Discover & Apply Your Strengths

Do you ever feel a sense of flow when you're fully engaged in a project?  What makes you feel "on fire" and energized? What could you do all day and never get bored? These are just a few of the questions I ask myself when life starts to feel too routine and monotonous.  These kind of questions help me refocus on what I truly love to do and who I want to be and become.


A key component of intellectual wellness is self-awareness and understanding your natural talents and strengths. In recent years, I have become increasingly interested in maximizing one's strengths based on the research that the Gallup Organization has done on talent-development.

The idea of discovering, identifying, and developing one's natural talents excites me because it's right in line with the idea of maximizing our human potential based on our God-given talents in order to serve and lead more effectively. Far too often, individuals continue doing what they only *think* they're good at or what interests them because it's more familiar than natural; we get comfortable in the roles we play, not easily challenging ourselves to consider other possibilities or strategies to really understand what we're good at and how to move from good to great. 

When I started learning about talent and strength development, I felt like a whole new world of possibility was opened up to me.  I no longer just had to guess at what I'm good at, and now had empirical evidence for some of the key areas that I could focus on developing to become even more effective.


I started by taking the Strengths Finder 2.0 assessment and identified my "Top Five" Signature Themes. From there, I used the personalized talent development guide to consider strategies for maximizing these areas of natural talent.  I learned that by adding skills and knowledge to my natural talents, I could develop them into my personal strengths.


TALENT + SKILLS + KNOWLEDGE = STRENGTH


Operating from a strengths-based philosophy where I see possibilities in opportunities is a framework that I base my life around. Successful people understand their talents and build their lives upon them. I continue to use this framework as I develop my students and coaching clients to help them be at their best everyday, continuing to learn and grow from all their experiences.

Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?

Discover your talents today and start developing them into strengths!

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

~Benjamin Franklin