Find the Perfect Job
I'm using "Now, Discover Your Strengths" by Buckingham and
Clifton, for career coaching for clients with marvelous results.
It was published this year and based on a survey done by The
Gallup Organization of over 2,000,000 people who were excellent
at what they do.
The usual premises in business and elsewhere are: 1. Each person
can learn to be competent in almost anything. 2. Each person's
greatest room for growth is in his or her area of greatest
weakness.
Buckingham and Clifton agree that a good person can learn almost
anything, but their premises are: 1. Each person's talents are
enduring, unique and innate. 2. Each person's greatest
room for growth is in the area of his or her greatest strengths.
A strength is defined as "consistent, near perfect performance
in an activity." When we're working in our strength area we will
be energized, not drained, and will feel a sort of deep pleasure
that makes it almost effortless and very soul-satisfying.
These talents show up early -- ask yourself (or your parents)
what you "always liked to do" when you were young, and what you
dreamed of doing. Ask yourself what you could envision doing for
12-14 hours in a row. What puts you in the zone?
Also pay close attention if you're asked to do something new and
you 'take to it like a duck to water.' This is a signal that
it's tapped an innate talent.
You can also buy the book and take the excellent StrengthsFinder
(tm) Profile (online) to find out your 5 signature themes.
The authors came up with 34 names for strengths and filled a
real gap in our collective vocabulary. These are not terms like
"trustworthy" or "dependable," but rather: Activator, WOO
(Winning Others Over), Relator, Empathy, Strategic,
Deliberativeness and Harmony.
We can become very good at something that isn't a strength, but
can never reach excellence at it, and it will never give us the
perfect life we want and deserve. It will also be far more
stressful.