Your Strengths Discovery Roadmap by Cynthia Lou Based on Soar With Your Strengths by Donald O. Clifton & Paula Nelson

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1 Based on Soar With Your Strengths by Donald O. Clifton & Paula Nelson To be truly happy, satisfied, successful, and magnetic on a global scale you MUST find and build on your strengths. However, most of us do not know our strengths, or are perhaps delusionally leaning on fantasy strengths weaknesses that have reached a level of competency through skill development, but not a true strength that builds on innate, natural talent. This worksheet is one of a two-part series designed to 1) Discover Your Strengths, then 2) Build Upon Your Strengths and Grow Them through Specific Application in the world. This worksheet is broken into three sections: SECTION I is designed to help you start to uncover your strengths by exploring the Five Characteristics of a Strength. SECTION II helps you to identify and sort through your Weaknesses as a way to clarify your strengths. It also includes an exploration of how to minimize the energy leaks that may occur when too much time is spent on weaknesses rather than strengths. SECTION III explores a final set of six questions that allows for a statistical analysis of your true strengths, versus fantasy strengths. WHAT IS A STRENGTH? TALENT x INVESTMENT = STRENGTH Natural way of Thinking, Time spent practicing, Ability to consistently Feeling, Behaving developing skills, provide near-perfect building knowledge base performance (From StrengthsFinder 0 by Tom Rath) SECTION I: Finding Your Strengths via the Five Characteristics of a Strength In this section, think back to past or current experiences in personal life and work life. Note which events apply to each of the below descriptions and list them in the spaces below. Yearnings. What do you desire, that gives you a gut sense you could do well? (ex. I d like to do. ) While the thing yearned for is not necessarily a strength, it gives the first clue of a strength. Be watchful for mis-yearnings, yearning something for wrong reasons, i.e. yearning to be manager for power, rather than the opportunity to develop people

2 Satisfactions. A sense of personal joy when doing an activity, something that feels good to perform. 4. Watch for Rapid Learning. When something seems to come naturally, effortlessly to you. Though there may be a learning curve period, this period is relatively short and followed by rapid growth Glimpses of Excellence. When learning something new, the overall performance may not be awardwinning, but within the overall performance be aware of glimpses of excellence. 5. Total Performance of Excellence. This is typically found in a mature strength, or at least one that has had a bit of time to develop cases where talent plus the knowledge, practice, and skills which lead to performances that are in the flow. SECTION II: Own Weaknesses to Reclaim Power and Clarify Strengths Be honest and ruthless about uncovering, claiming, and managing weaknesses. We usually get attached to our weaknesses not consciously ( Hey I want to self sabotage! ), but unconsciously ( I must protect myself! ). Societally and culturally we are taught to try, try again, further encouraging the trap of trying to fix a weakness which, by definition, is not possible. Obsessing about or trying to fix a weakness lowers self-esteem and self-confidence, distracting us from truly achieving our mission and goals. Left unchecked, the perpetual cycle of spending time on selfesteem sapping weaknesses can leak over and damage all areas of our lives, including our relationships. This section is broken into three subsections: 1) The Eight Characteristics/Indicators of a Weakness. 2) Identify the Underlying Goal(s) behind the use of your Weakness to achieve results. 3) Devise your Weakness Management Plan, aligning your Strengths with your Goal using one of the Five Strategies for Managing Weaknesses. SUB-SECTION 1: OWN YOUR WEAKNESSES In each category below, list the first things that come to mind. Notice, too, if nothing comes to mind weaknesses are masters at hiding from the bright light of truth and will often come veiled in many clever excuses. When we go looking for weaknesses, they hide. If this is the case for you, simply set aside these points and allow them to marinate...they will reveal themselves to you when you are in a high vibration place, such as after meditation (see Video 2: How to Meditate and Strengthen Your Intuition ). 2

3 You may sense your intuition whispering to you in a gentle voice, It s time to let this go... The intuitive voice is always loving. It s not that you let go of the dream, it s that you let go of your weakness, to see what else is possible. Another way to look at this exercise: What have you been trying to do, but have seen no traction with? Give yourself permission to let it go...and start to think about how it might be re-shaped by leading with your strengths. The 8 Characteristics of a Weakness Feel Defensive About Performance. Excuse-making, blaming others or external circumstances for non-performance. If you re working in an area of strength you show little or no defensive behavior if the going gets tough, you simply make adjustments and continue improving no drama. 4. Develop Obsessive Behavior. When negative addiction takes over in an attempt to correct what s not working, with little improvement. Conversely, positive addiction on a strength skyrockets your results. Experience Slow Learning. Though there is a learning curve to learning something new, if you do not measurably improve over time, or it just doesn t seem to click, you could be trying to improve a weakness. 4. Don t Profit From Repeated Experience. This differs from Slow Learning in that individuals get an activity just enough to be functional, just enough to hang in there, but lack talent to achieve excellence. Typically the talent is not skill but tenacity, growing incrementally better after years of effort. In contrast, you will always grow when practicing a strength. 5. Consciously Think Through Steps of Performance. When learning something new, processing steps in the mind is normal. But in the case of talent and strength the steps disappear very quickly, fading as the subconscious takes over. 6. Experience Reduction in Confidence When Performing Activity. Without reward and experiencing wins, confidence wanes, resulting in loss of interest and motivation, more excuses, and dissatisfaction. 3

