As I was cleaning the family basement and reorganizing the bookshelf, I came across a book that seemed to be in solid shape as oppossed to the other faded and yellow-stained-page counter parts.  I took a seat on top of a dangerously high pile of dusty books and began to read some interesting things that changed my perspective on how I viewed myself and the world around me.

Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best everyday? Chances are, you don’t. Most often, we find ourselves working tirelessly in professions and jobs that we did four years ago, what we went to school for, or perhaps what society told us to do. My intent isn’t to tell you that this is wrong, nor to promise you that there is something else out there better for you. No, my message today is to encourage people to look inside themselves and rediscover their special talents and skills. We get asked this routine question in interviews on a constant basis, “What are your strengths?”. So what are your strengths?! This compact size book comes with a complimentary code to allow you to take the “Gallup Now, Discover your Strengths” Questionnaire, resulting in the compilation of your top 5 strengths. Side note: it is one code per Ibook/user, unfortunately you cannot share the link with friends and take it multiple times. Turns out that this book was my sisters and that she had misplaced it a while back. OOPS…mine now I guess. Its an easy read and will prove to be a great resource for many years with excellent strategies on how to apply your strengths at work, with people and in your life.

There are 34 themes all together:

• Achiever - one with a constant drive for accomplishing tasks
• Activator - one who acts to start things in motion
• Adaptability - one who is especially adept at accommodating to changes in direction/plan
• Analytical - one who requires data and/or proof to make sense of their circumstances
• Arranger - one who enjoys orchestrating many tasks and variables to a successful outcome
• Belief - one who strives to find some ultimate meaning behind everything they do
• Command - one who steps up to positions of leadership without fear of confrontation
• Communication - one who uses words to inspire action and education
• Competition - one who thrives on comparison and competition to be successful
• Connectedness - one who seeks to unite others through commonality
• Consistency - one who believes in treating everyone the same to avoid unfair advantage
• Context - one who is able to use the past to make better decisions in the present
• Deliberative - one who proceeds with caution, seeking to always have a plan and know all of the details
• Developer - one who sees the untapped potential in others
• Discipline - one who seeks to make sense of the world by imposition of order
• Empathy - one who is especially in tune with the emotions of others
• Focus - one who requires a clear sense of direction to be successful
• Futuristic - one who has a keen sense of using an eye towards the future to drive today’s success
• Harmony - one who seeks to avoid conflict and achieve success through consensus
• Ideation - one who is adept at seeing underlying concepts that unite disparate ideas
• Includer - one who instinctively works to include everyone
• Individualization - one who draws upon the uniqueness of individuals to create successful teams
• Input - one who is constantly collecting information or objects for future use
• Intellection - one who enjoys thinking and thought-provoking conversation often for its own sake, and also can data compress complex concepts into simplified models
• Learner - one who must constantly be challenged and learning new things to feel successful
• Maximizer - one who seeks to take people and projects from great to excellent
• Positivity - one who has a knack for bring the light-side to any situation
• Relator - one who is most comfortable with fewer, deeper relationships
• Responsibility - one who, inexplicably, must follow through on commitments
• Restorative - one who thrives on solving difficult problems
• Self-Assurance - one who stays true to their beliefs, judgments and is confident of his/her ability
• Significance - one who seeks to be seen as significant by others
• Strategic - one who is able to see a clear direction through the complexity of a situation
• Woo - one who is able to easily persuade

My results after taking the assessment were :

1 Empathy 2 Woo 3 Positivity 4 Developer 5 Communication

Fast forward 5 years later, I ironically find myself in a profession which allows me to tap into these strengths on a daily basis. I am humbly grateful for this. I invite you to invest time in yourself, to find out what your top strengths are-with or without this book. As they say, knowledge is power. 

*** Amazon has the book for sale for quite cheap..remember to buy a new one though :D ***

 To my readers, I apologize for the lack of entries in the last few (+) months. I have recently located back to good ole Vancouver from Toronto and started working. It is amazing to see how fast the day flies by; in a blink of an eye, the sun rises and falls. So many times, the thought to write an entry had crossed my mind but amist the chaos of relocation, starting a new job and reuniting with friends/family..the motivation to write had started to wan. I thank those who actively expressed their interest in this concept on my other social media outlets, it gave me the motivation to continue to hit these points in this blog tonight. As an empathizer, woo-er, postivity lover, developer and communicator- I hope to continue to use this little space to do all that.

Much Love!

Catalyst