Explore & Engage: Use Your Current Strengths to Your Happiness Advantage

These first two columns of your list give you a starting guide for exploring ways to maximize the career you have today or start your career journey by leveraging your current strengths and focusing on what energizes you. As you know, I am a big fan of the idea that it is always best to leverage your strengths and follow your passions. We all have a tendency to want to focus first on what others want from us (what’s available on the job market, what our bosses expect of us, etc.) or to focus on developing what we are missing or need to “fix.” And, yes, we will talk about how to identify what others need/what you can get paid for and how to build a development plan. But, before we do, I encourage you to take the time to pause here. This is a wonderful place to review and deeply reflect on your strengths and interest without concern for anyone or anything else. The below actions and questions can help you do so.

Complete the actions in this step before moving on to the next section in the book.

All items marked as a strength and either an interest or a passion are opportunities for you to make the most of your people analytics career today and to have a great time in the process.

1. 1. Acknowledge how awesome you are. Look at each strength you identified. Think about all the ways you can use these strengths to help others and yourself. Acknowledge all the time and energy you have put into building these strengths over your life. Now, if you ever get asked a question like, ‘what are your strengths?” you’ll never be stumped for an answer again! You are awesome.
   2. Do a little people analytics on yourself. What patterns do you notice in the data of your strengths and interests? Are there any unique combinations or similarities among your strengths, interests, or passions? Put those analysis and critical thinking skills to use; what do you see? Take notes on what you discover.
   3. Get excited. Look at all the cool things you listed. What are you most excited to learn about? Studies show that positive anticipation can bring us as much or more pleasure than the actual event itself. Plan a cool project or activity that you can do to let you use your strengths. Start imagining some exciting and fun projects in your interest and passion areas. Imagine how engaged and fulfilling it will be as you develop and grow in the skills you identified in the list.
   4. Go play: While anticipation can be great, don’t just plan, do! Take action. Have you been learning about the things you are interested in? If not, go find videos, articles, books, webinars or conferences on those topics. Who or where could you go to to find more experiences and opportunities to do the kinds of things you are passionate about? Ask if there’s a place to you can start participating today. Where could you find others who are excited about the same topics as you? Connect with others about your passions. What learning activity could you undertake today to start developing a skill you are passionate about?