Who You Are MATTERS
Who You Are does matter – it matters at home, it matters at school, it matters at work. Who You Are is more than who your parents were and what they had (or didn’t); it’s more than the culture and community you associate yourself with. Who You Are constitutes the very fibers of your being and the unique-to-you ways you show up in the world: your interests, talents and abilities, your strengths and weaknesses, your natural preferences. All of these parts of you are valuable, and are what make you unique in all the world.
Yes, of course you are also shaped by the experiences of your life, but you come into this life with a special set of gifts that are specially designed to serve you, and challenge you, too. Although it may appear that some people are endowed with ‘more’ gifts, or ‘better’ gifts than others — the fact is, every single one of us comes bearing a unique set of gifts that are exactly what we need to succeed in this world.
“So, where’s my owner’s manual?” you may ask! Wouldn’t it be awesome if we each came with one – a reference manual that would tell us exactly how we work best? The fact is, WE DID! Although it’s not in print form or google-able, we actually do have ways to learn about our own personal operating systems and what makes us ‘tick’. We just haven’t been taught how to do it – until now!
Our first, and by far most important way to access our personal o/s is by paying attention to our bodies – they actually have a lot to tell us, and they are trying to communicate with us All The Time. We just have to learn our own body’s language – how our body speaks to us. Of course it can’t use words – but it can communicate, and is always telling us what is true for us in any given moment. The more we learn its language and pay attention, the more we are able to make decisions that align with a deeper part of us that knows more about what works for us, and what doesn’t, than we’ve ever given it credit for before.
There are also other tools that already exist ‘out there’ in the world, really valuable tools, that we can use to help us identify our strengths, our personality types, our natural interests and preferences, and more. The specific tools I’m referring to are called ‘self-assessments’. There are some excellent, well-designed assessments available anymore – the really quality ones like the Myers-Briggs or Keirsey or ORA personality assessments, or StrengthsFinder, Insights, DiSC or a number of others are great starting places for getting insights into who you are and how you show up. The problem with these worthy assessments is not usually the assessment itself, but that most people who take them do not have any way to make the results of these assessments MEAN anything to them. And frankly, if taking an assessment only gives you some weird set of letters that you don’t really know how to use, you’ve wasted your time.
But with the support of a trained coach, these assessments can become a treasure trove of valuable insights that can make a world of difference for you! By translating the valuable information and helping you validate it for yourself, you can being to work with your personal o/s in ways that are meaningful and practical. You can use this information to make informed decisions around what you know works for you — major decisions, from what to study in college and what careers you might pursue, to helping you assess what kinds of work and/or learning environments work best for you, and beyond.
The more you understand Who You Are, the better you can consciously and deliberately make life decisions that are right for you. No one else can tell you what’s right for you, no matter how well they think they know you. You can learn to work with your own personal operating system in ways that will help you make strong, impactful choices that will serve you the rest of your life. It starts by being willing to claim that Who You Are Matters!
Wellbeing – A Map into Reinventing Work
Gallup has uncovered 5 common elements of Wellbeing that transcend countries & cultures — elements that differentiate a thriving life from one spent suffering. These core dimensions are “universal & interconnected elements of wellbeing, or how we think about and experience our lives. When these factors are fully realized, people thrive — and so do businesses.”
The five broad categories that are essential to most people:
* Career Wellbeing: how you occupy your time — or simply liking what you do every day
* Social Wellbeing: having strong relationships and love in your life
* Financial Wellbeing: effectively managing your economic life… See More
* Physical Wellbeing: having good health and enough energy to get things done on a daily basis
* Community Wellbeing: the sense of engagement you have with the area where you live
- from Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements — Gallup Press
What excites me about this research is that finally, in ways that business can finally begin to appreciate and wrap its arms around, there is acknowledgment that what is good for Individuals is actually good for Business!
Work is how individual human beings expend their precious life energy – it has far, far, far more purpose & meaning to both individuals and society as a whole than simply creating a company’s bottom line and/or stoking the engines of commerce/capitalism – the shallowest of purposes at best. The Bottom Line has always been a false king. This narrow view of the purpose of work has directly contributed to the current crisis of meaning that is devastating our society.
This more holistic view of Wellbeing supports the sea change that is already beginning to sweep through the world of work, albeit haphazardly at present. This concept of Wellbeing allows us to begin to consciously connect with a larger vision of how Work serves this much larger, more meaningful purpose that supports a healthy society. It is an Rx to healing our broken relationships with each other, and to reestablishing meaning in Work.
Evolution of Reinvent Your Work
When I originally began “Reinvent Your Work,” my intention was to support the sea change that is already taking shape in workplaces around the U.S. (I have no information about other countries, though this movement certainly spans the Internet and globe). I have experienced – indeed, I have facilitated! – that shift within a multinational myself, and I have witnessed what can happen when employees are empowered to affirm and contribute their unique Strengths; the win-win opportunities that present when teams and co-workers finally acknowledge that everyone cannot be equally competent in all things, and start leveraging each others’ Strengths instead. Powerful stuff, and I will continue to support this as I am able.
But I am significantly more motivated to work with young people in discovering and aligning to their Strengths. There is such a powerful opportunity to positively impact their lives at the crucial insertion points of choosing a college, choosing a major, and choosing a career path! Truth is, most of us more or less choose colleges and courses of study based on factors having more to do with friends/parents/finances/prestige than from any intimate understanding of what will best serve our gifts and talents, or of how we are uniquely designed to contribute and succeed. We don’t believe that we can do what we love and love what we do, and we somehow stumble into jobs and even careers, waking up years later… disillusioned and drained, and wondering if this is all life is about. What a waste.
