My Clifton Strengths in a short story

I came up with the short story below, right after I finished a class summary Zoom call. It gave me a chuckle because it was the perfect amalgam for the bits I needed to hear and learn coupled with what I did immediately after the call. My “strengths” are featured as characters. These are from the Strengths Finder personality test (Gallup/Strengths Finder) that the Write Better Faster Academy primarily uses.

For clarity sake, my top 5 Strengths are as follows:

1. Learner
2. Intellection
3. Input
4. Individualization
5. Connectedness

If this is unfamiliar, the Strengths Finder premise is every one is unique and we should spend time playing to our strengths and not our weaknesses. Each strength has specific characteristics which can work in either harmony or disharmony with other strengths. Understanding and management are key. There are 34 strengths total and the top 5 (or so) should be your focus. This is very basic and watered down so you can get this gist of what’s going through my head if you aren’t familiar with this particular personality assessment. As a side note, I highly recommend this assessment as it’s eye-opening and explains a lot about how people operate and why they do what they do. My HR and coaching friends are very familiar with these. For me, it explained some conflicting behaviors that I didn’t “get,” and I finally felt seen and validated on some levels.

During the call there were a lot of recommendations and explanations, but one book stood out because it was mentioned so often (and not just for this course). The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins was highly recommended for Intellection, the focus of this particular intensive. Everything in the “story” below was discussed or mentioned during the call–even the party on both a real or a metaphoric level. That’s why this spontaneous story cracks me up so much. It’s as if my mind was processing everything and decided to make a little “ditty” out of it.

Okay, story. There was no singing.

These personifications are my top strengths, the strengths I need to understand and work with the most. I was actually going to the bathroom (TMI) when this story came to me and I came back out and posted it to the forum as my “game plan.” (After washing my hands, of course!) I’m sure my subconscious was making fun of me for running out and buying yet another book someone had recommended to me. Regardless, I had fun when I realized what had happened. Here it is:

Here’s a little story about how my Learner and Input gleefully “ran” to Amazon, downloading The 5 Second Rule. They also purchased Intuitive Witchcraft for their friend Empathy. They thought she could use one of those cool cloaks from that book that Susan had mentioned.

So there’s that.

But, my Individualization felt left out and decided to “stop caring” and be the scofflaw that she is to help out Intellection, with some nudging from Empathy. Empathy felt bad for all the comparison, desire for certainty, and rumination Intellection was going through. Since she was getting a magical cloak as well as some other goodies, she asked the scofflaw, Individualization, to help Intellection (and herself in the process)–they both could use some clearing out anyway.

Intellection decided since this is her party (Like how I did that? A party where all got along 😉), she is going to claw herself out of overwhelm by implementing The 5 Second Rule. She’s also going to give high 5’s (another Mel Robbins technique) all around for good measure, then stare at the birds outside her window to reset.

Yes, I did post this as my final assignment. Also yes, I stare out my window at the birds all the time. It’s a validated part of my process. 😁