How our strengths can help us even in difficult times

Published: Fri, 05/07/21

Dear

Knowing, embracing and applying our strengths can be so empowering... yet so few people know theirs! That's a crying shame. I've been doing work with strengths since 2015 and I realise I haven't written about this often. This week, it's all about your strengths!

Today I share

How my Top 5 Strengths helped me to manage the "staircase" experience
a few more layers of learning from the fall
a strengths interview with my friend Simon Berkowitz
a Strengths quote for work and career

Articles

How I used my Top 5 Strengths during the Humpty-Dumpty-Staircase experience

If you don't know what 'Strengths' I'm talking about, here's a summary.

Every human being has strengths and weaknesses. It's not always easy to spot them for ourselves, because they are so 'normal' to us that we're like a fish in the water with them. We may not think they're very special at all, because they come so easily. Sometimes other people can spot them for us, but they might mistake "You're so good with that thing you do" for a strength. Sometimes we actually hate doing that thing they're talking about!

A strength is not something we're good at. A strength is something that makes us feel energized, alive, strong and we want to keep doing it. They are our natural patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. On the opposite spectrum, we have our weaknesses - the thinking, feeling and behaving that have us feel drained, resistant, weak and "I don't want to do this ever again!" These patterns and non-patterns are different for each of us.

Gallup University has been doing research into this area for at least 30 years and they've made it easy for us to identify these patterns. It's called CliftonStrengths , previously StrengthsFinder, (renamed after Donald Clifton, the founder). There's a 40-min assessment anyone can do, that provides a unique list of 34 talents in order of 'strong' to 'weak'. It gives us a clear language and terms to explain to ourselves and others where we're exceptionally strong, what we're well-developed in, and what tends to drain us.

To date, more than 25 million people worldwide have taken the assessment. It helps enormously to know where to focus most of our energy. The Strengths way of life means - focusing most of our energy and attention to aim our strengths towards our goals, instead of trying to fix any weakness. We don't ignore the weakness at all - in fact, we learn how to manage those, so that we can live a fulfilling, energized life.

Our strengths are available to us, and operating all of the time - especially in difficult times. It's helpful to know that we default even more to our patterns when things are tough.... so when we can grow our talents into fully fledged strengths, we have a whole team on board for difficult moments.

There's so much more I can say and more articles will follow in future.

In the meantime - if you have any questions, feel free to pop me a note and I'll answer as best I can.

Here's how my Top 5 CliftonStrengths helped me navigate this challenging time:

#1 Connectedness:

There's a bigger picture here... I'm sure the bigger reason will become apparent. This is not random!

#2 Learner:
What am I learning from this situation, and how can I teach my clients/students from this perspective?

#3 Empathy:
Oh my gosh, I have so much empathy now for anyone with pain! And I'm showering myself with it too. This was tough!

#4 Harmony:
Wow... I can't change this. How can I make peace with it? I'm sure there can be a win-win here for me and my clients even if I have to take a few weeks off.

#5 Intellection:
Omw what luxury... I have allllll this time to think since I can't do much else!

My Positivity Strength is at #13, on the cusp of 'strength' and 'well-functioning'. A strengths colleague who read the above mentioned she thought it was this talent that gave everything a positive slant. I agree... Even though it's not in my strongest strengths, our other talents can help us out in so many ways.

It is super helpful to know what strengths we have to draw on, in any situation - good or bad.

Naturally, because of my Learner and Developer strengths...

I had more insights during the past week.

They're written up here. And again - my website is still in the transfer process (oh joy!... my patience is being stretched here....) - hence I could not yet publish this on my website. It's on FB for now, and will be written up in a better format on my web-home as soon as possible.

What your Unique Strengths can do for you

Interviews

Your Unique Strengths and what they can do for you

My good friend Simon and I had a conversation about CliftonStrengths in 2019.... and we talked around these questions:

What is the CliftonStrengths?
Why I love using this tool, and how it helps people
How it helps us to see our uniqueness
Childhood patterns and inner conflicts that can be set up when our parents' strengths are opposite to our own
Why it's hard to try and change our weaknesses into strengths
The labels we get as children and how we can turn them around with knowledge of our strengths

Here's our interview on Youtube.

Find Simon at www.simonberkowitz.com. He does wonderful work with a 6-week Positive Intelligence program.

Quote: Another good reason for using our strengths!

One of the books I really love and continue to dip into is 'Creating Money, Attracting Abundance' by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer.

Sidenote: I'm not always a fan of the Law of Attraction. I've seen it lead to misery, it's filled with misunderstandings, and can casue people to blame themselves (or worse! blame others!) for unfortunate events, illness and other sufferings. I've seen it used in very cruel and unkind ways against people.

However, this book still remains a favourite and I take from it what's useful for me. It does talk at length about the idea that our highest abundance can come from using our strengths! They also make it clear that our biggest fulfillment comes from serving others and our world - not merely wishing for good things to come to us.

"It is the nature of the universe that when you use your highest skills, you naturally contribute to others."

I'll talk about the next workshop soon. In the meantime, may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you thrive and embrace your strengths, and may you be loved and supported.

With love,

Liesel

Do you know a sensitive soul who might benefit from my articles or work?
They can go here to receive a personalised message in their inbox.

Hi, I'm Liesel!

I'm a sensitive introvert who loves supporting other sensitive souls to go beyond what they thought were possible for them. We'll work through your fears, concerns and emotional blocks, and support you to make the most of your strengths for authentic confidence. There's a variety of ways we can work together. Liesel works with EFT tapping, CliftonStrengths, the Enneagram, coaching, NLP and other tools. If you have questions, please feel free to reply to this email.