I find myself to be a Maximizer in choosing where I put my efforts. I believe that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well. If I know I will not be able to give a task or project my best, it is hard for me to deem it worthy of my time.
Excellence, not average, is the measure of people with Maximizer as a strength. To Maximizers, taking something from below average to slightly above average takes a great deal of effort and is not very rewarding. However, transforming something strong into something superb takes just as much work and is much more thrilling.
I find myself to be a Maximizer in choosing where I put my efforts. I believe that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well. If I know I will not be able to give a task or project my best, it is hard for me to deem it worthy of my time.
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Achievers feel as if every day starts at zero and by the end of the day, something tangible must have been accomplished in order to achieve satisfaction. This applies not only in the workplace, but on weekends at home and even on vacations. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it rekindles itself, driving Achievers on to the next accomplishment.
I see my strength of Achiever in how I am able to push myself to accomplish the things I want to. I enjoy waking up early to start my day off right. I also have little patience for drawn out meetings; one of my biggest pet peeves is when people take twenty minutes to say something that could be said in five. I also enjoy keeping track of what I have accomplished; I maintain a log of every book I’ve read and each video game I’ve beaten. I also love making a “to do” list for the day and derive a deep sense of satisfaction every time I check off another item. To me, nothing says “job well done” like a long list with neat little check marks next to every task. Naturally, my strength of Achiever works fantastically with my strength of Focus, resulting in high productivity and effectiveness. Individuals who have Communication as one of their strengths are great at conveying thoughts and words to explain, describe, host, speak in public, and write. They are great at storytelling, frequently use dramatic and powerful word combinations, and believe most people have a very short attention span. They want to capture an audience and leave a lasting impression.
This was the only strength that initially confused me, as I am not naturally an extrovert and am rarely the “life of the party.” However, that is not what the strength of Communication is describing. After further thought and introspection, I have come to see that I do possess the strength of Communication and use it in several areas of my life. The most obvious is this blog. I intentionally keep it succinct and am now consciously recognizing what I always subconsciously believed—that most people do, in fact, have a short attention span. I also am very careful about my word selection, particularly in a group setting. I often sense that most people are waiting for their turn to speak, so I make my comments direct and poignant. And yes, I have no aversion to public speaking either. Individuals who have Focus as one of their strengths need to see a clear destination and purpose for every activity. These people will constantly set goals for themselves. These self-imposed goals then serve as their compass, helping determine priorities and making necessary corrections to get back on course.
I see my strength of Focus play out in my ability to identify and prioritize activities that will help me accomplish my the things I want to do. If something is not helping me achieve those goals, then I am usually quick to determine that it is not important and not worth my time. I am able to concentrate on one thing long enough to see it to completion, and then move on to the next activity. I am also intentional about removing distractions that prevent me from remaining on task. I recently finished the book Now Discover Your Strengths by Buckingham and Clifton. It’s a pretty interesting read, and describes how we spend far too much time trying to fix our weaknesses instead of capitalizing on our strengths. The book has two primary points: 1) each person’s talents are enduring and unique, and 2) each person’s greatest room for growth is in the areas of his or her greatest strength.
When you focus on your weaknesses, the book argues, you are striving to improve yourself in areas that you simply aren't good at. Doing this cannot result in excellence, and should only be attempted as “damage control” to ensure that your weaknesses preclude you from total failure. Rather, honing your strengths will provide the greatest return on investment, as you are then striving to improve the very characteristics that you are best at, that make you who you are, and that you naturally enjoy. Now Discover Your Strengths describes thirty-four strength themes, and the book includes a digital code which allows the reader to take an online assessment. The assessment then provides a list of the reader’s top five strength themes. I took this assessment myself, and found the results to be uncanny in their accuracy. And so, over the next couple of weeks, I would like to make myself a little vulnerable and share my strengths with you, dear reader. I think they will help give you a better understanding of who I am, how I view the world, and how I interact with those around me. Stay tuned! The store itself is fine, I guess. I don’t ever really shop there. But I cringe every time I see the store’s sign or logo. It has bothered me since I was young.
