Love Your Strengths...

... forget your weaknesses.

This topic has popped up in my daily life in a variety of ways. Strengths, gifts, intelligences, currency, etc.

The idea of varied strengths was just on my mind last week for some reason and of course, Seth Godin read my mind (as he always does) and wrote about the idea of multiple intelligences... or "dumbnesses" as he calls it.

On Sunday, being Catholic and all, we celebrated Pentecost. Part of the focus is on our gifts as individuals and the importance of learning about these personal gifts, accepting them and making good use of them.

Today at work, each person in our office was given the book Living Your Strengths by Winseman, Clifton, and Liesveld. I took the (slightly frustrating) online test to discover my strengths: Futuristic, Ideation, Strategic, Maximizer, and Relator. I found it to be a very accurate analysis of my personality and natural abilities. (I may write more about this later)

THEN I see this article at Inc.com all about discovering your "currency."

Are you on this train?

It seems that in this world today, you have to know who you are and why anybody should listen to what you have to say. I also think that it is important to listen to others because 1) they probably have a lot of insight into the type of person you are and 2) if you want respect you've got to give it.

All of those places where this theme showed up this week? They all mention the importance of recognizing the strengths of others. This creates synergy... and it makes things more interesting.

Competitive Patience

I just had an interesting experience. Basically, I got a job without even trying... at least I thought that until my friend reminded me of the time I'd spent building a relationship with my new employer, and doing so with an intention.

I'd been volunteering on projects for the last five years and so when it came time to hire someone they thought of me. It was quite possibly the easiest job I've ever gotten. No application. No interview.

So, I'm starting to think... maybe patience and hard work really can pay off. And I'm profoundly impressed by this notion of building intentional relationships. It's the purest form of advertising and marketing! It might even be the perfect example of branding (a topic I've come to learn is quite vague and difficult to explain - more on that later).

I'm very excited to have a new position where I can be creative and think a lot about advertising, marketing and design and put my energy toward something I'm passionate about!