Do More of What Makes You Awesome

Have you ever tried to nail gravy to a tree or play billiards with a rope? If you somehow succeed at these impossible tasks, would you want more of that kind of challenge? Or would you rather be doing more of the things that make you awesome?

I Can Do That

"I can do that," is something we all wish we could say no matter the challenge. This is a common ideal in job interviews especially. But who does that attitude serve, really?

We want to land that job. We want that promotion. We want that opportunity.

We want to feel appreciated and respected and valued, and saying, "No thanks, that's not in my wheelhouse" seems counterproductive. We have a social pressure — and often an even more powerful internal pressure — to always say "Yes" when that's not necessarily the best approach.

"Never let them see you sweat" may make for a catchy anti-perspirant TV commercial slogan, but it's not a particularly good personal philosophy.

Despite the fact that we admire persistence and tenacity and grit in the face of adversity — for good reason — it might be more productive in the long run if we place more admiration on folks who accurately identify their strengths and relentlessly pursue them.

Do we really want to give props to someone who insists on pushing on doors marked "pull"?

Let's consider a new approach. It's a bit radical and it goes against the grain of all we've learned and value in modern society up to now.

Here it is:

Do more of what makes you awesome.

What do you think? What are your thoughts about this perspective and way of approaching life?

Playing to your strengths may seem counterintuitive at first. After all, how much of that ever-vaunted and valued tenacity and grit would you need to exhibit to all those people following along at home if you were to attempt something that was actually easy for you?

How many social points can you score by pursuing an endeavor you genuinely enjoy?

In all seriousness, doing more of what makes you awesome is actually a very sound philosophy and a truly valuable practice.

Cooking Success

Doing more of what makes you awesome is a dish that only has two ingredients, and anyone can cook it to perfection.

1. Identify your strengths
2. Pursue more activities that play to those strengths

It seems absurdly simple at first glance, but there's some nuance here that deserves a closer look.

How do you identify what your strengths actually are?

There is a tool that can help you figure out your strengths and it starts with identifying what makes you happy.

This tool has a few things going for it. First, it is an online personality assessment that anyone with an adequate vocabulary can take (typically aged 13 and up). It can be completed in under 10 minutes. Perhaps most importantly, it is extremely accurate at identifying your innate hardwiring — your personality's DNA.

You don't want to waste your time taking a personality assessment that isn't any more accurate than a coin toss (<cough>Myers-Briggs</cough>) or leads you in different directions every time you take it (poor repeat reliability).

The World's Most Accurate Personality Assessment

The tool we're talking about is the Core Values Index™ psychometric assessment. It is the world's most accurate and reliable personality assessment and you can get your results in 10 minutes or less by going to erep.com/core-values-index/

The CVI is not about aptitude, it's about happiness — and happiness must come first.

The CVI tells you how you are emotionally hardwired. It describes the lens through which you see the world. It outlines the type of activities that make you happiest and which activities are likely to make you feel like you're trying to teach goldfish how to play chess.

It is this information — what makes you happy — that you can use to find the kind of activities where you will shine. Taking the CVI could be the most valuable 10 minutes of your life.

What makes you happy tells you what makes you awesome.

Once you take the CVI and learn what makes you awesome, the second part is easy: do more of that.

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Core Values Index™ and CVI™ are trademarks of Taylor Protocols, Inc.