Discover Your Strengths —how you're unique— to Achieve Your Goals

This mini-series is full of tips to manage your time better to fulfill your life purpose and in the transcription of this podcast episode, you’ll see the link to my website where you can see more resources. 

This episode shares the second of my 10 methods to manage time effectively. 

Discover Strengths, Unique to You, In Order to Accomplish Your Goals

Pete is the best salesperson I know.  

His business associates know he has the gift and could sell anything to anyone.hey would buy whatever he is selling every time.  

Not only that, he always kept his promises,  better than the customer expected. 

He was always successful and in his small company he took the lion share of the profits.

That is until his business partner Harold took a new position elsewhere.  

Harold felt that he was not appreciated enough, so he pursued other options.

Once Harold left, Pete’s company took a nosedive.  

Suddenly, whatever Pete sold no longer was what was delivered.  

No matter how hard Pete tried, he could no longer make good on his promises. 

You see, although Pete could sell anything, it was Harold that made the promises Pete made come true.  

Harold could not sell water in the desert, but give him a problem to solve and he is a genius.  They had one of those golden partnerships where each played to their strengths. 

Together, they were unstoppable.

Nurturing Strength on Your Journey to Success

Some coaches teach you to find your “weak spots” and become really strong at it.  

For example, if you are not good at details, just work harder at it. 

I believe the opposite to be the best path.  

I think you should find what you are strong at and make it your superpower.  

Develop that strength so you become an expert and hire or partner with others to help you where you are weak.  

So, if you are not good at details, hire someone who is and let them use their superpower to complement yours.

How You Discover Your Strengths

One of my greatest pleasures is helping people identify their strengths and helping them apply those strengths to succeed and fulfill their life’s purpose. 

When you do that with no expectations in return. just to help them succeed, you end up forming extremely strong relationships that are beyond material wealth.  

There are several tools available to help you analyze your strengths such as StengthsFinder.   

My favorite I learned from Rav Noah Weinberg of blessed memory that focuses on the unique strengths of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Full 40 minute class in memory of Lonnie Borck).  Abraham’s strength was Kindness.  Isaac’s was Spirituality.  Jacob’s was Truth Seeking.  

Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler taught that each of us has a combination of these three strengths. But one is our core strength through which we relate to the others.  

We can each excel in each of the traits, only by becoming as strong as possible in our core first. 

For example, I am an Abraham.  I love helping others.  I love new experiences.  

If I want to master a new skill, I commit to teaching it to others by a certain date and boy am I motivated!  

The problem is that sometimesI get so caught up in helping others, I forget about those who are closest to me who need my time too.

An Isaac loves spirituality, the arts, creating and even performing. However, they can sometimes be so focused on the pursuit of their art and become so introspective that they forget about the world around them.

A Jacob is always seeking the truth, loves solving problems and discovering how things work. A Jacob does not get caught up in helping the world, but forget those around them and does not get so connected to their passion that they forget there is a world out there. A Jacob always takes the middle road.

Building Inner Strength for Success

It is very hard to figure out which of these is our central trait on our own, but a close friend can do it easily by asking us about our favorite activities and figuring out what our motivation is behind it. Here are a few of my favorite strength-discovering questions.  

You can also schedule a session with me if you want me to do it with you.

Empowering Personal Strength for Success by Asking Questions

Ask questions and then analyze if the motivation for enjoyment was from an Abraham, Isaac or Jacob perspective.

For example:

What was your favorite vacation?  Why?  

Abraham – Was it the exotic location? The people you were with?

Isaac – Was it a connection to the beautiful nature surrounding you? Did you feel spiritual?

Jacob – Did it challenge your intellect? Did you learn something new?

Other Good Questions

What was your favorite subject in school?

What is your favorite book or movie?

In the next podcast, we will prioritize the  single most important time management skill results you could hone in on in each major area of your life: materially, physically, mentally, spiritually, and personally.

For more guidance and tips on how to live your dream life, go to my website, The Rabbi Who Got Rich On Sunday to access content-rich articles and more.

You can also access a link to that web page through the show notes, if you are listening to this podcast on any of the popular podcast platforms.

Resources : 

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliyahu_Eliezer_Dessler
2. https://www.torahanytime.com/#/lectures?v=38009
3. https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/254033/strengthsfinder.aspx