Do Good Design

As part of the New Life for this year — moving to a new house that’s out of town, right by the sea, but only ours for one year — I’ve been looking at my own personal development. I adore personality tests, management tomes and good self-help books, and the latest I’ve been delving into is Strengthsfinder 2.0, with research and testing of millions of people by Gallup.

You have many talents, innate abilities that mean you can do some things much more easily than most people. That’s a strength. This book argues that instead of focusing on your weaknesses — being disorganised, shy with people, poor with finances, etc — you should spend your time building your strengths.

Do what you’re good at and you’ll be happier

From a business management side — which is what this book is mainly aimed at — the reason to have managers focus on their employees’ strengths is because Gallup research found that people who do “are six times more likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life.”

From my perspective, it just makes sense. The kind of “Duh, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before” reaction.

The way Strengthsfinder works is that you buy the book, get a code and take a test online that will spit out your top 5 strengths. Then they offer ways to put those strengths to work in a tangible way.

My #1 strength: Input

I was a tad disappointed in my strengths to be honest. They’re all so airy-fairy, so intellectual. I like to think I’m an action-oriented person, but my strengthsfinder says I need to spend a lot of time in my head.

People who are strong in Input collect information. We gather knowledge because it’s interesting and might be useful one day.

I do this with books. I read all the time, and while I frequent the public library, I also have a small personal library — ruthlessly culled — of books I think are useful. Books on self-sufficient living by John Seymour; wild food and herbs; natural dyes, cosmetics and cleaning. On the business side, I’ve got ones on colour psychology, design (lots), web writing and project management.

I dip into these books daily and love to extract bits of wisdom as the situation requires.

Putting a strength into action

But why I’m writing this post — and it’s hard for me to write a blog because I always think “Who cares?” — is because my little Strengthsfinder books says that we Input people need to share what we learn:

“You naturally soak up information in the same way that a sponge soaks up water. But just as the primary purpose of a sponge is not to permanently contain what it absorbs, neither should your mind simply store information…Be aware of people that can benefit from your knowledge and be intentional about sharing with them.”

Sharing information in my 3 themes for this year

So here’s what I think: I’m a web designer running her own business. My husband and I are trying to lead self-sufficient and happy lives. I love colour.

Every day, I learn something in at least one of these areas. Usually through books, sometimes through hands-on practice.

I’ll do my best to post one idea or piece of information I learn in these areas regularly. If any of these 3 themes are of interest to you, then perhaps you’ll find something useful.

Today’s tidbit is Strengthsfinder 2.0. See if your library has a copy of the book to figure out if it resonates with you. The idea of all of us cosying up to what we’re naturally good at, rather than tearing ourselves down for what we suck at, really appeals to me and I’d love to see more of it.