Strengths

I have worked many times over the years with my good friend Eva, a very successful life coach. She was instrumental last year in helping us form NEXT, the seminars to guide older adults to investigate, discover, and create new careers.

When I got sick, Eva thought it was a great time for me to do some investigating of my own. So she sent me a book titled "Strengths Finder 2.0" by Tom Rath. Included with the book is a personal code to go online and take their evaluation test to discover your individual strengths. One of the things I love most about the test is that you have 30 seconds to answer each question, thus only allowing for honest answers.

The jacket of the book says, "All too often, our natural talents go untapped. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths."

After taking the test, I learned that my five biggest strengths (in order) are Empathy, Communication, Positivity, Arranger, and Ideation.  Quite blatantly, it is no coincidence that I love blogging. I arrange the ideas to communicate positive thinking, and my primary goal is to help others. And speaking of empathy, I guess it shines a little too brightly in the last blog. I tend to go overboard.  I'm one of those bleeding hearts who can't enjoy a party if I see someone standing alone.

Eva couldn't have been more right. The book brought me joy discovering a little more about myself.  It made me look back on my career and see exactly where I failed and why, and where I succeeded because of these strengths.

I know self-help books are filling the shelves at bookstores, but this book is an easy one to tackle because you only have to read the five segments that are your strengths. That is, unless you want to see all the strengths you don't have.  If so, I have great empathy for you.