The least frequently seen among the four basic fingerprint types is the tented arch. The presence of even one of these on a set of ten fingers means an emphasis on learning how to stop thinking about any given project and start doing something about it.

The issue is familiar to everyone, but there is much to be learned by and from the person whose fingerprints contain the very potent tented arch. This is the mark of someone who has undertaken a lifelong series of hurdles to strengthen the power of converting evaluation into action; of transforming indecision into commitment. If you possess this mark (a pattern of contours forming a wave above a distinct tent pole at center) the most important thing you can know is that it doesn't matter what action you take; just that action be taken! Even if there are no tented arches among your fingerprints, you can still apply all of the principles as if there were.

One strategy used by action avoiding experts is, ironically, not stay-at-home-under-the-bed, but quite the opposite: filling life with too many options, having too much to do. Our culture encourages this. Someone with long working hours can appear very committed yet be far from vested in her own interests. Think of the perpetual student, always taking one more course or degree before feeling he can go out and apply what he has learned.

Action avoiding can take many forms. On one extreme there is the seeker of enough things, enough security, enough in the bank account; eternally waiting still another year before a plan of satisfying action can be undertaken. At another extreme is one person I know who is undecided about which of his talents to use because each of them entails the increased use f environmentally impactful products; i.e., to publish a book would use paper and encourage burning of fossil fuels. Will he ever actually do anything? Ever?

Some tented arch experts seem cursed with wealth from an early age: when one endeavor proves difficult, it may be passed off lightly in favor of something else rather than requiring the kind of push necessary for discovering motivated commitment. In this way, one remains in a condition of evaluation of prospects, one of judgment and inertia. But the satisfaction, of course, is found in taking the action. Even if the course of action proves to be a "wrong" one, it is an action towards the "right' one.

Among tented-archers, most are likely to stand at the start of the obstacle course, taking mental measurements, considering, planning. They may try to find their identity and fulfillment at this stage, holding back from the starting line. But eventually they will find their power of in movement. They have chosen particularly dramatic situations through which to grow; the rest of us can salute and learn from them.