When Your Strengths Change
The first time I took the Clifton Strengths assessment was in 2014 when my Mom was getting certified. With a penchant for all things self development I took the test without hesitating and very quickly fell in love with the whole process. If you aren’t aware what Clifton Strengths is, it’s an assessment that was created by Donald Clifton, one of the founding fathers of Positive Psychology to help people understand what was RIGHT with them, instead of what was WRONG with them as so many other psychology practices focused on. You can learn more about the nuts and bolts of the assessment here, but ever since 2014, my life hasn’t been the same. Knowing my strengths allowed me the peace of mind to know that being a constant achiever, collector of things, future see-er, and adaptable human with all the ideas was just who I had always been. Sure, sometimes those things could be over used (most of us overuse our strengths at some points because it’s just our default behavior until we k now otherwise), but ultimately they were the things when used to serve the world that brought me more confidence and vibrancy. Upon learning my strengths, I was able to then hone in and start to recognize when were they helpful and when were the a hinderance and what caused them to show up as such. For the sake of this post, I want to focus on my achiever strength, because since 2014 I have taken the assessment 3 times and achiever has stayed consistent in my top 5 (with some others) BUT the needs of achiever adjusted as I had achieved more and more in my career.
Before I read my reports, I thought I was getting lazy or had lost my drive and truly felt shame that I didn’t feel like setting goals anymore - but it turns out, I was just setting the wrong goals for how my achiever had changed.
My first achiever report essentially boiled down to me feeling fulfilled and confident when I would write down a goal and cross it off the list. I was satisfied by coming up with a concept, seeing it come to fruition and my achiever would be satisfied and I would be confident. When it was a hindrance in 2014, it was because I would override my personal needs/relationships/etc. in order to get the goal - do whatever I could to achieve something and achieve it fast. Sometimes this meant becoming someone I wasn’t proud of - this was achiever on overdrive. It took over my life. Who was I if I wasn’t achieving?
The second time I took my assessment I saw achiever in the same top 5 and assumed it was the same so I didn’t even really bother to read the report. (I should say I also had self assurance really high, which means I was a cocky little shit and thought I knew everything). As such, I kept trying to achieve in the ways that I always had. I would give myself arbitrary goals and reach them and feel incredibly unfulfilled. Why wasn’t my same approach fulfilling anymore? It turns out, as I matured my strengths I had shifted what I was doing in my career and therefore leveraged new strengths surrounding my achiever. The first assessment I took, my top 5 were mostly strategic strengths. The second assessment I took, I had mostly INFLUENCING strengths which means that I no longer felt fulfilled from achieving things myself, but rather from teaching others and watching THEM achieve their goals. My achiever would feel satisfied when it created something that would benefit others to achieve their goals/dreams (Body Image Bootcamp/The Webcam Sessions/etc.) No wonder I was feeling unfulfilled in my current position as a DO-ER in my business - my strengths had matured into a synthesizing form of learning, teaching, influencing, achieving. It took my a full year of trying to do things “the way I always did them” before I revisited my report and had a coaching from my Mom. We both realized that while the strength NAME might stay the same, the needs of the strength can change.
Finally, the last time I took the assessment was post pandemic (I recommend people retest after a traumatic event or after 3-5 years if things feel different). Achiever was once again in the top 5 and once again the needs had changed. (This time I actually read my report). In this season of my life my achiever is all about playing the long game and spending time learning and growing and being okay with the duration it takes to create something. My achiever reads as stamina now and this totally makes sense because the flash in the pan achiever that I had the first time I took the assessment (and started my business) was great because it gave me that quick burn to launch me, but now I need a slow burn to keep me sustainable. This time my achiever reads as slow, eager but calm, focused and intentional.
So, why I wanted to talk about this was because if I had kept trying achieve the way that I always had I would be very dissatisfied at this point in my life and career. I might have had a lot of stuff: trophies, awards, achievements, travels, stuff, etc. but nothing that would truly make a difference to me OR to my clients. At the beginning of a career it makes sense that you would need to set lofty goals and work tirelessly but it just isn’t sustainable to keep that pace for the rest of your life. It makes sense that as we change, our strengths would have different needs as well. I am glad that I actually revisited the reports to see what I needed in order to refocus my attention and start feeling fulfilled. Also, understanding the changes in how these showed up through my career helped me transition into more fulfilling ways of being, knowing that in order for me to be confident/doing what I’m meant to be doing, I had to shift away from doing what I had always done. It gave me almost this logical head nod that said, “Go ahead. It’s time to hustle.”, “Go ahead. It’s time to teach what you learned in the hustle.” and now “Go ahead. It’s time to build, slowly and with intention to prevent the hustle in future entrepreneurs.”
If you’ve taken your Clifton Strengths and have Achiever or just identify as an Achiever, this season is for you. We love writing down our goals and watching them happen - but if it feels different than it used to, take a look at the other things that bring you joy in your life. It was when I created the Webcam sessions during the pandemic that I realized I preferred teaching over doing: I loved the learning process and spent a whole week figuring as much out as possible and then condensing that into an easy to understand guide for other creatives to feel empowered during a time when a lot of people felt depressed. It was after teaching it that I no longer cared to do it - I only wanted to do it, to figure it out, to teach it and pass it on. I could see the separation in how I felt BEFORE. If it was the 1st level of achiever, I would have just learned how to do and started doing it - not even thinking about teaching it. I would have kept it for me until people would ask. I would have loved to continually do it. But after I had taught it, I looked at my calendar full of like 100 webcam sessions booked and I was unimpressed that I had to do them - hahah! THAT is how I knew I was ready to move more into teaching. So, if you are trying to do things the way you always have, take a look at recent experiences that have left you on a high. Was it helping people learn? Was it empowering people by asking questions? Was it by staying focused on building something tangible? Look for clues in the things that light you up now that maybe didn’t as much before. It doesn’t mean you are no longer a goal getter - it just means your goal getting will look different than it always has.
