At the risk of sounding dramatic, I have to keep it real. CliftonStrengths changed my life. I consumed many years of my adult life working hard to fix my weaknesses. I was certain that if I could just get some focus, then I could be more productive, and check off more tasks on my to-do list. If I could just be more consistent and disciplined in the way I structured my time, surely it would unlock everything I had been looking for! I spent a huge amount of time beating myself up over my failures – much more time than I spent being consistent or disciplined about my to-do list!

Enter the CliftonStrengths assessment. My results showed me a list of where my strengths lie. My strengths are in noticing people as individuals (Individualization), and their emotions (Empathy), and spending lots of time in my head (Intellection), coming up with new ideas (Ideation) and in motivating others (Activator). At the very bottom of my list of 34 possibilities were Consistency, Discipline, and Achiever (people with Achiever talents looove their to-do lists and achieving the tasks on them). No wonder I struggled!

That’s when a light bulb went on. I wasn’t put on this earth to efficiently accomplish tasks. In fact, trying to improve my “accomplishing tasks” skills was the VERY LAST thing I should be doing. I was put on this earth to create. To activate people and ideas, and to help each individual see what I see in them. I finally realized that I had been working so hard at things at which I would ultimately be very mediocre, at best. Do I still need to execute tasks every day? Of course I do. But it’s no longer the way I spend most of my time.