Strengths

So there is a member of my cohort that is all about StrengthsQuest.  I'm sure he is interested in many other things, but he is truly fascinated by how our strengths play out in our everyday lives.  We call him, Daykota, but he is Dakota.  His passion an excitement for certain things always intrigues me.  The only thing I have seemed to passionate about this first year of grad school is food and sleep.  Am I right?  Anyway, I am channeling passion from Dakota to truly jump on the StrengthsQuest bandwagon, Thanks Daykota!

StrengthsQuest is an assessment that follows the notion of positive psychology.  You can take the assessment for a nominal fee and it will give you your top five strengths.  Click here if you want to know more of if you want to take the assessment.

Anyway.  These are my top five strengths and a little blurb about how I see them.


1. Self Assurance.  Anytime I tell people this is my number one strength they all say, "Wow, you don't here that one often."  Or they'll say, "Good for you, I wish I knew myself that well."  In most instances my 'self-assurance' wants them to walk away and leave me alone.  This strength does deal with knowing myself, but it also deals with have a strong inner compass.  I don't care to participate in Groupthink, and rarely am I the victim of peer pressure.  I am me.  No one can change that.  But this strength also deals with knowing all of you.  Because my personality can be a little crude, I need to know where you are at so I can meet you there.  There is no need in my flaunting my self-assurance around when others aren't comfortable in their own skin.

2. Strategic.  I share this strength with a lot of other Student Affairs Professionals.  I feel like this one should make me a better chess player.  And yet I have been consistently beaten by a 6-year old at the game.  This strengths deals with seeing the bigger picture and advancing accordingly.  When I first got my strengths I remembered them by this acronym S.S.A.C.A.  because I wouldn't have simply remembered them. My Strategic strength is best seen when I am driving.  To maximize my fuel and get to all the places I want to go I am always actively thinking about the best route, and the right time of day.  Unless I'm purposely wasting time, which is why my next strength is...

3. Adaptability.  I can be the go with the flow kind of guy.  I'm not a micro-manager. I am rarely pushed to a limit that frightens me.  My previous supervisor once said I was so relaxed while doing a conduct meeting with seven students.  He said I put them at ease, because I was so relaxed.  I guess this is because I was not in trouble.  Ha.  But I believe there is nothing on this earth to fear, and there is nothing that I cannot handle...but I won't get on that soapbox.

4. Command.  This strength is about taking, earning, and maintaining control.  I over-used this one during my undergraduate career.  I lost this one during my first year of grad school.  There were too many new things happening at once.  My Self-Assurance, Strategic, and Adaptability were all working at high efficiencies so my Command took a back seat.  But I'm sure it will find it's way back next year!  This is what makes public speaking fun.  Center of attention, probably builds up my Self-Assurance.

5. Analytical.  This strength is interested in finding clues, putting them together, taking them apart and finding different answers.  This one is always at play.  I love being analytical.  I love being over-analytical.  This blog post was supposed to be short.  But then I got to thinking, and well my Analytical nature ran with it!  When my Strategic and Analytical play together I can be a huge nerd.  But that's okay because my Self-Assurance doesn't care what you think.  HA!

These are my strengths, love them or leave them.  I'm just trying to make them work for me!

Over the course of this blog I may reference these...so, fyi.

This is me riding a poorly painted duck.  I was 26 when this was taken.  Self-Assurance.

Peace,

PTJ