A Time For Everything

Yup, I'm gonna attempt this again in 2023. :0)

As I read back through my posts related to my Strengths, I promised twice to explore them, once for 2021 and once for 2022. And twice my intentions were derailed for one reason or another. You all know what happened in 2022. Not sure what the hurdle was in 2021. Not that it matters.

At some point in the fall, I compared DH's and my Strengths, to see if we have top-ten overlap. And surprisingly, we do. We share three Strengths: Relator, Restorative, and Focus, although not in the same positions.

Two of his other top-ten Strengths come in at 13 & 14 for me, one other of mine comes at 17 for him, with everything else in each of our top tens falling to the bottom half for the other. Oof that's tough.

For a few years, we really had trouble communicating. We'd go round and round about something until one or the other of us would say something and we'd realize that we meant the same thing, but were coming at it from a different direction and, of course, using different verbiage.

We've been able to work around that particular issue a lot better since the realization. But since taking the Strengths test and knowing the results, the communication issue all made sense. 

One of my goals, I think, for 2023, is going to be studying Strengths a bit. Finally. There are a couple of books specifically about the Clifton Strengths, so I'm going to do some reading. I want to work on growing and leaning into my (top-ten) Strengths a little more, especially the ones that I struggle with.

The plan is to share a few tidbits here along the way.

Short and sweet today. Have a great weekend. Take care.

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.

* * * * *

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.

* * * * *

I hope you had a great weekend. Catch you on Thursday. :0)

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Gallup divvies up Personality Strengths into categories, which we'll get to in a moment.

For those of you just now getting blog posts via email, go here for the context of Strengths and how I found them, and then come back...

Clifton Strengths are divided up into "Themes" as follows:

Executing (purple strand)

Influencing (orange strand)

Relationship Building (blue strand)

Strategic Thinking (green strand)

Looking at my full strand above, all my Influencing strands are low (#19 and lower). For those of you who know me well, does it make sense that none my Influencing Strengths rank high at all?

My top ten / top eighteen Strengths are a just about equal mix of the other three, but break out like this:

Relationship Building (blue) 7, Executing (purple) 6, & Strategic Thinking (green) 5.

The actual top ten, which are the ones Becca says to lean into the most, are as equal as can be for an even number (4, 3, 3).

I'm gonna share all of my Strengths eventually, but for now I'm share my very lowest Strength at #34 and that's Achiever.

What? Wait!

I know, right? Crazy! Because, again, if you know me, I tend to get a lot done, but that's because of the four Executing Strengths I have in my top ten.

If you're intrigued by Clifton's Strengths, you can visit their site for more information. It's really quite fascinating.

There's more to come on this, so stay tuned. :0)

Have a super day and rest of your week.

This is the "DNA" strand that represents my Strengths. The 34 Strengths are divided into four groups, each represented by a color.

As you can see I'm bottom heavy in a certain groups of Strengths. We'll talk about those next time.

So....

Back in the fall of 2020, I read a book called “Dear Writer, You’re Doing it Wrong” by Becca Syme. In it, Becca challenges a lot of the notions handed to newbie writers as they join the ranks of writers’ organizations.

Some of the most popular are:

• You have to be everywhere on social media.
• You have to have a newsletter.
• You have to plot /outline.

I’ve balked at many of the things I was taught I “must” do. For a long time, it didn’t matter much. I was nowhere near ready to publish. But as I moved forward in my writing journey, not only did I learn more about both the business and craft of writing, but I matured in my writing self.

I watched as those around me put things into practice and I drew lines for myself. I definitely felt out of synch with many of my writing acquaintances. When getting to know other authors, I’m often met with metaphorical raised eyebrows because I don’t send out a newsletter. Blech. Boring. I blog twice a week, why do I need a monthly newsletter?

BUT!

In the above-mentioned book, Becca questioned every premise. And then she went on to explain why not every author has to do every thing or may not be successful at certain things.

It all routes back to Gallup’s Clifton Strengths. Becca is a Certified Strengths coach and, as she is also an author, she found a way to use the CliftonStrenths to help authors write better faster or explain why they struggle with certain things.

The case for anyone to really be successful, not just authors, is to lean on your top five to ten strengths. Those bottom fifteen strengths—don’t worry so much about them. You want to lean into the strengths you’re already using and are good at.

In the book, of course she references the Strengths. Between her premise that no, I didn’t have to do everything and that it was okay not to, and that Strengths have something to do with why I do the things I do, I was intrigued. I took the test in November of 2020 and learned what my thirty-four Strengths are in order.

Most of them made sense to me. I scratched my head at couple of them being so high, but as 2021 chugged along I’ve had some epiphanies about them.

I had planned on talking about my top ten Strengths last year, but I just couldn’t seem to make it happen.

I’m being a little more pro-active in terms of blog topics and posting for 2022, so I’m actively working on topics and will be researching when necessary and pre-writing when necessary. So look for posts about my Strengths throughout 2022.

These days, when someone says “you should do this” or “you should try that,” I have now trained myself to ask, “But should I?”

I took a class geared toward writers back in November of 2021, and I really felt at odds with the instructor because she kept making the assumption that everyone could do this thing she was telling us to do. I tried to phrase my answers to homework in such a way that the others would understand, without me calling out the instructor directly, that not everyone works the way she’s saying and that it’s okay if you don’t or can’t.

And I’m done with taking classes for a while. While refreshers are a good thing, I haven’t learned anything new from a class in a while. Not only that, but I have two years’ worth of conference presentations at my disposal as well as a folder full of emails from a writer whose teaching resonates with me. I’ve coughed up enough money for the time being.

So the first post on one of my Strengths will be forthcoming. Sometime in the month of February. Even if it’s the last day. Those posts will take a little more thought and research.

Anyway, we survived January. Here’s to a good February.

Take care friends and have a great week.

There are 34 of them. We all have them in various conglomerations and orders. According to Gallup. there's a 1 in 33 billion chance someone else has the same top five strengths in the same order. Anyway, I was quickly intrigued and coughed up the $50 it cost to take the test that would tell me what order all 34 of my personality strengths were arranged in.

I was so excited to see this list. I was a bit surprised by the high-ness or low-ness of a couple of strengths, but overall my top-ten were spot on and explained so many of my behaviors.

Now, the podcasts target writers so they discuss behaviors most specifically about writing habits and such, but certain things like how or why you write the way you do extends into other aspects of your life as well.

The top ten strengths influence so much of what we do and how we do it, and it's recommended to really lean into them and learn how to harness their power rather than try to strengthen any of the items on the bottom of the list.

That's one of my goals for this year: to learn about each strength and determine how I can best utilize it to become a better writer and ultimately a better me.

I hope you'll come along on my journey.

The first strength I'll explore is #6 of 34 (for me): LEARNER.

That blog post will show up some time in February.

And on a quick note--I forgot to put writing to my Grandma in Denmark monthly on my goals list--so back up to 8 goals. Also, Buc-cee's isn't limited to Texas as I'd thought--it has two other locations, one in GA and one in AL. There might be a long weekend road trip on my horizon. :0)

 Have a great weekend!