Discover Your Strengths

The following is a guest post from one of my best bloggy friends and sisterchick, Christine from iDreamofClean.net…

Have you ever thought about what your strengths are? What you’re good at doing? What seems effortless for you? What gives you the most energy?

Sometimes we can just go through life doing the same things over and over without giving them much thought. Weeks go by and it seems like we’re in the exact same place we were before. Yes, we may have paid a few bills, tried a new recipe, or even watched a few new TV shows. But, what have we actually accomplished? What impact have we made?

You Can Make a Difference! But how?

I’m certainly don’t want it to sound like you can’t make a difference in someone’s life by doing something you aren’t good at. Often times, just doing something is good! But, when you fully know and utilize your strengths, your impact can be so much greater!

Let me give an example. You hear that your favorite author is coming to town for a speaking engagement so you sign up immediately to attend. His words are so eloquent on paper, he can tell a story like no one else, and when you read his work you feel like he’s your best friend. When the day finally arrives, you get in line early, sit on the front row, and then BAM…you see a totally different side of the author. He fumbles all over his words. He’s obviously nervous. And, then, when you finally meet him, he’s not personable at all!

His strength is not speaking…it’s writing! A skill that takes place in a room all alone, where he can thoughtfully choose the precise words needed to tell the story.

Of course he could work hours upon hours to hone his public speaking skills. But, unfortunately, it drains him and takes every last ounce of energy to become somewhat of a decent speaker.

Instead, if he put most of his energy into perfecting his craft and continue writing, he could be one of the BEST in his field.

So, let’s bring it back to you. How can you know what your strengths are?

Well, you can start figuring it out just by thinking about certain aspects of your life.

• Have there been times where you’ve been praised by your family and friends for something that comes naturally to you?
• What areas have you excelled?
• What seems easy to you but difficult to others?

Secondly, I highly recommend reading Now, Discover Your Strengths or Strengths Finder 2.0. Both books include a unique code so you can take an online strengths finder assessment. Once you take the test, you immediately get to read your results and, let me tell you, more than likely you will be FLOORED at how accurate it is! You may just start passing out copies of your results to all your coworkers and everyone in your family so you can prove to them just how great you are!

Discovering your strengths is more than just finding out if you’re an introvert or extrovert. It about using talents that you may never have thought of before as strengths. Positivity, consistency, connectedness, discipline, focus, woo…those are just some of the strengths that you may have but haven’t fully utilized yet. It’s really about discovering and fully utilizing the gifts God gave you!

So, tell me, what is your biggest strength?

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Christine loves Jesus, her husband, her son, and helping others discover their strengths. She’s always looking for ways to spend less time on her weaknesses – like cleaning – so she’s constantly on the look out for cleaning tips and tricks to share on iDreamofClean. A couple of her favorite tips are Clean Your Kitchen in 5 Minutes or Less and 10 Foolproof Ways to Reduce Clutter mostly because they are quick and don’t take a lot of time. Basically, she blogs about cleaning so she can spend as little time as possible actually doing it!