Monday, October 20, 2008

Controlling Chaos

Recently for a leadership study I'm a part of, I took the Strength Finder assessment from the book with the same title by Tom Rath. According to the test results , my top 5 strengths are:
1. Communication
2. Woo
3. Empathy
4. Strategic
5. Positivity

I'm not sure how much validity to give these kinds of tests but I can see the reality of some of these strengths revealed in my life.
For the record (and so as not to come across as full of myself), I assure you that right off the top of my strawberry blonde head that for every strength listed above, I could easily give you 2 corresponding faults. And if I go too long thinking I've got it all together, there are other people and situations in my life that remind me that I don't.

Resuming post now...
It made sense to me that if these were identified as "strengths" then I should channel my energies in these areas to be more effective in my life,work and ministry. Strangely enough, my ministry/work requires most of these strengths at any given time of my day. Blogging came as an outcome of the strengths revealed. It also put what I thought was perhaps an obsession into perspective as well...
I like to organize things. I find myself reorganizing rooms, pantrys & shelves, and closets. So far I've confined my urges to my own domain and the occassional request from others who asks for my assistance. According to the Strength Finder list this urge for organizing would relate to the strategic strength. Even before the Strength Finder test, I discovered that I had a "knack" for looking at a situation and breaking it down to manageable parts. What sometimes overwhelms other people, exhilarates me.
Now that it gets dark at 6 o'clock at night and I have alot of alone time while hubby works out of town and The Princess is off at some kind of practice or rehearsal... I need a project. So I've decided to tackle the one zone of my home that seems to remain in a constant state of chaos--our home office. Specifically the filing cabinet! In spite of efforts to live and pay bills paper free, there is still a good amount of documents that need to be kept and filed. So I'm working out my approach and gathering the necessary tools. My goal is to have it "whipped into shape" by the end of the week.
You are my witnesses. Stay tuned.

1 comment:

Lynn said...

You totally won't believe how much alike we are! I could have written this same post. I loved the comment about what overwhelms some people exhilarates you. TOTALLY ME. And the organizing? OH MY, I spend my life trying to get organized and just make more mess. I wish I could come to your study group!