Choosing Your Career, Entrepreneurial & Relationship Path Based on Your Strengths

 After years of education, one thing has become clear, when you know what your strengths are you can start to make choices that affect the course of your life in a positive way. At the end of the day, you are responsible for your life, the choices you make, and the actions you take. Working from strength instead of weakness allows you to positively move forward in life without focusing on your weaknesses, which are likely not even relevant in the first place. When you know your strengths, you will have a better work life and personal life because you’ll be making choices based on knowledge and fact, not hopes and dreams.

 Career / Entrepreneurship

 There are many factors that affect your competence in your career. Whether you work for someone else or you own your own business, your strengths play a huge part in whether you’re successful or not. There are many factors that affect the choices you have in front of you when it comes to work.

 Ability and experience, even more than education, play a huge role in what you choose to do in your life for money. Most people are drawn to a certain type of work based on their parent given genetic material that gives them some form of innate ability or love for a particular form of work. You may not even realize that you’re drawn to a field due to your inborn abilities. Some people just accept what is, where they work, and how they live with no desire to pursue anything else...and that's okay if that's their choice. But if they're settling, well, that's a choice, too.

Then there are some people that are taught either accidentally or on purpose that they should become “well-rounded” or dabble in other career areas that don’t interest them because it’s something popular today. Some parents have been known to encourage pursuing education in one area without regard to whether this field of study is even of interest. This can actually drain your resources and is not unlike trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Instead, analyze what it is that you love doing and do well already. This is where you want to find your career choice. Whether it’s entrepreneurial or not will also depend on whether you’re cut out for it or not, but it’s not right or wrong. It just is.

 Play

 Your strengths also affect how you play. What do you like doing? Some people are drawn to computer games, some people are drawn to physical sports. The reason is that you are either naturally good at the thing you want to do and like to do already, or you’re good enough that you can practice and become better. Remember, having a love for something and an ability for something doesn’t mean you never have to practice or learn, it just means that it likely comes more easily to you than some other things you have tried. Plus, you like it more.

 You hear it all the time, be yourself; don’t try to be someone else. But then you’re often forced to do things that you find make you miserable. For example, if you’re an introvert, you are likely often asked to do things that are hard to do and drain you of your energy because it’s weird not to. But, what if you were told to play how you want to play and only do things you love as far as that’s allowed? Investing some time to explore what interests you is valuable to and this is how you find success and feel successful.

 Now, don’t misunderstand. You need to sometimes do things you dislike. The paperwork always has to be done. The toilets have to be cleaned. But, if you really dislike cleaning you can work toward a life where you don’t have to clean. You can work toward a life where you outsource those tasks that you hate, for the most part, so you can play even harder. It's a matter of choices.

 Personal Relationships

 The one area of life that requires you to move forward and do things that are uncomfortable at times is your personal relationships. But, if you understand what you’re strong at, you can focus on those things and do more of those things so the items you’re weak at aren’t as noticeable. Obviously, if you don’t like doing some things, you’re still going to have to do them if you want to have relationships. But the fact is some people are better at them than others.

 Thankfully, you can learn to do better at personal relationships. Regardless of your innate ability, you can learn to be an equal partner in all your relationships. But, you can also be honest about your skill sets in this area so that you do a better job choosing the right people to move forward with in your life. For example, if you’re an introvert and would hate going out every weekend, you might not want to marry someone who needs that kind of social life. While they say opposites attract, opposites also get divorced. It comes down to being intentional with your decisions.

 What can you do to discover your strengths? There are a lot of assessments available; the one that I like and use is Gallop's Strength Finders. Most of these assessment are similar in that you answer questions for evaluation. Knowing your strengths allows you to choose the career, entrepreneurial, and relationship paths that will allow you to experience success...it's about living an Intentional Life.

Until next time...

Lisa

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