Posted: 1/29/09

Playing to our Strengths:

(You're free to reprint this article in it's entirety as long as the author and website's names are included and the links below are active to the proper sites listed on this page. - George)

Compiled  for:"The Shaman's Tent"  by: George R. Harrison 

© 2008-2010

Playing to our strengths means working with our stong talents or gifts and maximizing them in our lives.

Society and our school system do just the opposite. They demand that we concentrate on our weaknesses and, indeed, they are compulsive in pointing out what those weaknesses are.

The truth is, there are inborn talents that we all have. We're just naturally better at some things than others.

Because of these inborn talents or gifts, we can become extremely competent quickly as we are already starting at around "6" or "7" on a scale of 1-10 for competency.

It won't take long for us to go from a "6" to a "9" or "10" and becoming an expert in that field.

Whereas, things we're not good at may rate only at a "3" in competency. If we spent our entire lives and fortunes we may never rise above a "5" on this scale. Which means for all our lives spent we would at best be incompetent with extreme work!

This focus on weaknesses is a relic of improper thinking and causes us to waste our most precious Human resources by putting people to work in areas of their greatest incompetence.

Energy and enthusiasm is lost in the process and we end up hating our jobs and schools as a result of this destructive approach to life's great adventure.

If we could start with ourselves and share this approach to bolstering our stengths or gifts in Life, we could definitely improve our communities and the lives of everyone in them. Happier people yield even more happy people. It's contagious.

The same studies on the value of working to our strengths found that people who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths are 6 times more likely to enjoy their work and 3 times more likely to have an excellent quality of Life!

Those are massive numbers my friends.

Hundreds of percent more likely to have an excellent Life?

I'll take some of that please!

Hundreds of percent happier doing the work where my strengths are? I believe I'll take a heaping helping of that too, thanks!

In a world where improvements seem to be measured in single digits or tens of percent, here are basic rules for making quantum leaps forward in happiness, satisfaction and excellence.

Something to think more about, I'd say.

If you'd like to read some more on this, I'd recommend the book: "Strengths Finder 2.0" by Tom Rath. It's like $11.97 there.

You can find it on amazon by clicking on the title. - George

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