Ok so I’m not a love-child. You know: the product of two people who loved each other but weren’t married and usually want to keep their identities a secret. An out-dated term but one I find can is a pretty cool self-assessment tool. Seriously, even and actually especially if you’re not a love-child. When I’m hit hard by the nasty symptoms of bipolar (despite my efforts to manage them), I find I forget about any gifts I might legitimately have.
Enter the Love-Child Quiz to discover your strengths. Think of it as a Glamour magazine pop test, except for people with bipolar disorder. This is how it goes:
1. Think of two (or three or four even) people who you would most love to be your parents? Don’t think about it for too long. It doesn’t need to be realistic or even possible. In fact the more you let yourself fly with this, the better. No inner critic allowed.
2. Write their names down on the left side of a paper.
3. On the right side beside each name, write one, two or three qualities or sentences that describe what those people represent to you. Got it?
4. Now cover the left hand side of the paper and read those qualities, but say your name first and then list the qualities (you may need to add a verb or two to make it grammatically correct).
Here are the results of my Bipolar Love-Child Quiz:
Ellen DeGeneres Promotes kindness, humor and joy
John Cleese Makes people laugh, is an innovator and gentle
Lady GaGa Encourages bravery, is one of a kind and a mover and a shaker
Remember how I said it didn’t need to be plausible? It doesn’t. My love-child parents scenario includes having two biological mothers (one younger than me, one my own age who also happens to be gay) and a rather wrinkly elderly male comic.
So my outcomes read like this: Victoria promotes kindness, humor and joy. Victoria makes people laugh, is an innovator and is gentle. Victoria encourages bravery, is one of a kind and a mover and a shaker.
The qualities you admire in others are virtues, strengths and skills in which you have yourself. They are also characteristics that you can learn to more fully inhabit. You can use them to help you set goals and hint to what you wish to experience more in your life. It's not being boastful, it's recognizing the gifts we have been given. I may not always feel like an innovator or someone who promotes joy (especially when I'm wrestling with the boogey man of bipolar), but this quiz acts as a gentle reminder of what is present even if I don't feel it.
Who are you bipolar love-child parents? What makes them unique? Because those very things that you find so appealing are the very things that make you so special.
© Victoria Maxwell