4 7. Lack Futuristic Thinking About the Activity. When practicing a weakness, you just want to get through it, and it takes all your resources to force and effort your way through. Who has time to hold a vision of the future when the activity is so painful? On the other had, with talents you can imagine a vision of the future and where your talents can lead you. 8. Suffer Burnout When Practicing the Activity. Burnout is the result of the resistance you experience when doing what you re not good at, when you just can t go on because the mental and physical exhaustion of working a weakness adds up to a breaking point. On the other hand, someone exercising a strength often reports being energized and motivated by pressure and stress. 4

5 SUB-SECTIONS 2 & 3: MINE POTENTIAL STRENGTHS, WEAKNESS MANAGEMENT PLAN Below are Donald Clifton s Five Strategies to Manage Your Weaknesses: Stop Doing What You re Not Good At ( Sloughing ). Simply put, stop doing what you don t do well. This can also mean getting rid of relationships that seem to only bring frustration, argument, depression, anger. (ex: Stop going to lunch with people who s attention you will not get, stop trying to win bike races when you are not improving) Sub-Contracting. This is the process of delegating a task or weakness to a person or organization who possesses strength in that area. (ex: a business consultant great at presenting materials and identifying client needs yet gets bogged down by preparing presentations could outsource proposal writing) Complementary Partnering. Unlike sub-contracting where you match a weakness to another s strength, Complementary Partnering is the combining of each person s strengths to achieve a goal. 4. Support Systems. Support systems include frameworks and structures that help manage weakness (ex: glasses or contacts to support poor eyesight, or a CEO with a record for accident-prone driving hiring a driver), as well as all things that bolster confidence and make you feel good (ex: status symbols such as cars, luxury goods, titles). 5. Alternatives. Once a weakness is identified, find an alternative path to achieve a goal using your strengths. (ex: if you hate writing marketing materials but are good at speaking your ideas, try using video to market your business rather than getting bogged down by writing) In the exercise below, 1) list your top weaknesses as uncovered in Section 1 above, then 2) clarify the underlying goal, shifting your goal to conform to your strengths as necessary, then 3) identify the weakness management system to employ. WEAKNESS UNDERLYING GOAL WEAKNESS MANAGEMENT PLAN (Ex: Not good at writing...) (To close more sales by marketing your business, communicating ideas to potential clients and customers in ways that make them want to buy.) (Alternative Try using video to market your business instead of writing, or Out-source hire a copywriter to create marketing materials) 5

6 SECTION III: Separate True Strengths from Fantasy Strengths Now that you ve identified potential strengths and owned up to weaknesses, it s time to further distill the potential strengths pool by eliminating fantasy strengths. Real strengths create results and progress that are measurable and trackable in the world; fantasy strengths are merely wishes, often built around wrong expectations, and see no, few, or inconsistent results. Owning up to a fantasy strength may be a painful process, as with owning up to weaknesses. However, once you redirect your energy and power toward your true strengths you ll find greater satisfaction and a faster path to results. In this exercise, list potential strengths, or strengths you want to have or think you should have, in the left column. In the columns to the right, check off the boxes for which you can answer Yes to the corresponding question, where it represents your Potential Strength. You are looking for a solid, confident, full-bodied YES, not a weak, hopeful, or tentative yes...? followed by an excuse. Q Do you feel you always knew how to do it? Q When you practice it, do you get better at it? Q Do you know you can perform it well? Q4. Do others applaud you when you do it? Q5. Can you get paid well for doing it? Q6. Do you feel pride and pleasure when you do it? POTENTIAL STRENGTH Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 (Example of Fantasy Strength Management of People) (N) (Sometim es...) (Maybe?) (Sometim es) (Y) (N) Congratulations! You ve identified areas of raw talent and strengths! List your top Strengths in the box below. My Strengths! 6

7 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Another step in your Strengths Discovery is to explore StrengthsFinder 0. Go online, take the assessment and see what is revealed about your top Five Strengths according to StrengthsFinder s 34 strength themes. What I found is that by exploring from your own experiences first, then adding the knowledge of your top five of 34 themes, you can make sense of your strengths on a deeper level. Completing this worksheet first gives you a more well-rounded understanding of your strengths. Starting from the raw material of your life experiences helps you to identify strengths that may be overlooked in trying to be categorized by and fit into a preset system of 34 themes. While the StrengthsFinder assessment can help to give direction to your thought process, it s an important skill to understand the thought process of how to recognize strengths and weaknesses in yourself and others. 7