Learning Your Strengths ~ Why it’s Important for Self-Care

Learning your strengths allows you to have more compassion for yourself and for others. Here’s why it’s an integral part of self-care and the best places to find your strengths. This post contains affiliate links, click here for privacy policy. 

Knowing and Accepting Who You Are

Accepting who you are is the first and most important step in self-care. Knowing who God says you are is a firm foundation. But understanding what makes you-you is GOLD.

It’s very popular now in work environments and personal development to push people to get outside of your comfort zone. Or learn how to conform to new ideas and other people.

But what if we learned our strengths and played directly to those instead of always picking on our weaknesses?

According to Gallup, there is a one and 33 million chance that someone shares the same top five strengths as you.

Think about that for a minute. We are made to be unique. Why do we keep trying to be the same?

Related: How Single Moms Can Find Confidence In Their Relationships

Be Unique. Be You.

We are not meant to work outside of the strengths God created with us. We are each made with certain strengths and weaknesses for a reason.  

For me, it means that I am highly motivated and I love to learn. Even if I’m not working I’m going to be learning something on my own time. Trying to force myself to relax just doesn’t come naturally.

Learning your strengths allows you to quit trying to change yourself. You can know more confidently what you bring to relationships, your family, your workplace. Your soul heart mind will be happier. You won’t feel so stressed and out of sorts.

Pushing Outside of Your Comfort Zone

There are certainly times to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. Trying new things allows for new experiences, friendships, and life can open up.

But you can do it without betraying yourself. Try that new class but research first, if that’s your strength. For a season, try getting out of your comfort zone and organizing your home but don’t set specific rules about how you do it if that is your weakness and you know that’s what prevents you from organizing.

Learning Your Strengths – Strengthfinder Tests

StrengthsFinder 2.0: Discover Your Strengths is the book that guides you through learning your strengths and how to use your strengths in your everyday life. If you buy the book new, there is a scratch-off code (one-time use only) to take the online assessment to uncover your strengths.

The most comprehensive test is the Gallup test. It will provide your top 5 strengths in a  comprehensive report. Once you receive the results, after about a 30-minute “test”, it will feel like someone has created a personal profile for you. The report describes your strengths but it sounds like it telling you everything about yourself that you’ve always thought it just never voiced. However, this report has a fee. And to receive all your 30 strengths and weaknesses is a higher fee.

A free strengths finder test that is fairly similar is Hi Five Test. This test just gives you one paragraph about each strength. It’s still very useful in that it will tell you what your top 5 are and gives you ideas of how to more live within your calling.

When Strengths become Weaknesses

One thing to keep in mind as you learn your strengths is to consider if you also use them as a weakness.

For example, let’s say you rate high as a “timekeeper”. You can also be counted on to be on time everywhere. It’s of very high value for you. Recognizing that about yourself is great but have you considered how it can also be a detriment to yourself and to others?

First of all, it’s going to be in someone’s bottom 5 bottom five. And just as we want to be accepted for our top 5, we need to accept others for theirs. Make sure we don’t look down on someone else or get too frustrated because honestly, they have something in their top five that is probably on our bottom five.

Related: What Does it Mean to “Run Your Race”

Another way that we can use our strength to our detriment is when we use our strength too much. For example, an encourager trait is awesome to have especially in this world. But sometimes we go to a friend just to listen. If they encourage and tell you to get back out there it’s not that bad, when it really and truly is and all you wanted was a shoulder to cry on, the encourager trait becomes a negative trait.

Learning Your Strengths is Self-Care

Learning your strengths allows you to fully accept yourself. It also allows you to have more compassion for yourself and for others.

This is a great way to begin and kick off the whole self-care journey. As we go through trying different activities, see how different ones resonate with your top five. Does it align with who you were made to be? Does it speak to your inner self?

If you discover your strengths either through either one of the recommended sources above or if you find another great free one please share it below. And if you’re brave enough, let us know what your top five strengths are. Let’s celebrate how different we are!

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