StrengthsFinder 2.0

"Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?" -Benjamin Franklin


I saw this quote on Gallup's StrengthsFinder site and really liked it. So much so that it was a status of mine earlier this week, haha. 


Back in 2005, as part of my church's leadership conference that I attended, I took Gallup's StrengthsFinder assessment. There was this book called "Now, Discover Your Strengths" which discussed how we as individuals are stronger in some traits than in others (they have a list of 40), and they emphasize the importance in knowing and understanding how you operate so that you can find better enjoyment from and be better contributors in your different environments. 


Anyways, so 21-year old me took the assessment and these were my top 5 strengths (in order) -- 

• deliberative
• harmony
• consistency
• restorative
• connectedness

They definitely fit this introverted thinker who dislikes conflict, prefers to go with the flow and tries to get along with everyone.

Anyhow, last week a college buddy of mine posted that he'd retaken it and he'd changed in a few aspects. Which is expected when you're in your twenties and in that season of change post-college. So it prompted me to re-take it again as well. So here is present-day 27-year old me...

• deliberative
• harmony
• consistency
• adaptability
• maximizer

Still the super introvert who thinks a lot, appreciates peace and is relatively steady and fair... but the rankings for three and four changed and I'll be reading more about them. The new book (StrengthsFiner 2.0) is about what these strengths are and how you can enhance them and utilize them in your daily life, so I'll be delving into studying all five again soon (I bought the book on my iPhone's Kindle app, haha)... so I guess maybe my plan is to have a separate blog post on each strength as I learn more about it. (Of course, I also was supposed to blog about how it was to perform in the musical, and I didn't really follow up on that, so we'll see what happens here.)

On a song note - just got back from Flood where I met up with Andy and it was so good to experience fellowship and worship with a close friend, since on the off-chance I do make it to church these days, I'm always alone. But our worship band (who is amazing) led us in Chris Tomlin's "Our God". Definitely a current fave of mine, so wanted to share that here. 

ETA - Just noticed I've blogged seven times this month... and it's only half-way through the month. Not sure why I'm all word-y, even if it is all random babbling... but it's cool with me. :) I'm sure I'll be phone blogging even more when in Chicago next week! Woohoo!