Using Your Strengths
Introduction
We’ve all been there. You receive a report card or a round of test scores back that look like this:
English: 91% Debate: 98% History: 89% Geometry: 73% Biology: 92%
Which grade are you likely to fixate on? The 73% of course! What if, instead, we celebrated our success more? What if we tried to learn what led to those successes and leveraged that to manage our weaker areas?
What research has shown us is that throughout our lives we are far more likely to spend time and reap happiness and success from understanding and focusing on the development of our strengths. That is not to say this student should ignore math, but rather to understand the strengths that led them to success in other areas, and develop and use those strengths to achieve success in ALL areas of their life.
Watch
- https://bit.ly/3fI2gqM Links to an external site. – Gary Pritchard “Strengths Based Learning” (YT 3:59)
Visit
- https://bit.ly/2AOCToJ Links to an external site. – Chris Wejr “Strength-based Resources”
Key Ideas
- When we understand our strengths and our inherent areas of enjoyment and productivity, we will be happier and successful in life.
- In life, you may get more out of time spent developing your strengths than time spent trying to improve your weaknesses.
- We should not ignore our weaknesses but instead manage them using strengths!
Apply
- Reflect and Write on the following questions:
- What was the last assignment that really excited you?
- What absolutely fascinates you?
- What kind of assignments make you go above and beyond?
- What do you do that, when you are doing it, time seems to fly by, that you are so engaged that hours seem to pass in a matter of minutes?
- What do you consider a weakness? How might you use one of your strengths to overcome that weakness?
- Think about the upcoming projects or assignments you have. How can you use your strengths to do well on these?