In this week’s episode of The Whole Circle Podcast we talk to Mish Pope about how to find your strength.

Who is Mish Pope?

Mish is a Life Coach, Speaker and Business Owner and she is passionate about empowering women from all walks of life to not only live their best life, but to be their true authentic selves, have self-compassion, a cracking mindset and radiate joy in the process.

What is the Clifton StrengthsFinder test by Gallup?

Gallup defines the test as:

‘The Clifton StrengthsFinder® is the culmination of more than 50 years of Dr. Donald O. Clifton’s lifelong work, which has led to more than 10 million people worldwide discovering their strengths. In 2002, Dr. Clifton was honoured by an American Psychological Association Presidential Commendation as the Father of Strengths-Based Psychology.

The Clifton StrengthsFinder is a powerful online assessment that helps individuals identify, understand and maximize their strengths.

All people have a unique combination of talents, knowledge and skills — strengths — that they use in their daily lives to do their work, achieve their goals and interact with others. Gallup has found that when people understand and apply their strengths, the effect on their lives and work is transformational. People who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged in their work and three times more likely to say they have an excellent quality of life.

Yet, many people don’t know what their strengths are or have the opportunity to use them to their advantage. In fact, many people tend to focus on fixing their weaknesses. By exploring the ways in which you naturally think, feel and behave, Clifton StrengthsFinder can identify and build on the areas where you have infinite potential to grow and succeed.’

Jo has done the test and the thing she loves about it is that you can’t take a lot of time to answer the questions, as you only get 20 seconds to answer each question.  It means that you can’t overthink it and you have to answer pretty instinctually.

Is the strength finder test good for everyone to do?

Yes!  It is not just for entrepreneurs, everyone can benefit from doing this test.  It’s really great for couples to do as well because you can get a real insight into the way each other thinks.

It has been so beneficial to Mish’s marriage because now she and her husband know exactly how the other ticks so they can make allowances and have compassion when in the past their differences could cause frustration.

Can children do the test?

Yes, absolutely they can.  Gallup has a modified version of the test for kids.  There is a Clifton Youth StrengthsExplorer test for 10-14-year-olds.  Children who are 15 years and over need to complete the regular test version, being the Clifton StrengthFinder.

Research shows that if you are 25 and above the results of your test won’t change significantly unless you have experienced a major life change, therefore you should really only need to do it once as it should stay pretty consistent.

You usually find that the things that frustrate you about your children or partner/spouse are a strength that you simply don’t have.

How you do put the results into practice in your everyday life?

From Jo’s test, her top strengths were activator and command and you could see ‘command’ as being quite bossy and domineering, which she is (lol).  So, for example, in the mornings when she needs to get herself, her kids and Shane organised and out of the house for school/work etc., ‘command’ is a strength and a positive.  However, on the flip side ‘command’ can also be a negative in her life depending on how she deals with it.  But because she knows this is part of her personality it allows her to take a step back and assess the situation and then proceed appropriately because it’s not always appropriate to be commanding and domineering.  This is what the test gives her, a greater understanding of herself.

It gives you the insight to understand yourself and others around you and to truly know what you need in life so that you can be the person you exactly are.  Not what you think you should be.  Because a lot in life we tend to be the person we think we should be, not the person we actually are, which means we aren’t always living authentically.

Of course, at times in life, we all have to do things that are outside our level of comfortability.  For example, Jo and Tracey are writing their first-ever book at the moment and Tracey is great at writing and just gets it done.  Whereas because this is not Jo’s thing, she finds herself easily distracted when she has to write or edit the book.  But the beauty of it is that Jo knows this is one of her weaknesses so it helps to reduce the level of frustration she has at herself about it.

Whereas one of Mish’s top strength is being a relator which means that she can completely do social situations or being around people for a certain period of time, but then in order to self-regulate she then needs periods of total silence.  To put this into an example, in her marriage if Mish is having a day of doing all the things her husband wants to do ie, shopping or a social activity etc. then the next day let’s say from 8am-12pm she will be totally unavailable.  If she doesn’t have that space to decompress then it impacts everyone’s lives in her family.  The test has given her the tools to know exactly what she needs to function well in life.

How do you do the Clifton StrengthsFinder test?

Head on over to Gallup where you will have the option to do the Top 5 Clifton Strengths test which is $USD19.99 or, and what Mish recommends, the complete 34 Clifton Strengths test because it is a comprehensive profile of you which is $USD49.99.

Once you have done the test you can then read the profile yourself and then access support through Gallup’s YouTube channel or you can have it broken down in-depth and related back to you with a coach, such as Mish.  Mish can go through your report with you and completely relate it back to your life whether in a professional or personal sense and give you a way to completely understand the report findings.

Jo loved getting coached through this by Mish as she didn’t have the time or patience to research how her test results impacted her life.  It was so much easier for her to engage Mish to break it all down and go through it with her.

If you want to get coached through it by Mish then head >>> here.  We highly recommend her; she has been a wonderful asset to Jo’s life.

Even if you don’t to the test …

It’s a great idea to sit down and think about you as a person.

For example, why do people come to Jo? Because she is really good at getting stuff done and good at casting a vision and she’s unapologetic about what she wants to do.  If you break that down, then you can be:

✅ good at taking charge
✅ good at dreaming
✅ good at organising events
❌ not good at following through
❌ not good with the details

So, have a think about what do people come to you for?  What do you enjoy doing? It’s a really good starting point because it invites you to think about where you play in your zone of genius.  Knowing this, then you can think about how you could incorporate that into your business or life and either outsource anything you’re not good at, if you can afford it, or spend 80% of the time doing the things you love and only 20% of the time doing the things you don’t enjoy.

Where can you find Mish?

Website:         https://mishpope.com/
Facebook:      https://www.facebook.com/mishpopecoach/
Instagram:     https://www.instagram.com/mishpope/
Pinterest:       https://www.pinterest.com.au/mishmariep/

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