling
for dance before walking away from dance and accepting my new chapter in
life (LSN).
• In understanding my values better as someone who is older, I recognize how
they play into the actions I take in both interpersonal relationships in work
settings and personal settings (VD).
• I tend to focus on the steps necessary to complete an assignment in order to
make sure I check off the boxes for completeness (MB).
• Despite feeling distracted and unmotivated at times, I know that what I
needed to do moving forward was to remember that my goal of finishing
school and moving on into my career meant more to the other connections
and roles I have in my life (IC).
My Personal Vision
Statement

“ I am a student first.”

Reflection: In truth, this has been my vision statement for the past 10 years. When I graduated high
school, I recognized the need to create a statement about myself and the various paths of life I wanted to
walk. I was never a ”good student” in high school. I often skipped assignments and did not feel motivated
to go down a “traditional path.” Instead, I prioritized learning life skills such as talking to others, listening,
and empathetic listening in order to be more present for others. In doing so, I recognized my capacity for
learning stretched beyond any exam a test could provide and that I had the capacity to learn and do
anything.
 My Personal
Mission Statement

“All that I do is in the name of standing at the edge of my own limitations in order to exceed them.”

Reflection: I always grouped this statement above with my vision statement in the hopes that they would
go together. What I came to realize and accept is that my own ability to stand at the edge of uncertainty
and peer over the cliff came in equal part with the capacity to jump in. Despite feeling limited at times by
what I do have as a career in life, I recognize that this is all done to push me to the edge of uncertainty in
my life and force me into jumping into something that I have explored thoroughly and made sure to
commit to this new challenge in order to live out my life’s mission.
 Conclusion
The number one thing I learned throughout these
exercises, assessments, and analyses is that I have
limitless potential. The only limit that I have is the
amount of time I spend listening to the voice of doubt
that creeps in whenever I either start a new task or
am in the middle of something new and challenging.
• Career Assessment, Pathways Planning System
Login: Kuder journey. Kuder Journey®. (n.d.).
Retrieved November 2021, from
https://journey.kuder.com/home/dashboard.
• Free personality test. 16Personalities. (n.d.).
Retrieved November 2021, from
https://www.16personalities.com/free-

References
personality-test.
• Sanchez, S. (2021). Life Story Personal
Narrative.
• Tolstoy, L. (n.d.). 3 Questions. Canvas: OGL 482.
Retrieved from https://canvas.asu.edu/.
Module's 1-3: 3 Questions, Values and
Dreams, Identities Checklist, Career Anchor
Assessment