Below is a paragraph from one of the five Strengths I discovered I had after taking the Strengths Finder. I am generally skeptical of all assessments, but this thing not only nailed me, it has nailed pretty much everyone I know who has taken it. Below was one of five strength themes that were identified for me: Achiever, Activator, Competition, Strategic, and Belief. I highly recommend everyone buying the book so that you can be assessed yourselves. I'm not kidding, BUY THE BOOK.
I used to think that I had a tendency toward depression because I am generally discontent and always feeling that there is something more that I could be doing or that I could have done. Understanding that I am not depressed, but just naturally supercharged for achievement enables me to better understand why I feel discontent and enables me to seek ways of channeling that energy in positive directions rather than sitting around feeling like I have done nothing of value with my life. I try to compensate by pretending I'm the dude, when in reality I want to kick some serious butt and win in everything no matter what.
"Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by "every day" you mean every single day -- workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it rekindles itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment. Your relentless need for achievement might not be logical. It might not even be focused. But it will always be with you. As an Achiever you must learn to live with this whisper of discontent. It does have its benefits. It brings you the energy you need to work long hours without burning out. It is the jolt you can always count on to get you started on new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group. It is the theme that keeps you moving."
7 comments:
So glad you took the test! I did this too, and it was right on for me. Always helpful to learn a little more about the way you're wired.
and your themes were?????
One of my themes is also "achiever". It helped me realize why I have to have a goal that I am working toward all of the time. The drive to achieve is probably why I am in seminary and constantly thinking about how I will use this education someday. It's also why I complain so often about not having done anything with my life so far. The drive becomes irrational sometimes and I lose perspective. It's OK to stop and laugh at yourself when you are an "achiever". Being too serious about it can do you in otherwise!
I definitely think that every gift everyone has ever had is that: both a blessing and a curse. Thirteen bucks for a one time assessment doesn't sound so bad. I might even be able to slip Matt his own copy for some personal discovery this winter. Well, we'll see. Either way, cool to hear how you've benefited from it!
Magic word verification: eysesor
My themes were: Developer, Maximizer, Empathy, Communication, and Learner. You can read about that here: http://melodelicious.blogspot.com/2008/08/strengths-finder.html
Just FYI, mine are Strategic, Learner, Ideation, Intellection, and Connectedness.
What are your other four???
I had to take this test for school- I remember that the person who gave it to me said she was surprised to see Belief. She said it wasn't very common- not so surprising, considering my school!
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