living your strongest life

Blog Challenge: Day 18

Today's post is the final follow-up to the last two posts I did about the decline in women's happiness and what happy/successful women do differently. In the article written about what happy women do, the author concludes with a discussion of what he calls "The Strong Life Test."

As he explains, "there are so many voices in your life demanding your attention, so many 'have-tos' and 'shoulds,' that it can be hard to hear the sound of your own voice." So, Buckingham designed the Strong Life Test "to help you cut through the clamor and find your strongest life."

It's described as an internal compass....measuring you on nine life roles-- Advisor, Caretaker, Creator, Equalizer, Influencer, Motivator, Pioneer, Teacher, and Weaver. While we may have to play each of the nine roles at different times, our personality doesn't entirely shift and morph per every unique situation. Rather, we have some consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving...that are distinctive and that remain stable across time and situations. (Remember personality types and your individual type?) These patterns come together in a Lead Role, a role you return to time and again, a role that you and your closest family and friends recognize as the core of who you are. Your Lead Role will help you to know where to look, in any domain of your life (as a spouse, relative, mother, or employee), for the kind of moments that will strengthen you the most, invigorate you the most, bring you joy, excitement, and fun. The Strong Life Test doesn't give you all the answers, but it tells you where to start.

You can take the test right here. fyi, it's pretty heavily geared towards women.


I took it of course :-) And here are my results:

Lead Role: Teacher

You begin by asking:
'What can she learn from this?'

Your focus is instinctively toward the other person. Not her feelings, necessarily, but her understanding, her performance, her skills.

Your best quality: Your faith in the others’ potential

Always: Tailor your style to each student

Be careful you: Don’t come to believe that everyone is capable of everything

Your smartest career move: Any job where you’re paid to facilitate the success of others.

Supporting Role: Advisor

You begin by asking:
'What is the best thing to do?'

Your thrill comes from knowing that you are the person others turn to for the answer. You don’t necessarily want to be the person who actually makes the changes happen. Rather, what excites you is being valued by others for your insight and your judgment.

Your best quality: Your ability to find a solution

Always: Search for data to support your advice

Be careful you: Don’t get frustrated by other people’s failings

Your smartest career move: Any job where you’re paid to be opinionated

These seem pretty much on point to me. I love the idea of getting paid to facilitate the success of others. I originally balked at the fact that the results mention being paid to be opinionated (because I generally don't view myself as being strongly opinionated), but I think I can be opinionated about certain things...just not in the traditional sense of dichotomous this or that types of opinions. But, I do feel strongly about certain things, especially as I really continue to develop my passions. As I was reviewing my results I started to wonder to what degree these sorts of things are reflective of who i am versus who i want to be. In other words, am i truly someone who focuses on others, has faith in their potential, and wants to facilitate their success? Or, are these qualities that I value and not that I actually have? Food for thought for me on this Thursday afternoon...pre-Snowpocalypse Part II

As you can see, I love these sorts of quizzes....and i LOVE to hear your results. Please share in the comments, and let me know whether the results resonate with you. 

today's *big chune* is "Can We Talk" by Tevin Campbell. I listen to Pandora during the day at work and this gem popped up in my mix today. One of my favs! Classic R&B right here!

:-D