Thomas Paine once said that a real man or woman will smile in trouble, gather his/ her strength from distress that he/she faces and grow brave through reflection. It was with these thoughts that I took up the strength finder assessment with the aim of getting a deeper understanding of my own strengths. The assessment gave me a mirror of what I thought of myself and some other incites that I never took keenly as my strength. The objective of the test was to enable me to work on my strengths rather than concentrating on my weaknesses from a personal point of view.
According to the assessment, my top five strengths are responsibility, relator, restorative, achiever, and focus (Rath, 2007). Responsibility means that I take psychological ownership of what I say or do and I am committed to values such as honesty and loyalty. With responsibility, I value being dependable and trustworthy as others can always count on me.
This also means that I am committed to meeting all my obligations and by nature, I find myself attracted to people who have the same qualities as quality is my top priority.
This means that I do not rely on excuses and rationalization but rather my obligation to individuals as I am psychologically vested. However, my willingness to volunteer might mean that I can sometimes take more than I can handle. Relator: My strength as a relator means that I enjoy a close relationship with others (Rath, 2007). This means that I find deep satisfaction in working together with others to achieve an objective or objectives in both my personal and professional life.
With this. People tend to turn up to me for guidance on their desire, needs and wants based on my skills, experience, and knowledge.
My fulfillment comes when am busy or performing routine tasks. The risk with this strength is that people might take advantage of me. Restorative: This simply means that am good at fixing problems. The strength is acquired through the broadening of skill base and knowledge through helping others in dealing with their problems and weaknesses. Restorative also means dedication in solving problems that I am vested in until a solution is found (Rath, 2007). Achiever: according to Rath (2007) achiever means that I get satisfaction from being busy and productive as I work hard and have a lot of stamina. This results in me improving both personally and professionally in any give and take process. Achiever is also brought about by nature of being attentive, persistence, perseverance, pushing oneself and the drive to achieve the set goal/s. After a goal is completed, another is set to continue with the achievement process.
Achiever is the theme that keeps one moving. Focus: Focus as a theme or strength is all about prioritizing before acting and making the necessary changes to ensure that one is on track. It starts by creating mental images of what needs to be achieved in the future and following through with the plan to achieve them. With this one tends to partner with people who have a clear objective. Setting goals act as a compass in achieving them. The weakness of the theme or strength is that one becomes impatient with delays and other obstacles encountered (Rath, 2007). The results do portray a true picture of what I have always thought of myself. Personally, I regard myself as responsible in both my personal and professional life and I like associating myself with people who value the same. Am a relator as I like meeting new people and making friends for not only the short-term but also on a long-term basis.
The close relationship gives me a sense of belonging and having people that you cannot only have fun with but also depend on. In restorative, I always knew that I was good at solving problems, but I never regarded it as a strength. With the knowledge, I can now build on my restorative traits and use it as a strength. I enjoy working and improving myself, so the achiever theme was not a surprise. I always set for myself goals and the means to achieve them. It is also true that I get frustrated when I meet obstacles and delays on the way. That is because being focused on the end results and the means to achieve them and I totally agree with the focus theme.
What surprised me most about the report was the responsibility and relator themes. This is because they gave a true reflection on who I am as a person. For example, working as a caregiver I do get very emotionally attached to my clients and I feel responsible for them. Also, I enjoy a close relationship with them. As Rath (2007) suggests, the plan is to focus on building on the strengths rather than concentrating on the weakness. Now that I know my main strengths it is easier building on them. The action plan is to learn each strength’s weaknesses to avoid getting taken advantage of and use the strengths as a stepping stone to new strengths.
Thomas Paine Is My Motivation. (2022, Apr 23). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/thomas-paine-is-my-motivation/