There are three parts of your mind: conative, affective, and cognitive. Simply, the doing part, the feeling part, and the thinking part. They work together so you can be productive.
As a Kolbe Consultant, I work with the conative part of the brain or HOW you work. This part of the mind is not new; Aristotle and Socrates recognized its existence in the 4th century BC. In 1987, Kathy Kolbe created the Kolbe Index to measure our actions. She said, “Instincts on their own are a subconscious force and cannot be measured, but we can measure the 
actions we can see, observe and report.”
The other two parts of the mind have assessments and tools as well. The affective part is quantified by desires, motivation, attitudes, preferences, emotions, values, and beliefs. The Enneagram and Myers Briggs tests are examples of an affective assessment. The cognitive part examples are skills, reason, knowledge, experience, thought, and education. An IQ test is an example of a cognitive assessment. There are many other instruments that measure these parts of the mind.
The Kolbe A Index is a great example of how all three parts of the mind are put to use. Kathy Kolbe says, ”Of course, emotions cause the desire to communicate while thoughts provide the content. However, it’s your conative instincts that drive how it plays out.” And that’s where I come in, I help you to discover your innate, natural way of taking action.
For me, one of the most attractive characteristics of the Kolbe is that it does not change over time. I counted on it when I first heard about it when I was 19 and still count on it now. As I teach and help people understand their conative strengths, I am leaning into how I work instead of going against my grain. Throughout the day, everyone expends some striving/mental energy. Kolbe is all about recognizing where you will best spend the energy you have! Awareness is key because everything you do takes energy.
The conative part of the mind does not change over time, do you want to know this perfect, unchanging part of you?
Cheers,
Gail
