Who I am.

A few weeks ago we had a staff development day in our college. As part of the day, we were asked to take a strengths inventory based on the books Strength Finders 2.0 and Strengths Based Leadership and attend a workshop. The idea is to find out what you are good at and develop those strengths rather than working to develop the areas in which you fall short.

My strengths were:

1. Positivity: I generally have a positive outlook on life and look for the best in people.
2. Includer: I enjoy meeting new people and am quick to include them in the groups I am part of.
3. Achiever: I am quick to act, like to feel engaged in my activities, focus on processes and like to accomplish things. I am a list person. I have eleven years worth of notebooks to prove it.
4. Competition: I like to win in situations that are important to me. No surprise here.
5. Futuristic: I am a goal setter and love to talk with visionary people.

I love personality profiles like this. I've done DISC and Myers-Briggs and going through this exercise was just as interesting. How could a quick inventory do such a good job at describing me?

It was even more interesting when a friend described who she was on her blog this week and asked who 'we' were.

Too often I tie my answer to that question to the roles I am playing at the moment. Just look at my blog header. So I am going to use what I learned from Strength Finders and answer her question without thinking about the roles I am currently playing. My roles are not what define me. It's who I am at my core that defines me and those attributes shine through in all of the roles I play.

I:
am happy.
like to try and succeed at new things.
like making people feel more comfortable in any given situation.
am always looking to the future.
like to control what I can.
always try to find the bright spot.
am structured.
am versatile.
am a life-long learner.
am creative.
am emotional.
am a builder.
am a good listener.
am faithful.

The second part of my friend's post described what she wasn't. In concert with Strength Finders, I am not going to focus on what I'm not. That list is way too long and it will make me feel bad about myself and quite overwhelmed. I know I am far from perfect so I'll just try harder to build on what I am.