Most of us are not naturally disciplined. Sure, we can learn discipline. We can push ourselves. We can muscle our way into something like discipline, but we don’t tend to stick with it because it doesn’t come naturally and it doesn’t energize us.
Last month I attended an advanced StrengthsFinder™ Train-the-Trainer and learned that after 10 million people taking the assessment, Discipline is one of the bottom 5 of 34 strengths. We questioned that finding. Surely people in the military have a lot of discipline. To fully understand, you need to know that the StrengthsFinder™ folks define a strength as consistently near perfect performance. After working with StrengthsFinder™ for more than 10 years, I’ve noticed that when people are using and expressing their strengths, they are naturally energized.
So if you, like most people, don’t stay consistently disciplined and aren’t naturally energized by disciplined, how do you move toward, engage more with your optimal life and work? Most people I know aren’t too keen on New Year’s resolutions, yet they still feel a calling at this time of year toward more growth, more life . . .
My top strength, Maximizer, calls me to take things from good to amazing. I’m energized by making something already good even better. I love to make a practice of things, creating a lot of opportunity to consistently maximize.
Often this time of year, I create a new practice so that I naturally move toward the things I might otherwise try to make resolutions about. Yeah to my Strategic strength! For me this year, I have gotten back to daily sacred time in the morning before I start my day. (This feeds my Connectedness strength.) I give myself 20 to 30 minutes to do a short meditation, some reading and some writing. This quiet, open time creates the space for me to connect with best uses of me for the day. That way, if I don’t get to everything in a given day, I have at least gotten to the important things, rather than the details in my line of sight or the “urgent” distractions.
What about you? Which of your strengths can you call upon to naturally energize yourself toward more of your wonderful life and work? If you haven’t yet taken the StrengthsFinder™ assessment, I highly recommend it. For the cost of a book and about 30 minutes of your time, you receive an incredible personal compass of your top 5 stengths and huge permission to be more of the best of you!
For info, visit:
http://www.annstrong.com/strengthsfinder-coaching-you/
And as always, I invite you to share your responses and experiences in the Comments section below.
To your own natural and energizing resolve!
