You have strengths... leveraging them leads to success.

If I were to tell you that the way to be happy is to do what you were put on the planet for, you’d probably roll your eyes, and say “I spent all this time getting this job that I have now… thanks.”  But, it really is that easy!  Marcus Buckingham had a really cool (great concept, beautiful cinematography, well presented) documentary called “Trombone Player Wanted“, where he talks about the need to focus on one’s strengths, not weaknesses.  I.e. If you suck at math, but rule at English (http://engrish.com/ for a smile), then you should focus on making your math stronger, and partner up with an Engrish-strong person.  This totally applies to business and life.  Me?  I need to partner up with someone who’s organized.  But… as always… I digress… I was talking about how you can find happiness.Marcus had a code for his book (Which many people went to the bookstore, copied off the book, and made that code invalid by using it up without buying the book), Now, Discover Your Strengths, which you could use online to take a test with.  The test would give you a deep insight into your strengths.  I have no clue how it works, but damn does it work well!  Since then, it has been updated, and the new book is called StrengthsFinder 2.0. I highly recommend you get it!

The test consists of (if I recall) 150 questions that are A/B (choose one answer or the other), and gives you your insights immediately upon completion.  I’ll share my results with you.  I feel that my results are amazingly accurate.  Everyone that knows me that’s seen this is blown away by the accuracy.  If you know me, prepare to be blown away.  If you don’t know me… prepare to know me, and understand why I’m such a badass consultant.

CouchSurfingOri Strengths Finder 2.0 Report #1
CouchSurfingOri Strengths Finder 2.0 Report #2

The test also gives you many many steps to be able to use your strengths.  If you haven’t figured it out, it gives you the 5 strengths that are most prevalent in you.  It tells you a lot of uses for them.  It tells you what careers, gigs, etc… they can be used for.  This is great for happiness (what I started saying in paragraph 1, remember?), which you will get by doing what you are really naturally good at.  It’s amazing… when I consult, I can (and do) go for hours!  I forget that I’m working.  I forget to eat sometimes, and wonder why everyone else runs out of power after a measly 12 hours.  I just feel like I’m having fun with friends, and the bonus is, that I’m solving people’s problems.

You want another form of happiness? How’s about knowing that you’re making the right decisions.  Or, perhaps you can get some extra happiness and peace of mind by knowing that your business is less likely to fall apart.  How?  Well… because you can buy one of these tests for your business partners, or employees.  This will allow you to make sure that you’re properly placing them within the company.  This can help you make sure that you have someone who complements your skill sets.  Remember? I said I need someone who is organized.

If you run a company, and have to manage your employees– here’s an awesome way to make sure they get along, excel, and are happy: Strengths Based Leadership.   Which covers knowing your strengths and investing in others’ strengths, getting people with the right strengths on your team, and understanding and meeting the four basic needs of those who look to you for leadership.

I make all my clients get StrengthsFinder 2.0, and I highly recommend it to all my friends.  That means you! It’s $20 in the store, or $13 on Amazon (which are the links I provided).  Make sure to leave a comment if you’ve taken the test, or know someone that has! Has it been as accurate as mine has?  What have you/they thought?

In case you’re as big on making sure that kids actually succeed in life, as compared to suffer because they listened to teachers that don’t know what they’re talking about… there’s also StrengthsExplorer For Ages 10 to 14. I can only imagine how friggin awesome things might be if I had that as a kid (though, I’m pretty dang thrilled at how things turned out)

These are all great gifts- I seriously have bought them for a few people who are near and dear who’ve griped that their job doesn’t fulfil them.