Ear & Eye Candy of the day – MGMT’s Time to Pretend

Trippy video, trippy tune, trippy lyrics (“I’ll move to Paris, shoot some heroin, and fuck with the stars”). YEAH!

OK somehow I can’t embed the video here so you can watch it directly on YouTube here

My Strengths Profile

I first learned about the motivational speaker/trainer Marcus Buckingham through watching an episode on Oprah about people unhappy about their work and how he helped them find their strengths, focus on them, put them to work, and as a result you become happier with what you do. He’s an advocate of strength management. This means when your kid comes home with an A in Maths and an F in English, you should invest most of your time to develop his talents in Maths. It doesn’t mean your kid can just forget about passing his English test, but the A in maths shows he has natural talent in it and therefore more time and effort should be invested to develop this talent further (instead of forcing him to ace his English test and forgetting about developing his natural ability in Maths).

I bought one of his books, “Now, Discover Your Strengths“, last week. It comes with an accompanying online test designed by Gallup. It’s a good book, but unfortunately it doesn’t really tell us what we should do about these strengths. It does provide some suggestions for managers on how to manage people according to their strengths, but they’re not very extensive. I’ll be happier with the book if they explained how certain combination of the strengths affect each other, or how I, as an employee, can put these suggestions to work. (“Hi Boss, I took this test online and it says that you have to put me in Journalism instead of Research”)

Anyway, here’s my top 5 strengths according to Strengths Finder:

Adaptability

You live in the moment. You don’t see the future as a fixed destination. Instead, you see it as a place that you create out of the choices that you make right now. And so you discover your future one choice at a time. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have plans. You probably do. But this theme of Adaptability does enable you to respond willingly to the demands of the moment even if they pull you away from your plans. Unlike some, you don’t resent sudden requests or unforeseen detours. You expect them. They are inevitable. Indeed, on some level you actually look forward to them. You are, at heart, a very flexible person who can stay productive when the demands of work are pulling you in many different directions at once.

Futuristic

“Wouldn’t it be great if . . .” You are the kind of person who loves to peer over the horizon. The future fascinates you. As if it were projected on the wall, you see in detail what the future might hold, and this detailed picture keeps pulling you forward, into tomorrow. While the exact content of the picture will depend on your other strengths and interests—a better product, a better team, a better life, or a better world—it will always be inspirational to you. You are a dreamer who sees visions of what could be and who cherishes those visions. When the present proves too frustrating and the people around you too pragmatic, you conjure up your visions of the future and they energize you. They can energize others, too. In fact, very often people look to you to describe your visions of the future. They want a picture that can raise their sights and thereby their spirits. You can paint it for them. Practice. Choose your words carefully. Make the picture as vivid as possible. People will want to latch on to the hope you bring.

Connectedness

Things happen for a reason. You are sure of it. You are sure of it because in your soul you know that we are all connected. Yes, we are individuals, responsible for our own judgments and in possession of our own free will, but nonetheless we are part of something larger. Some may call it the collective unconscious. Others may label it spirit or life force. But whatever your word of choice, you gain confidence from knowing that we are not isolated from one another or from the earth and the life on it. This feeling of Connectedness implies certain responsibilities. If we are all part of a larger picture, then we must not harm others because we will be harming ourselves. We must not exploit because we will be exploiting ourselves. Your awareness of these responsibilities creates your value system. You are considerate, caring, and accepting. Certain of the unity of humankind, you are a bridge builder for people of different cultures. Sensitive to the invisible hand, you can give others comfort that there is a purpose beyond our humdrum lives. The exact articles of your faith will depend on your upbringing and your culture, but your faith is strong. It sustains you and your close friends in the face of life’s mysteries.

Learner

You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered—this is the process that entices you. Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences—yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential. The outcome of the learning is less significant than the “getting there.”

Maximizer

Excellence, not average, is your measure. Taking something from below average to slightly above average takes a great deal of effort and in your opinion is not very rewarding. Transforming something strong into something superb takes just as much effort but is much more thrilling. Strengths, whether yours or someone else’s, fascinate you. Like a diver after pearls, you search them out, watching for the telltale signs of a strength. A glimpse of untutored excellence, rapid learning, a skill mastered without recourse to steps—all these are clues that a strength may be in play. And having found a strength, you feel compelled to nurture it, refine it, and stretch it toward excellence. You polish the pearl until it shines. This natural sorting of strengths means that others see you as discriminating. You choose to spend time with people who appreciate your particular strengths. Likewise, you are attracted to others who seem to have found and cultivated their own strengths. You tend to avoid those who want to fix you and make you well rounded. You don’t want to spend your life bemoaning what you lack. Rather, you want to capitalize on the gifts with which you are blessed. It’s more fun. It’s more productive. And, counterintuitively, it is more demanding.

How to be Creative

Found this great article on how to be creative by Hugh of the Gapingvoid blog. It includes 37 tips on how you should believe more in yourself and your ideas (#1: Ignore everybody, #19: Sing in your own voice) and also sobering reality checks (#7: Keep your day job, #34: Beware of turning your hobbies into jobs).

Read the article here.
(make sure you have 15 minutes or so to read, it’s a bit long)

Another Doodle from the Doodlebook

Are You A Scanner? Like Me?

As much as I want to avoid labeling myself with anything, it is indeed quite comforting when I read psychological classifications of personalities and I find myself described thoroughly well. It’s like I keep saying “Yes! This is me!” while nodding my head. Being human, we all like to categorise and name things, don’t we? Race, religion, country, occupation, it even started back then with Adam naming all the creatures of the earth. Creatures with wings and beaks are called birds. Those with fours stomachs and yummy white liquid out of their teats are called cows. Etc. Etc.

Last weekend I bought this book titled “What do I do when I want to do everything?” by life coach Barbara Sher. It’s amazing how I feel like the whole book is written for me! At first I wanted to get the other book written by her, “I could do anything if I only knew what it was” but I decided on “What do I do…” as it talks more specifically about people called “Scanners”. Scanners are people who has multiple interests and just can’t choose one particular thing to do the rest of his life. They are usually talented and are good at whatever they are doing at the moment they are interested in it, but can just leave their projects/interest halfway or after achieving a certain milestone. Some can immerse themselves in one interest or carreer for 5 years, some do it for a few months, some people just can’t seem to choose among them and do everything at the same time. They are all scanners.

The book is pretty eye opening, as it talks about Scanners in a positive way. It tells Scanners not to despair and accept ourselves for who we are. It gives the affirmation that there is nothing wrong with us. We just need to be true to ourselves and redesign our lives and how we see ourselves. The need to choose just one interest over the others is unimportant if not a sure recipe to unhappiness for this type of people. Barbara also gives a few strategies and tips to keep your three hundred different interests organised, such as keeping a “Scanner Daybook” – more or less an idea journal, and creating work stations for all your projects so they are ready whenever you want to work on it. She also gives suggestions for the types of career suited for such personality, although I don’t think I will follow the recommended career paths closely – as some of the examples sound too good to be true and a little too idealised (they don’t talk about the boring part of the job or how difficult it is to get one). But still it gives a rough gauge of the type of jobs suited for such a curious and multi-talented personality.

If, like me, you see the world as a huge school where there are so many things to learn with so little time and you get frustrated becase you just can’t seem to choose one over the other, go ahead and pick a copy of this book from your favorite bookshop or library. You can also browse through Barbara Sher’s online forum at www.barbarasher.com.

p.s. I have my suspicions it is also published under the title “Refuse to Choose“