Our Obsession with Strengths

We are obsessed with finding and leveraging our strengths, and it makes us boring.

For example, Marcus Buckingham, an intelligent, dynamic and well-spoken best selling author (with a lot of strengths), tells us to Go Put our Strengths to Work. One of his premises, as discussed in his article What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differntly, is Imbalance. In discussing why more women are less happy than ever, he says it’s because they are too focused on balance:

… when you are balanced, you are stationary, holding your breath, trying not to let any sudden twitch or jerk pull you too far one way of the other. You are at a standstill. Balance is the wrong life goal. Instead, do as these women [the self-proclaimed “happiest” ones in his survey) did, and strive for imbalance. Pinpoint the strong-moments in each aspect of your life and then gradually tilt your life toward them.

In other words, do the things that make you feel good and get rid of the things that don’t. It strikes me that things like growth, risk, failure, mistakes, and heartache add a richness to life that can’t be had by staying permanently transfixed in your comfort zone. I think Marcus needs to get out of his intellectual zip code. Not everyone’s definition of success includes the word MORE or BETTER.

Posted in Life by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.

Tags: Marcus Buckingham, Performance, Strengths