Strengths. Knowing our strengths and innate ways of understanding is important to living a satisfying life. During a recent presentation on raising resilient children, I told the group of parents and educators how important it is for us to identify, nurture, and respect the strengths of our children and students. So often we point out our children’s weaknesses rather than looking through the lens of strengths. Not only can this hurt our relationship with our children, but it can also interfere with the child’s ability to be resilient.
The Gallup Organization has created an online assessment that can highlight your top five themes from a list of 34 positive innate strengths. This assessment can be accessed by purchasing one of a number of books including:
- Strengthsfinder 2.0 (Tom Rath)
- Now, Discover Your Strengths (Marcus Buckingham & Donald Clifton)
- Go Put Your Strengths to Work (Marcus Buckingham)
- Teach With Your Strengths (Liesveld & Miller)
My husband (a retired teacher), our daughter, and I all took the Strengthsfinder test, and we were surprised by the accuracy of the results. At the time, our daughter felt as though she needed to change her profession in order to use her strengths and passions, but recently she has found that by USING her strengths, she is more satisfied with her chosen field. My top five themes are: achiever, strategic, futuristic, learner, and activator. As a college professor in the field of education, I am lucky to be able to use my top five themes in a way that is both personally and professionally satisfying. The report I was able to download about my profile indicated, among other things, that I needed to find a friend or colleague with whom I could collaborate so that we could push each other to greater heights of creativity and vividness. Never having known Jenna Forrest prior to reading her book (Help Is On Its Way), I think we have come into each other’s lives to play this important role.
If you are a bright, sensitive, and intense adult, or you have a child who matches this description, I recommend a focus on strengths as a way to build the passion, joy, and optimism necessary to live happily in a world that doesn’t always nurture the bright, sensitive, and intense spirit.
