‘Subject’
Strength Finder Exercise
In life, it is vital to identify and appreciate our personality traits, in particular our skill sets and strengths. Exploring our own strengths and weakness will better equip us to face challenges and come out of them unscathed. The other advantage of evaluating ourselves is that we can find out what our weaknesses are, and try to rectify them. The strengths finder exercise undertook by me listed out the following qualities as my strengths – Positivity, Relator, Responsibility, Adaptability, and Includer. Among these traits, I find the following four traits to be more close to my personality and define me better - Positivity, Relator, Adaptability, and Includer.
Positivity
The first feature that thoroughly defines me is positivity. There was an incident when we had an acute power crisis in our home town, and everyone around me was either in panic or complaining vociferously. They were criticizing about the boredom and discomfort caused by the long hours of power cuts, and, in general, venting out their anger by criticizing the government.
I used the opportunity to take out my siblings, friends and neighbors to organize friendly soccer matches, and we had a fun time, competing and sharing jokes with each other. The gloominess and the discomfort caused by the power crisis were forgotten, and we had fun and physical exercise. This is just one such occasion where I was able to see the positive side of things, even when they looked bleak and discouraging.
I am, thankfully, gifted with the ability to see the goodness and beauty in every situation, and more importantly spread the positivity among the people around me. I am the life of the party, and the person friends turn to, when they need a little sunshine. There are hardly days when I was forlorn or dejected for a lengthy period. Even when things do not go the way I planned, I am blessed with the ability to recover from it quickly, and, what more, able to help in others’ recovery too.
Adaptability
I have travelled far from home to pursue my academic goals. I spent four years in Austria, and now couple of years in the US. I left the Middle East, to Europe and crossed the Atlantic to reach New Jersey. Without the skill of adaptability, I hardly could have survived six months outside my country, now I have been living abroad for six years. The challenge is not just learning new language, which in itself is a huge task, but also acclimatizing myself to new cultures and lifestyles.
When I first landed in Austria, my biggest challenge was not to earn new friends or live outside home, but to learn to like the food. The other things were important too, but the first few days in Austria was spent by me to find out those food items from the menu, that were closer to those I have in my home. Later, I got a little more adventurous and then reaped the rewards. I started liking the food, and as days passed by, I felt more at home in that foreign place.
Liking the food became my way of breaking the barriers that were holding me back, and it started a process of adaptation in me, which helped me in making friends and learning the culture. I learnt to adapt myself to my surroundings by learning about them and appreciating them. This helped me in forging relationships and progress in my academic pursuits, without the shackles of foreignness holding me back.
So, when I landed in the US, I was more prepared to assimilate with a society, which was drastically different from where I grew up, and learned to like it. Today, I am not just able to communicate with ease with others, but also easily mingle with people from varied national and religious backgrounds. I am able to change my plans according to the situations, without being rigid, even when things go wrong, thanks to my adaptable nature.
Includer
Having known, what it is to be an outsider and how hard it can be when you are seen as a person who does not fit in the group, I strive hard to save others from that feeling. I am very inclusive and accepting of others, no matter what ethnicity or religion they belong to. I have a way of making people feel at ease with me, and even persons who are normally considered introverts can relate with me.
Being the eldest of five sons, mentoring comes easily to me, and so does seeing the best side of people. My ability to work in a team has been recognized by others, and it has presented me with lot of opportunities to me in life. For instance, I was made the big events photographer of my high school in the US. Even though it was my first year in the US, the cultural barriers did not stop me in working and collaborating with my fellow students. This ability earned me the opportunity of showcasing my talents in photography.
Two-edged tool
Though the above-given strengths have taken me to places and earned me friends, sometimes they work as my weaknesses too. For example, my adaptability and ‘going with the flow’ nature has sometimes made people think that I have a chameleon type of personality. This is not true as while I am capable of altering my course to suit the situation, I never compromise my principles or integrity. I take care not to mimic others’ actions or beliefs, without evaluating them first.
There are instances where I too have felt that by adapting too much to my present situation, down the line, I have a danger of losing my uniqueness. The constant changes could lead me to transform into a person I do not like to be. On my defense, I have always respected my roots and am proud of them. My adaptable nature is a result of my thirst for knowledge and the belief that all things must be explored. I take care that my basic personality does not undergo drastic changes as I learn new cultures and find new acquaintances.
Overcoming my weaknesses
Conclusion
As I have chosen a career in business administration, I have to meet and work with culturally diverse groups, and my strengths of adaptability and inclusive nature will help me in this. The strengths finder exercise helped me to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses, and take actions so that I could improve my skills and upgrade or eliminate my weak points. Knowing my natural talents have taken me one step closer to finalizing my career choices. While some talents are natural, others can be improved by working on them. I hope I would be able to acquire new skills sets and improve on the current ones throughout my life.
