The Becoming You Method
Our Theory
A deliberate system for living—and deciding—with purpose.
Introduction
The Becoming You Method is a decision-making and life-design framework grounded in behavioral science, decision theory, and applied foresight. It seeks to answer a foundational question in human development:
How can individuals reliably identify and pursue a life path that is both authentic and sustainable?
This question has become more urgent in contemporary society. Young adults face choice overload (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000), workers confront rapid skill churn (World Economic Forum, 2020), and entire populations report rising anxiety, purposelessness, and regret (Haidt, 2023). Meanwhile, traditional sources of direction—religious institutions, lifelong employment contracts, and stable cultural scripts—have eroded.
This question has become more urgent in contemporary society. Young adults face choice overload (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000), workers confront rapid skill churn (World Economic Forum, 2020), and entire populations report rising anxiety, purposelessness, and regret (Haidt, 2023). Meanwhile, traditional sources of direction—religious institutions, lifelong employment contracts, and stable cultural scripts—have eroded.
Authentic Values
Natural, Cognitive & Emotional Aptitudes
Economically Viable Interests
(EVIs)
1. Authentic Values
Values are enduring belief systems about what matters most. Research beginning with Rokeach (1973) and extended by Schwartz (1992, 2012) demonstrates that values are measurable across cultures and predictive of political behavior, consumer choices, and subjective well-being.
Clarity Matters
Values differ from personality traits (Costa & McCrae, 1992), which describe tendencies, and from skills, which are acquired. Values are prescriptive orientations—they guide what should be done
Empirical strength
Longitudinal studies (e.g., the MIDUS survey) show that people whose occupations align with their stated values report lower turnover, higher engagement, and greater life satisfaction.
Challenges
Despite their importance, values are often misunderstood. Research by Dr. Welch & team at NYU Stern found that ~80% of adults conflate values with traits or virtues. This underscores the need for structured elicitation methods such as the Values Bridge.
Values clarity is therefore the first pillar of antifragile decision-making: without it, individuals are vulnerable to mimetic desire and the “Velvet Coffin” of default conformity.
2. Natural, Cognitive & Emotional Aptitudes
Aptitudes are not merely skills but innate or early-emerging propensities in cognition and emotion. They predict how individuals perceive, process, and act on information.
Psychometric Foundation
The most widely accepted model today is the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of cognitive abilities (Carroll, 1993).
Socio-Emotional Extension
Later research expanded the concept of aptitude beyond pure cognition. Salovey & Mayer (1990) and Goleman (1995) demonstrated that emotional intelligence—capacities such as self-regulation, empathy, and relational attunement—can be as predictive of success as IQ.
Behavioral Science Evidence
Aptitude alignment leads to more frequent experiences of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), which correlate with performance, persistence, and subjective fulfillment.
Fieldwork within Becoming You Labs shows that misalignment between aptitudes and chosen paths is a primary driver of burnout and regret. For example, MBA students with high spatial reasoning but low abstract planning often struggle in consulting but thrive in product design or architecture.
3. Economically Viable Interests (EVIs)
Interests describe domains that capture attention and energy, but sustainability requires viability.
Vocational Psychology
Holland’s RIASEC model (1997) demonstrates that interest-occupation congruence predicts persistence and satisfaction.
Labor Economics
Studies of occupational outlooks find that mismatch between interests and economic demand increases dropout rates and mid-career pivots.
Contemporary Challenge
LinkedIn (2023) and the World Economic Forum (2020) estimate that up to 50% of role-critical skills are replaced every 3-5 years. Viability must therefore be dynamic, tied not only to today’s labor market but also to megatrends in automation, AI, climate, and demographics.
Becoming You Labs incorporates Megatrends, Industry Maps, and Role Forecasting Tools into its EVI assessments, ensuring that purpose alignment is resilient against external shocks
Integration: The Area of Transcendence
The Becoming You Method defines the intersection of values, aptitudes, and EVIs as the Area of Transcendence (AOT).
At this locus, choices are:
Authentic
Aligned with internal compass
Viable
Sustained by Market Demand
Competent
Leveraging innate propensities
Every decision, every career move, every relationship can be filtered through these three dimensions. When you do, you aren’t just choosing—you are becoming.The Becoming You Method offers more than insight—it is a practice.
Ready to live with clarity, courage, and purpose?