Bringing The Five “Alive”
Now that you’ve seen your top 5 natural strengths, it’s critical to not treat the results as merely “interesting” information.
“Interesting” won’t add anything to creating A Life You Love if you stop there.
Action does.
So let’s take it from “interesting,” to active, as fast as possible.
Fine Tune Your World
In your assessment, your top five most powerful gifts are defined in detail.
The details are based upon data collected from now millions of Gallup, Inc. anonymous assessment results having been analyzed and refined.
Within those results, you’ll most certainly connect with some elements more powerfully than others. That’s normal.
Recognize that some of the elements you find less compelling may be so, because although they are key strengths, you may not have “accidentally” experienced using them yet in your daily life.
As previously “un-exercised” strengths, they could be one’s that open up new, untapped growth and experiences for you.
Think of them as new rooms you now have a key to… and can enter and explore.
The Essence Of You
You’re about to transform the way you think about you from now on.
To integrate the use of our key strengths into daily life, we need to simplify them into an “essence” we will easily remember.
Download the “Essential Strengths” worksheet below, have your StrengthsFinder 2.0 results accessible and grab a writing tool.
Download Your “Essential Strengths” Worksheet
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Let’s get started…
Make Your Core Strengths “Travel Size”
To integrate use of our strengths into our daily lives, we need to condense the detailed “Insights” we received down to a quickly referenced form.
Here’s how to do that:
On the worksheet there are six boxes, one for each strength and one for your “Living Through My Strengths” summary box.
A. Write one of your top five Strengths (called themes in your assessment) into one of the ( ) areas next to each Essential Strength section on your Worksheet. You should have one unique strength for each of the five Essential Strengths boxes.
B. Read the Insights details under each Strength on your main Assessment, and then copy the most meaningful, powerful words or phrases from each section into the appropriate box below that Strength on your Worksheet.
Remember, you’re doing this for YOU, nobody else.
Don’t let your head treat this as a “get it done” check list item.
You are building a tool to quickly remind and connect you to your most powerful natural abilities. It will be your advisor to help you make important decisions.
Give yourself the moments you need to pull out what is most meaningful to you.
As you do, look into your life for examples of where you may have already experienced the power of that strength.
C. Read each new “consolidated” Strengths section you just created.
Now do the same as you did above to each of the new groups, pulling out the few most powerful key words or phrases from each of these five new “consolidated” Strengths groups.
But this time, place each of these words or phrases into the final area on the Worksheet labeled: “Living Through My Strengths.”
Excellent!
Why is this so important?
This process not only will help you create a statement that reflects the areas where you excel, it’s what helps you validate in your gut whether it’s true for you.
Because if you don’t believe it, no matter what any person or assessment tells you, it just doesn’t matter in your life.
The key is to treat this as an act of recognizing and honoring the best of who you naturally are and getting clear about it.
It will also give you a strong place to stand when you’re making decisions about what adds value to your life and what will likely not.
Write It To Inspire You
Take that final group, the essence of your key strengths, and make it read smoothly, like an inspirational quote.
Your “Live Through My Strengths” summary can be a statement you create or a series of bullets that together clearly convey to you the “essence” of your top 5 strengths.
Write it so you’re energized when you read it.
Write it like you’re going to put it in a frame on your desk or in a screen saver.
Because you are.
D. Embed your natural strengths into your daily life and thinking.
The way you’ll experience the powerful results of living through your strengths, is by integrating the awareness of your strengths into your daily life.
And as you do, you will be consciously building the habit of recognizing Strengths Opportunities.
Staying present to your strengths removes the blinders to opportunities where your strengths can be leveraged, exercised and grown.
It’s opens paths to where you can live through your strengths and “live a life that loves you back™.”
Use Your Hidden Assistant
The more you embed an emotional connection with your strengths, the more your subconscious goes looking for things that support that priority.
Like when you buy a new car and suddenly notice how many other cars like yours are on the road.
You want to place your “Living Through My Strengths” summary anywhere you will “accidentally” see it and keep it at the top of your awareness everyday.
This consistent reminder helps you develop the habit of leading with your core strengths as your natural way of being.
Especially at the beginning, read and vocalize them (which embeds them faster) whenever possible: preferably morning, noon and night each day.
Notice this is you intentionally directing you (your subconscious) to stay focused on creating a desired result (opening up beneficial strengths connected opportunities).
Simple Ideas To Get Your Strengths In Play Faster
#1: Put an appointment in your calendar morning, afternoon and evening (just before you go to bed) to read and repeat your “Living Through My Strengths” statement.
#2: Put a version in a small frame at your desk. Use it to refer to when you’re making task (or life) decisions.
#3: Or into your Evernote or Google Reminders so every time you open that frequently accessed tool, it’s in front of you first.
#4: Or on your wall in Big Letters
#5: Or on your Fridge.
You get the idea…
And here’s one more:
Make copies of your “Living Through My Strengths” statement and give them to a few people you are close to and already know and value.
Why?
Because this will help your inner circle know you more clearly for your strengths, the best of who you naturally are. This understanding can help them better relate to you in terms of your strengths and help them notice new opportunities for you.
The more you absorb this recognition into your awareness and share it with the people you value, the faster you’ll see more of your daily experiences reflect opportunities that engage and fulfill you.
But Most Importantly:
You are changing how you think about yourself
in relation to the world.
When you get clear on what your strengths are, you start noticing more places and opportunities where your unique strengths can make a valuable difference in your work and your world.
And more quickly steer away from ones that likely won’t.
Do whatever it takes to keep this visible reminder present. It’s the mirror you designed to reflect what best connects your positive, creative power to what you do.
You don’t have to believe it. Just test this for yourself.
At the very least, you’ll recognize more about what makes you happy and why.
But if you stick with it, your world will start drawing to you more of what naturally makes you stronger.
Honor yourself.
Begin building a life that naturally loves you back.
Never stop moving forward,
Founder
The Power of Intentional Living
PS: The next step: “Step 3: Leverage Your Strengths In Multiple Ways” is about how to start integrating your “Living” statement into your very real life.
That’s where we also look at ways to intentionally create new habits that build on our strengths and take priority over old habits that are holding you back.
You want to also browse through our Tools For Change section.
You’ll find an ever expanding selection of helpful books from top authors, (many available in audio versions) videos, audios, courses and whatever else we discover that could help you make the life you’ve decided to live more successful, fulfilling and fun.
Cheers,
