How to Identify Your Strengths – Strength Finder Book Review
This month’s book review is learning about one’s talents and identifying true strengths.
Strength Finder 2.0 has been out for sometime (published in 2007), the author Tom Rath has a passion for studying and researching the roles and behaviors in business, focusing on leadership, wellbeing and health. This book was rated as one of the top nonfiction books of all time in 2016 by Amazon.com.
Some of my favorite quotes from Tom Rath comes from the book mentioned above:
“Every human being has talents that are just waiting to be uncovered.”
What are your talents? Have you ever truly taken time to discover them or put them to use? You could be amazing at poetry, gardening, numbers, making people laugh or photography… the only way to find out what you’re good at is to try different things and see what comes natural to you.
“Far too many people spend a lifetime headed in the wrong direction. They go not only from the cradle to the cubicle, but then to the casket, without uncovering their greatest talents and potential.”
This was a wake up call for me when I read this book initially a few years ago. Most people spend their time either scared to venture out of their comfort zone (used to be me) or attach themselves to someone else’s successes instead of identifying and creating their own.
“When we’re able to put most of our energy into developing our natural talents, extraordinary room for growth exists. So, a revision to the ‘You-can-be-anything-you-want-to-be’ maxim might be more accurate: You cannot be anything you want to be—but you can be a lot more of who you already are.”
Knowing your talents makes life more meaningful and less stressful by allowing you to discover the path or direction you are meant to take. For me, sales was it… I love meeting new people, networking, helping to solve issues, presenting and innovation. Overtime and continuous focus on my talents and strengths I was able to hone in on my value in business.
“Talent (a natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving) × Investment (time spent practicing, developing your skills, and building your knowledge base) = Strength (the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance)”
What’s your equation to creating the strengths you want to develop? How much time do you want to carve out to in order to build upon it?
For me, writing is a strength I want to improve on (hence the blog?) it makes me feel happy and I’m tapping into a childhood passion of mine. On a weekly basis I spend between 5-8 hours reading, writing/blogging or researching, I don’t give myself a time block (creativity comes on it’s own when it wants to) instead I list it as a task and I commit to meeting the deadline I set for myself.
“We were tired of living in a world that revolved around fixing our weaknesses. Society’s relentless focus on people’s shortcomings had turned into a global obsession. What’s more, we had discovered that people have several times more potential for growth when they invest energy in developing their strengths instead of correcting their deficiencies.”
People can oftentimes be their own worst critic, pointing out faults, things they’re not good at, comparing themselves to others and focus on all their weaknesses.
There’s a 30 minute test to find out your top 5 Talents and Strengths do this before you read the book.
My top were: Empathy – Responsibility – Arranger – Futuristic – Restorative. All which I continuously improve on weekly.
Leave a comment below with your top 5… 🙂
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