A couple of different friends have been using the Gallup product StrengthsFinder 2.0. I'm stuck between wanting to do it or heed the critical reviews which say it only gives you your 5 main strengths and you know those already. Hmmm. Apparently one of my strengths is to hold options open without actually deciding.
The bigger question for me is how to be at home with one's strengths while fighting against selfishness and compromise. As I've looked at various options for the next phase of my own life, I've gotten various tips from people. Some are quite simple: do what YOU want.
That would be easy, except for a couple of problems.
1- I don't believe my life is mainly about me. I am drawn into that nutty idea that in order to find your life, in some sense you have to lose it (specifically for the sake of the Redeemer).
2 - I don't know what I want. I've spent a good bit of time skimming memories of good days and years gone by, and although I'm tempted to want them again, I'm at least mature enough to know that time (as experienced by folk like us) goes in one direction. I also am reminded by one of my 'strengths' that those great times are great in part because I survived the rough aspects and can now look back at the filtered and softened images with unencumbered delight. Actually living those special moments again would invite back all the stress and challenges navigating the present typically brings.
So far I've noted 2 of my strengths:
Delayed decision making such that paradox is unresolved
Painful lucidity which prevents sentimentality from keeping me cheerful
I wonder if those are in the Gallup product? I wonder if I should pay to find out? Too bad I won't decide.
1 comment:
Stumbled across your blog for the 1st in a long time today. Loved this title & your musings. Been wondering where you're at with life choices lately. Really miss these kind of conversations with you (the softened, filtered images are nice anyway ;).
I thought StrengthsFinders was pretty good. Helped focus some things.
On my 2nd incarnation in Nepal, I've found that, despite the overlap, each time I've been there has been in a sense a reality unto itself. Telos moves forward, whether or not it's physically in (or returned to) the same place.
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