And so you don't think that I'm completely insane, Philippians 4:8 says Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. You go where you look. If that's true, why do we spend so much time looking at our weaknesses?
This is how the book First Break All the Rules (by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman) begins. People waste a lot of time trying to fix weaknesses. I look, examine, and analyze my weakness. What happens when I eat, sleep, and live that weakness? I'm miserable. I do things that I can't do well. I never really make a lot of progress. I feel like a complete failure. And that's helpful how?
Instead, why not spend time and energy strengthening things that I'm already good at? Proverbs 22:29 says Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank. Take a strength and make it something exceptional. Now that's cool!
Talents and Skills
At this point, it is important to understand the difference between strength and skill. Ever heard the phrase work to your strengths? First Break All the Rules calls them talents. God created you in a unique way. He made you so that some things come easily and others don't.
Imagine these as roads inside of your brain. Talents run like interstates - four lanes, wide open, and a high speed limit. Add more lanes, smooth out the ride, then you go from point A to point B a lot faster. Like the road system, you have different levels of talents. Interstates represent your strengths. Other talents are simply highways, county roads, dirt lanes, or even underbrush.
As you may imagine, interstates get you more places faster. Underbrush goes nowhere. Some things feel easy. You enjoy them, lose track of time, and feel great when you're done. That's driving down the interstate.
Highways run a close second. You make good time. Traffic flows freely. These talents have a lot of promise too.
County roads are okay. You can get things done. Though you'd avoid them if you can. Improving them doesn't really get you anywhere sooner.
Let's just skip right to underbrush. Face it, in some things I have no talent. And that's okay. I won't waste my time on them. Now remember, the talents aren't a waste of time. Me working on them is a waste of time. I could spend years taking voice lessons and never be better than mediocre. Why? I'd rather spend those years working on my strengths. They'll become exceptional. Mediocre or exceptional - not much of a decision is it?
I'm using a lot of generalities. Talents are like that - general. You cannot learn talents. You're born with them. Skills, on the other hand, you learn. Skills are things that you do. They're physical manifestations of your talents. My best skills are those that correspond with my strongest talents. That is working in your strengths.
So What?
You used to make a joke of putting domestic engineer as an occupation. Take it seriously instead. I'm the employer. This is your job. The great thing about this job - you have the power to make it whatever you want! Don't change who you are. Let's change the job so that it fits you.
We begin with some career discovery questions. These questions come from First Break All the Rules. Their purpose is identifying talents:
- How would you describe success in your current role? Can you measure it?
- What do you actually do that makes you as good as you are? What does this tell you about your skills, knowledge, and talents?
- Which part of your current role do you enjoy the most? Why?
- Which part of your current role are you struggling with? What does this tell you about your skills, knowledge, and talent? What can we do to manage around this?
- What would be the perfect role for you? Imagine that you are in that role. It's 3pm on a Thursday. What are you doing? Why would you like it so much?
We'll go on from there.
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