Last Wednesday I received an email communication from Becca--the gal who turned me on to Personality Strengths and who teaches people, mostly authors, how to lean in to their top (ten) strengths to be "better faster" at things.
In that email, she encouraged everyone to check-in with their top five Strengths to see how those Strengths were performing or if they were being starved.
An example of starving a Strength would be if a person with high Input (mine is #8) isn't accumulating enough information or ideas or artifacts. Basically -- inputting. :0)
So I took a few minutes to review my top five: Consistency, Restorative, Harmony, Discipline, and Intellection.
I know most of y'all don't really understand the scope of these because I still haven't explained them to you as I've wanted to do since November of 2020 when I first took the test, but let's see how I'm doing anyway...
1. Consistency -- This encompasses two threads, treating all people the same and having them all be subject to the same rules and consequences; and as the name suggests being consistent in action and deed in order to get through routine tasks quickly and efficiently.
I don't know how consistently I treat people across the board, to be fair. But I have a very small circle of people I interact with, but I wholeheartedly support the principle.
As for "action and deed," I definitely have a very uniform way of doing just about everything.
So this means Consistency is being fed enough to work more for me than against me right now.
2. Restorative -- This has to to with dealing with problems. I'm supposedly good at figuring out what's wrong and resolving it.
For me, it 100% depends on the area in which the problem falls as well as the scope of the issue.
Unfortunately, I don't always have the authority to make changes I think would help.
Now if I'm trying to self-improve, that's something else and I have more success with that.
This strength probably wobbles back and forth a bit more merely because of that authority thing I mentioned, but I absolutely try to fix and resolve the things I can, especially when they fall under the purview of my personal endeavors.
3. Harmony -- As the name suggests, I like things to be harmonious and I don't enjoy conflict. It also means that I prefer being busy and engaged over being bored and opting to spend time in front of the TV. I do spend time watching TV in certain circumstances and sometimes that circles back to the Input Strength I mentioned as much as it does feeling tired or ill or bored.
The "dealing with conflict" aspect of this is always a struggle for me and is something I'm aware of and "Intellecting" on how to get better at.
4. Discipline -- From the results of my Strengths test: "You enjoy routine and structure. Your world is best described by the order you create."
I feel like this should be my number one Strength. But regardless of where it sits--so much YES. This is me.
Keeping to routines helps me feel more even-keeled when other things are out of control. The more chaotic the things around me are, the more I cling to and even add to my routines.
I am in the balcony (rather than the basement) of this Strength, and it works very well for me.
5. Intellection -- Basically, I like to learn things and keep my brain active. I love to read. Romance mostly, but other things too. I've mentioned podcasts a lot over the past few years--listening to them not only feeds this strength, but feeds that #8 Input I mentioned as well.
I listen to mostly hockey-related podcasts, but also Ted Talks Daily (not all of them, but most), History This Week, one called Dark History, and one called Cautionary Tales. Those are the regular ones.
Occasionally I'll hear about a fixed length series like the 12-episode series about the British Royal Family I recently listened to. I also listened to a series about the victims of Jack the Ripper--did you know they weren't all prostitutes as sensationalist history would like us to believe?
This Strength is also about thinking and reflecting and pondering. I need time to parse information I've been given when needing to make a presentation or when taking a lot of detailed information quickly or when writing. Goodness help me if I have to make a decision quickly.
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I definitely want to share more information with you about my Strengths and Strengths in general. I find them fascinating and enlightening and exciting. Spoiler alert--Strengths will be on the docket for blog topics next year and I might just make myself a little more accountable by putting it on the 2023 goals list.
If any of this intrigues you, visit the Gallup website.I've linked you to the page that covers the four domains that Strengths are broken into and then lists and links them for more info on each one individually.
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I hope you had a great weekend. Catch you on Thursday. :0)
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