The basis of strategy in human design is understanding how the external environment stimulates each energy type, which can then help you understand how energy flows within. The internal energy flow is what defines your strategy. Each energy type is designed to interact with the world around them in a way that is most aligned with their internal framework. If you follow your strategy correctly, you will find yourself moving throughout life with less stagnation and with fewer roadblocks.
Seemingly everything you could ever dream of begins to happen in your life at the pace that your energy is meant to experience it. Knowing and practicing your human design strategy is a conscious and unconscious choice that your body and mind constantly plays with. From the moment you are born, you are living this strategy whether you realize it or not! So, with this in mind, let’s dive deeper into each strategy for each energy type:
Manifestor: Inform and Initiate
Leading the charge, a Manifestor is designed to work in bursts of energy. A Manifestor will receive an idea or an urge to do something and they either follow that urge or rest. Once they begin to follow a particular urge, they must inform others around them what they are about to do. Then, after communicating their urge and what they want to do, they can move forward. This does not mean, however, that they need approval from others. Rather, they must speak their unapologetic truth about what they want to do and then forge ahead. Think of this not as permission, but as communication.
A Manifestor’s choice to communicate what they are called to do without worrying about what others and the world thinks of them is an aspect of their strategy that allows them to shine to their greatest potential. An “urge” may look like walking up to a stranger on the street to tell them they look beautiful, or needing to work tirelessly for a week straight and then rest for the following month.
A Manifestor is designed to ride follow their impulses like the currents of the ocean. Their energy is consistent like the tides flowing in and out each day, although, sometimes there are storms and surges that rock and create great change. Out of nowhere, there will also be calm restful seas that seem to last an eternity. Until the next storm of momentum kicks in, the Manifestor pauses, gathering strength before transforming the world once again.
Generator: Respond
Generators have one of the most interesting strategies, called responding. Everything they’ve ever dreamed of or desired is already at their fingertips—they get to decide what they want to touch, grab, and interact with. Every strategy operates in tandem with the Universe surrounding it, but when a Generator sees something they want or hears something that makes their energy change, that is their physical gut response interacting with what is in front of them.
A Generator’s sacral center, also known as their life force energy wants to be ‘lit up’ by experiences—it wants to be energized and delighted by life. As a Generator moves throughout their day, their gut, or Sacral center is trying to give a response to the rest of their body and brain to go after what has excited them. The more a Generator responds to the things, foods, people, or places that make their Sacral center feel alive, the more the Universe will keep sending them what they desire to respond to next.
A Generator will learn over the course of a lifetime what their body does and does not like. It loves yes or no questions and has a hard time hearing the word “maybe”. What no longer inspires a Generator will also need to be responded to, since a Generator must learn to value themselves first. This will serve as a good reminder that they do not have to keep doing things that no longer excite them. The body doesn’t lie, a Generator will become ill or lose their energy to do anything if they continually do things that drain their powerful life force.
Manifesting Generator: Respond and Inform
Restlessness and boldness are adjectives that best describe a Manifesting Generator and their strategy. Just like a Generator, a Man Gen has their Sacral center defined in their body graph, but then also has one or more motor centers connected to their Throat chakra. A motor center in our human design body graph is one of the following centers: Solar Plexus (emotions), Heart, Sacral, or Spleen. A Man Gen will either get a gut response of yes or a not now when they are poised with a yes or no question. When they are out in the world, getting their hands dirty with life, their body is responding to what they are physically doing and engaging with.
A second aspect to the Man Gen’s strategy comes along with their Manifestor energy, directly correlating to their Throat chakra of manifestation. If their gut has given them a positive response, then they can begin to speak their desires into existence. Their fidgety energy comes from their need to speak their mind, emotions, wants, desires, or fears aloud. Along the journey of any new project, relationship, or routine that they have felt drawn toward, they will constantly need to check in with themselves to ensure they still want to head in this direction. Like the Generator, they will need to be intune with what no longer serves them.
Manifesting Generators are designed to begin tasks and conversations, but are not necessarily tied to finish them. This is because they may feel drawn to circle back to them at a better time, or that they were meant to kick-start someone else’s path of deeper understanding. Manifesting Generators are trailblazing never before seen ways of living and experiencing life for not only themselves, but also all other energy types.
Projector: Wait for an Invitation and Recognition
Feeling like they are being seen is the key to a Projector’s success in this lifetime. As one of the rarer energy types, Projectors literally shine their light outward to help guide others toward their fulfillment and alignment in their lives. Projectors are designed to go about their lives at their own pace while being surrounded by the constant hustle of Manifestors, Generators, and Manifesting Generators. Without a Sacral center or constant life force energy living inside them, they can ride other people’s energy. However, this also means they need ample recuperation so they can understand what their energetic essence needs at any given time.
A Projector’s strategy is to see what naturally comes to them or, by engaging with the Universe, seeing what opportunities present themselves before deciding whether to pursue them or not. This is called “waiting for an invitation”. A Projector’s greatest gift is to solve the issues that they see around them that they have been specifically designed to have the know-how to do so.
A Projector will learn throughout their life that their abilities are profound, and that their superpowers are their key to success. They must see and recognize themselves first as being infinitely capable of being the person that someone else may need in their lives. Their flexibility within their role is the great asset that gives a Projector the opportunity to harness their sacred energy and attention for when they really need it as opposed to pushing and shoving their way into the spotlight.
Reflector: Wait for a Lunar Cycle
The mysterious Reflector is one of the most receptive energy types on the planet. As 1% of the population, the Reflector is designed to mirror back those around them who they truly are. Reflectors embody their environments and the characteristics of the people that surround them, making their bodies extremely sensitive.
Due to having all nine centers of their body graph completely open, they take on other’s thoughts, feelings, desires, motivations, wants, manifestations, fears, and/or pressures easily, causing them to be overwhelmed. This leads them to them needing to set very clear boundaries in their life around who and where they spend their time. Their strategy is to take their time to internalize how they personally feel at the end of each day by themselves, reflecting on their experiences.
Understanding the truth of what comes into their aura and life allows their wisdom to grow before being shared with the world. Taking roughly 28-30 days—or an entire full to full moon cycle—to digest information, a Reflector will have used their strategy of patience to have gathered enough details to decide if they need to change something in their life. This strategy does not mean that a Reflector is indecisive, it just means that they can see the bigger picture of what is around them before they can see what they need for themselves, which just takes time.