What is My Intention?
One of the key roles in TED* (*The Empowerment Dynamic)™, a Challenger serves as a catalyst for change, learning and growth, and creates an opportunity for thoughtful action for a Creator. A Challenger can be a person, condition (such as a health condition), or a situation (such as a natural disaster). The Challenger role is the positive alternative to the drama triangle role of Persecutor.
“The Challenger has many faces,” Ted continued. “The most common is the one who provokes others to take action. The Challenger may be compassionate or confrontational, or both. A Challenger calls forth a Creator’s will to create, often spurring him or her to learn new skills, make difficult decisions, or do whatever is necessary to manifest a dream or desire. The Challenger is a kind of teacher who points toward life’s lessons, toward opportunities for growth embedded in the living of life.”
– The Power of TED*, chapter 8
A Challenger may be conscious and constructive, especially when in a relationship with another Creator. Some of the Challengers we meet in life are unconscious – a person, condition, or circumstance that comes into our experience uninvited. In either case, a Challenger provides a Creator with an opportunity to choose their response to situations based upon a desired result and to take actions to create the outcome they desire.
Challengers ask themselves, “What is my intention—to look good or to further learning and growth?” A Challenger approaches life and relationships with a learning intent and “builds up” rather than “puts down.”
A Challenger is the antidote to the Persecutor role in the Dreaded Drama Triangle (DDT)™, first described by Stephen Karpman as the Drama Triangle.
In the Drama Triangle, the Persecutor may be a person, condition (such as a health condition), or a circumstances (a natural disaster, for example). When the Persecutor is a person, he or she is symbiotically linked to the Victim and seeks to dominate (either overly or covertly) and maintain a “one-up” position through a variety of assertive and /or manipulative means. Often the Persecutor’s behavior is driven by his/her own fear of becoming, or re-becoming, a Victim. Fear of losing control can also be a factor.
Power of TED* Book Notes
- Learn more about the Creator role in Chapter 6, “The Creator Orientation” and Chapter 8, “The Empowerment Dynamic”
- Learn more about the Persecutor role in Chapter 2, “The Dreaded Drama Triangle”