Thinking, feeling and acting need orientation. What is important, can help us or would hinder us? Our decisions are, often unconsciously, about these questions:

• Self: Which of my important needs are influenced by what?

• Partner: What might my partner be negatively or positively affected by?

• Group: What is the significance of the decision for my family or team?

• Past: What experiences can help me actively achieve my goal?

• Present: What current influences are there that I should consider?

• Future: How should I act with regard to my further goals?

Self: People with a high degree of self-orientation know that they are the most important person. Only when we can take good care of ourselves, there is enough strength, ideas and motivation to be there for others. Are my qualities, skills and knowledge enough to be important for you all?

Partner: With a high partner orientation, we ask: My basic needs are well satiated and you are still hungry? Then let’s share. I have skills that help you, and you can do something that I lack. We live in relationships also and precisely because we have different abilities and different needs.

Group: We learn early how groups work. Father, mother and siblings. Everyone is a partner to every other family member. Later we experience that everyone in the group benefits from being successful together. The sense of “we” grows. People with a high group orientation have this positive togetherness in mind.

Past Orientation: Past orientation uses experience to assess the current situation and plan the next steps. We recall comparable situations to our consciousness. We bring it back to us. We turn to what was and actively use it to shape our next steps.

Presence: We live in the here and now. Some things that happen around us are worth observing and evaluating closely. Present-oriented people are usually well trained in observing external situations wide awake. They perceive ongoing processes and can intervene at an early stage if something gets out of hand.

Future: Future-oriented, we look ahead. In imagination we can bring possible scenes from the future to us and pretend that it is already happening tomorrow. This ability allows us to comprehensively adjust to possible events and to take the knowledge gained from them into account in our plans.