On a Personal Note

My veggie story of the week: 

It's been unbelievably rainy and cool so far this summer in the UK. The strawberries are ripe later and don't seem to be as sweet this year. Still - we have harvested 6 kg's so far, and 3 are in the freezer. 

Last year I made strawberry jam - what a heck of a job! I didn't feel like doing that this year so we'll do our best to get all the excess into the freezer. That's quite a job too - harvesting (takes a toll on the back and bum muscles, I can tell you!), washing, drying them on paper towel, removing the little stem part and cutting them in half to fit into containers for the freezer. 

Below are also some of our peas. It's the first year we planted 'proper' peas - previous years we had sugar snaps (US snow peas) and mange tout. This year I had to learn how to shell peas. It's the most beautiful thing to see how tightly those little peas are packed inside. I truly appreciate 'like peas in a pod' now! 

I'm definitely discovering it's easier to do veggie prep in batches (just like other work.) First, slice of all the edges. Then, make a small slit in all the pods. Then 'unzip' them one by one and run my finger down the inside to get all the peas out. 

There's a bit of time pressure to get some of these jobs done, since we're going away for 9 days soon, and we don't want strawberries or peas to go to waste. Wish me luck for the coming 4 days! 

Just like in previous harvesting seasons. I'm re-discovering my respect and gratitude for our farmers who get all the food to our shops without us having to lift a finger. It is hard work and effort to grow and process food. 

This beautiful gold finch below and his family comes to our wildflower garden. They love sitting on the corn flower stalks to eat the seeds. 

This week I share a video I made recently when I was struggling with a project. After weeks of wading through treacle (that's what it felt like), I finally realised what was going on. And I hope to inspire you to get to know your Strengths because of my difficulty and this video/article.  

On a Business Note

The Relationship between Struggle, Ease and our Strengths

“You grow most in your areas of greatest strength. You will improve the most, be the most creative, be the most inquisitive, and bounce back the fastest in those areas where you have already shown some natural advantage. This doesn’t mean you should ignore your weaknesses. It just means you’ll grow most where you’re already strong.” – Marcus Buckingham

Recently I said yes to a project that I expected to be effortless. It would use a bunch of skills and tools I feel very comfortable with: MS Excel, Powerpoint, Word, and on top of that, it would all revolve around material and knowledge I’m familiar with. "Easy peasy lemon squeezy", I thought. 

What I discovered though, was the project wasn’t about using those tools and skills. This story is about how I re-discovered how important it is to know and use our strengths in our daily work. 

If you enjoy watching videos, go straight to my Youtube video below. If you're a reader, I wrote the gist below. 

Waning enthusiasm

I started the project feeling energized and enthusiastic. As the weeks went by, though, I noticed myself getting stressed. I lay awake at night, and every work session felt like ‘trying hard’ and effort. I struggled to make decisions, went round in circles, wasted time. It was like treading water – working hard but not going anywhere. 

I felt stupid… like, “WHY am I struggling so much”? I know I’m smart in other areas… yet this work was proving unbelievably difficult for me. It reminded me of when I was doing badly at Maths in high school. It was so frustrating back then, as it was now. 

I’m sad to say, I started loathing the project. And still, I was determined to see it through for many reasons. 

The Lightbulb moment

Finally one day it clicked. This project wasn’t using my top 12 CliftonStrengths. 

Boy, oh boy. 

I laughed the minute I realised this. I teach this stuff, and yet I forgot to apply it in my own life! Fortunately the moment I realised it, I could include the strengths I do have for this project.

What I did to recover

I looked at all my talents and decided on these to help me enjoy the project: 

Responsibility, Achiever, Discipline, Learner, Relator, Developer and Belief. 

First, I set a target date for myself and immediately had more energy. Achiever loves goals, and ticking things off. Then, I made a work schedule, working backwards from the goal date. That gave me order and structure, and more boxes to tick. My Discipline talent is one of my middle-range well functioning talents (not quite in the Top 12) but I can still use it when needed. 

My Relator was happy – to still be able to support this good friend and beautiful colleague of mine. My Responsibility talents wanted to deliver and do what it said it would, so it felt satisfied. My Belief talent needed the WHY for this task – and I jotted down a whole bunch of reasons for staying with it. They all made me feel good. 

My Learner talent would use this to learn new skills, and Developer would use this to grow as a person - and keep encouraging myself. 

The result: 

I could keep going with this project with more ease, because some of my talents and strengths were now involved, too. 

My story could stop here. But it doesn't. There were still hard patches! Before I continue, a few important points: 

Strengths wisdom

Life, and our work, can feel hard if we don’t use our strengths -  and particularly if we have to use our non-patterns. Using our non-patterns make us feel weak, unmotivated, disinterested, disengaged – because that is not the way our brain is wired. 

If we don’t use our strengths, we’re less creative, the work doesn’t flow, if feels like effort – in plain language, it’s draining. I was exhausted and exasperated at the end of every work session. 

I started blaming and judging myself for finding it so excruciatingly hard. That’s an awful place to be – especially since 2 of my strongest talents (Achiever and Responsibility) want to finish what I started! It was not an option for me to stop or opt out. 

When we know our strengths, we can choose work that aligns with that. And – if we do have tasks that don’t use our strongest talents, we can at least recruit our top talents to support us. Like I started using my talents in the story above. 

Our own talents are not always enough

However, that may not be enough to get the job done. And that is where we need other people’s talents! 

A friend and colleague who I love and admire, saw me struggling in our co-working sessions and she couldn’t keep quiet anymore. She offered a session that would help me gain clarity on where I’m struggling and what I could do about it. 

And oh my word – what a useful session! I recorded a video testimonial for my dear friend Dorota Godby after that session - my relief was just so huge. This type of session might help you too - you can read more on that page. My testimonial is toward the end. 

Shouldn't we be able to do everything?

Nope. We can simply not be great at everything. There isn't enough space in our brain for all those neural networks. And then, it’s lifesaving when we can rely on others who have strengths we don’t, to help us get past our difficulties. 

There is no shame in that – in fact – it’s a wonderful, strong thing to do: to reach out when we feel weak and vulnerable and ask support from someone else who has the exact thing we need. I took too long to get support!

There is more detail in the video, where I talked about a work project being similar to being pregnant, and what we can do to alleviate the discomfort until the metaphorical baby is born. 

(If you, like me, don’t have time to watch a video longer than 5 minutes, then watch it on 1.5 or 2 times the speed. It’ll sound a bit funny 😊 yet you’ll get the message!)

Summary:

As Marcus Buckingham said in the picture quote: “You grow most in your areas of greatest strength. You will improve the most, be the most creative, be the most inquisitive, and bounce back the fastest in those areas where you have already shown some natural advantage.” 

This has been proven by many years of research by Gallup University and in a large study of helping kids to improve their reading speed. 

I’ve found it life-changing to know my talents - and this experience has highlighted for me yet again, why it is vital to know and use our strengths. I do hope there might be a lightbulb for you. And if you don't know your CliftonStrengths yet, may my experience serve as a little prompt to discover yours. 

If you want to know what the experience could be like, here's Mojca sharing hers. 

More about CliftonStrengths:

A few further articles to help you understand more about CliftonStrengths.

What is CliftonStrengths? - | Savvy Self Growth for HSPs

Do you know the SIGNs of your Strengths? - | Savvy Self Growth for HSPs

Love hearing from you! 

Do you know your CliftonStrengths? Feel free to share with me your Top 5? Do you notice where you use them in your work or daily life? 

Or - just say hello. I so appreciate hearing from you!