StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Tom Rath, is an unusual book.

When you buy the book, you’re actually buying the slip of paper hidden in the sealed packet at the back of the book.

The text of the book repeats what you’ll see at the Strengths Finder website… after you use the secret code to take the test and find your top five strengths.

Initially, I was disappointed.  The test had several of the usual questions where I say, “Well, this is getting down to semantics.  Both answers mean pretty much the same thing.”

That frustrates me.

Likewise, when I received my list of strengths, most of them were ho-hum. I already knew that I’m someone who starts cool projects and generates fresh, innovative ideas.  In Strengths Finder terms, I’m an Activator.

I also knew that I’m relatively empathic, intellectual (hello, I’m in Mensa), and a futurist, always looking ahead.

I didn’t need a book and an online test to tell me that.

However, my second-highest strength is Strategic. I’m good at estimating outcomes, and planning the best routes to get past or around potential obstacles.  I’m the person who tells others the shortest route from Point A to Point B.

And, too often, I get caught up in the impetus of my own Activator ideas, and don’t give myself permission to pause and adjust my strategies for discoveries (good and not-so-good) along the path.

That discovery was worth the price of the book, and a lot more.

I hate to say that I needed to give myself permission to pause and make better plans… but I think I did.

Seeing that this is my second most-important strength, well, that gave me an entirely fresh way of looking at how I organize (or don’t organize) my own projects and my time.

(I’m good at telling others how to be better organized.  However, unless I’m just this side of “meltdown mode,” I tend to be less scrupulous about my own planning and organizing.)

After taking the test and learning from this book, I realized how much time, energy & other resources I’m wasting by not planning as much as I could.

I’ve been relying on my intellect, empathic (“gut feeling”) ideas, and expected outcomes, instead.  They’re good, but not as good as my second-best strength: Viewing my goals and projects strategically, from exactly where I am at that point, and planning accordingly.

For the record: My strengths are Activator, Strategic, Intellection, Empathy, Futurist, in that order.

So, although my initial reaction wasn’t enthusiastic, I’m now a major cheerleader for this book.  I rarely rate any book over four stars, but this one gets a 4.5.  It earned it, for helping me reorganize my priorities and give my real strengths — all of them — a chance to shine.

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Buy this book at Amazon.com

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