When I was 14 years old, my mom and dad registered me for a speaking tournament. I woke up that morning and like the good procrastinator I was, I wrote my speech right before the tournament. I stood on the podium and delivered a speech and when I was done, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. I learned that day that I had a knack for motivating people through words.
When I was in high school, I had the chance to sign up for public speaking. But I didn’t because I naively thought I already understood how to speak in front of people. I decided to take classes to work on my weak areas — so I enrolled in accounting. After a good C-average, I still wasn’t much better at math.
Most people shy away from “developing” their strengths because they don’t believe they have to. Since talents come naturally to us, we think “why develop something that I am naturally already good at?” Yet, your talents need developing and they thrive when developed.
The best idea for me in high school would have been to take a public speaking class. My StrengthsFinder talents of Woo® and Communication would have thrived with the investment. And then, to enroll in other speaking or debate tournaments to surround myself with the best and learn from top individuals.
Your CliftonStrengths NEED to be developed.
Your success, excellence, flow, quality, and quickness lies in you:
- Discovering your top 5 CliftonStrengths
- Investing in education to develop those talents into Strengths
- Leveraging those talents again and again until they sharpen into excellence
Think of it this way:
Above all, try not to fall into the trap of spending all your time investing in your weaknesses. You can only grow a limited amount. Instead, discover your innate talents and take classes to sharpen those talents and then enroll in ways to use them over and over.
You (and others) will be amazed at the results!
