The Savvy Entrepreneur

You know when you’re on to something… you’re not quite sure what, but you know you’re on the cusp of figuring it out? Well, it’s 3:30am and I’ve been up what feels like all night. I’m on to something… but I haven’t quite put my finger on it. Other than the annoyance of impending exhaustion (I’m not the least bit tired as it is, but I know it’s gonna hit me later), I’m excited about something… but I’m not sure what about…

Am I crazy?

Maybe it has something to do with reading Step 2 (Get Clear “Do You Know What Your Strengths Are?”) of Marcus Buckingham’s Go Put Your Strengths to Work book. Clarity. Doesn’t that sound exciting?

According to Buckingham:

“Your strengths are defined by your actual activities. They are things you do, and more specifically, things you do consistently and near perfection.”

“Your strengths are those activities that make you feel strong. (The flip side is also true: “An activity that makes you feel weak” is a definition of a weakness.)“

The four SIGNs of what a strength feels like to you are:

1. Success: When you do it, you feel effective.
2. Instinct: Before you do it, you actively look forward to it.
3. Growth: While you are doing it, you feel inquisitive and focused.
4. Needs: After you’ve done it, you feel fulfilled and authentic.

So how exactly does one figure out their strengths? That’s where I’m at in the process. The goal in Step 2 is to examine your actual activities throughout the week to identify your strengths. The end result will be writing 3 Strength Statements that clearly and specifically describe your strengths.

During the next week, I will go through the twofold Capture phase:

1. Whenever I find myself doing something that makes me feel good (Buckingham lists specific emotions to look for, like Powerful, On fire and Authentic), mark the activity on a green “I Loved It” page.
2. Whenever I find myself doing something that makes me feel bad (a few words to pay attention to are Drained, “How much longer?!”, and Bored), mark the activity on a red “I Loathed It” page.

(Because I have the ebook version of Go Put Your Strengths to Work, I don’t have the 20 green “I Loved It” and 20 red “I Loathed It” pages normally found at the back of the hardcover copy, so I carry a notebook around with me with those headings).

Enter insomnia.

Because I’ve started the Capture phase, it’s stirring things up inside me, and I’m mentally going through my day, making sure I didn’t miss anything. As with many people, finding the exact, perfect word is very important, but it’s not something that comes easily to me. So, I just write down the activity I’m doing, knowing it’s not quite right, hoping it’ll come to me later.

As I laid my head on my pillow at 9:45pm, I started mentally going through my “I Loved It” and “I Loathed It” lists, recalling activities I forgot to jot down. “I’ll do it tomorrow” is my typical reaction, but until “tomorrow” it screams for attention inside my head until it’s safely and indelibly spat out on paper.

A word finally hit me — mining (it may not mean much to you, but it packs a punch for me) — so I just had to get up and write it down… I know I would have forgotten it by morning (sunrise, that is). Now my head is running through a compendium of words, hoping for another breakthrough… but you know how that goes — It wouldn’t be special if it happened all the time!