Are You Living Your Encodings? From Jim Collins to Wake Up Eager Clarity

Jim Collins calls them "encodings"—the deeply wired patterns that shape how we contribute—and in this episode, Suzie Price explores how understanding your natural strengths, motivations, and energy can help you build a life you can't wait to wake up to.

What if the key to a more energized, meaningful life isn't working harder—but understanding what you're truly wired to do?

Inspired by Jim Collins' book What to Make of a Life and his conversation with Tim Ferriss, Suzie explores the concept of "encodings" and connects it to the TriMetrix assessment and the Wake Up Eager philosophy.

She shares personal stories, research from Gallup and Jim Collins, and practical examples from hiring and leadership to show how alignment impacts performance, fulfillment, and energy.

Whether you're leading a team, making career decisions, or simply trying to understand yourself better, this episode will help you recognize the clues your strengths and energy have been giving you all along.

Discover how to stop fighting your wiring and start living more intentionally.

 

TOP 3 TAKEAWAYS

1. Your Energy Leaves Clues - The things that consistently energize you, engage you, and feel natural often point directly to your deepest strengths and encodings.

2. Success Doesn't Always Mean Alignment - You can be capable, respected, and even successful in a role that fights against your natural wiring. Over time, the energy cost of misalignment catches up.

3. Understanding Your Wiring Creates Better Decisions - Whether you're hiring, leading, coaching, or planning your future, understanding how people naturally think, behave, and stay motivated helps create stronger alignment and better outcomes

 

KEY QUOTES

"You can be successful, respected, capable, and still be living completely outside your encodings. Eventually, the energy cost catches up to you."

"You can be good at something and still not be encoded for it."

"Your experiences don't create your encodings. They reveal or suppress them."

"Energy leaves clues."

"Sometimes your encodings are hiding in plain sight."

"Stop overriding your wiring."

"When your wiring, your strengths, your environment, and your contribution begin to align, you don't just perform better—you come alive."

"Life gets better when we align what energizes us with how we naturally contribute."

"Words don't teach. Life experience teaches."

"We should allow others to be who they are through their strengths."

“If you don’t change and grow, you won’t have what you need for what’s coming next.”

 

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

1. Start Tracking Your Energy - For one week, pay attention to the conversations, projects, and activities that leave you energized versus drained.

2. Look for Repeating Patterns - Identify strengths, interests, and contributions that have shown up consistently throughout your life and career.

3. Stop Minimizing What Comes Naturally - The things that feel easiest to you may be some of your greatest gifts—even if they seem ordinary.

4. Seek Objective Feedback - Use assessments, coaching, journaling, or trusted friends to help validate the patterns you may be overlooking.

5. Make One Small Alignment Adjustment - Choose one activity, project, or responsibility that better reflects your natural strengths and make space for more of it this month.

 

ABOUT SUZIE PRICE

Suzie Price is the founder of Priceless Professional Development, creator of the Wake Up Eager philosophy, and a TriMetrix expert who helps leaders and organizations align people, roles, and strengths to build high-commitment, low-drama workplaces and lives they can't wait to wake up to.