I don’t have a problem that they aren’t using the more grammatically correct “We ‘R’ Toys.” I don’t have a problem that they use the letter “R” in lieu of the word “are.” I don’t even have a problem that the “R” is backwards. No, what bothers me is that they have the audacity to put “quotation marks” around the “R.” As if they are saying, “Look, we are trying to be cute! But we wanted to make sure that everyone who sees this knows that it was completely intentional and not the worst marketing typo in the history of branding.” Do they really think so lowly of us? It’s the equivalent of giving me a wink and an elbow jab to the ribs every time I see it. And it leaves me more perturbed than amused. Today I voted in the national and state elections. I always use an absentee ballot because it gives me time to research all the candidates at my leisure. I’m embarrassed to admit that I only recognized two names of the individuals running for U.S. President. And yet, it’s our own fault for allowing politicians and the media to convince us that there are only two “real” candidates. Sadly, most people I talk to seem to think that a vote for anyone else is a wasted vote. I'd like to challenge that line of thinking.
I often hear naïve rhetoric like, “If I don’t vote for this guy, it’s the same as voting for the other guy,” and “Are you a Republican or a Democrat?” The ludicrous thing is, voters are the ones who actually possess the ability to make change happen. Haven't we voted in enough (D)'s and (R)'s to realize that they are not the solution, they are part of the problem? If voters would broaden their horizons beyond what the two parties are spoon-feeding and get out of the mindset that a vote is wasted if not placed with one of two options, then might start to make real progress. If you’re as fed up with the current system as I am, why would you consider voting for the same two parties that created the problems in the first place? And if you are a Bible-believing Christian, I challenge you to find anywhere in the Good Book where the “lesser of two evils” argument is supported, let alone when there are more than two options available. If you genuinely believe that one of the two is truly the best person of all available candidates, then please vote that way. But if you're only choosing one candidate to keep "the other guy" from winning, or because you don't want to "waste" your vote, please reconsider. I’m not saying that introducing another party is going to fix all our problems, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. How awesome would it be to have an independent in the debates, someone who could call out both of the other guys on issues that never come up because they embarrass both their parties? But it will never happen so long as we continue to perpetuate the duopoly. And yes, it is the voters themselves who are keeping this broken system running. One vote (read: MY vote) is not going to make a difference in the election. And so I choose to use it to make a statement by voting for the person I think will do the best job, despite (and to spite) the vast majority of our society considering it a “wasted” vote. I also hope to be an encouragement to others in working to change a broken system. It’s a start anyways. People complain all the time about Mondays, I guess because it has the longest wait until the next weekend. Myself, I quite enjoy Mondays. I maximize my weekends to accomplish what I need to (which includes a fair bit of R&R), so when Monday comes around I am ready to dive into some good, meaningful work.
I suppose if you have zero job satisfaction you can’t feel this way (and you also might consider a new profession). But I love the busy-ness that Mondays provide. They are exciting to me! I believe that the purpose of the media should be to report the news, however normal and mundane it may be. But I think we’ve come a long way from that. Rather, it seems like for quite some time the media garners attention by exploiting our fears and over-sensationalizing The way they report shark attacks and terrorist threats would make you think that these have far more than an infinitesimal chance of directly affecting us.
Sadly, the general public buys into the hyped-up fear, thus increasing the attention the media receives, and growing their revenue through advertising. We are further incentivizing the fear-based reporting. How often do you hear a professional give his or her opinion that the forecast for the future should be pretty similar to the past? Do you ever hear them say “Things aren’t so bad,” “Things are normal,” or “We really don’t have a lot to worry about”? Of course not. I’m sure there are many professionals who believe this, but it wouldn’t make for a very good news story, would it? Is the economy really as bad as the "experts" say? Probably not. And so I take all negative news reports with an extra-large dose of sodium chloride. I try to be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to my mood and attitude. Letting someone’s thoughtless comment ruin your day gives too much power to that person. Yet why is it that we remember hurtful words far longer than we can recall praisings? By doing so, we are letting the most negative people in our lives have a stronger impact than the positive people.
And I refuse to let the Debbie Downers determine the quality of my day. |