Strengths Found

Strengths Finder 2.0

My strengths are officially assessed and apparently I’m a smart cookie who is relatively flexible and fosters harmony amongst my peers. I’m awesome.

Below are my top five themes of talent, ranked in the order revealed by my responses to the Clifton StrengthsFinder.

As you may know, the Clifton StrengthsFinder measures the 34 themes of talent determined by The Gallup Organization as those that most consistently predict outstanding performance. The greater the presence of a theme of talent within a person, the more likely that person is to spontaneously exhibit those talents in day-to-day behaviors.

Focusing on natural talents helps people build them into strengths and enjoy personal, academic, and career success through consistent, near-perfect performance.

How well do you think these themes describe me?

Input

You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information—words, facts, books, and quotations—or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives. If you like to travel, it is because each new location offers novel artifacts and facts. These can be acquired and then stored away. Why are they worth storing? At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? With all those possible uses in mind, you really don’t feel comfortable throwing anything away. So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It’s interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable.

Intellection

You like to think. You like mental activity. You like exercising the “muscles” of your brain, stretching them in multiple directions. This need for mental activity may be focused; for example, you may be trying to solve a problem or develop an idea or understand another person’s feelings. The exact focus will depend on your other strengths. On the other hand, this mental activity may very well lack focus. The theme of Intellection does not dictate what you are thinking about; it simply describes that you like to think. You are the kind of person who enjoys your time alone because it is your time for musing and reflection. You are introspective. In a sense you are your own best companion, as you pose yourself questions and try out answers on yourself to see how they sound. This introspection may lead you to a slight sense of discontent as you compare what you are actually doing with all the thoughts and ideas that your mind conceives. Or this introspection may tend toward more pragmatic matters such as the events of the day or a conversation that you plan to have later. Wherever it leads you, this mental hum is one of the constants of your life.

Harmony

You look for areas of agreement. In your view there is little to be gained from conflict and friction, so you seek to hold them to a minimum. When you know that the people around you hold differing views, you try to find the common ground. You try to steer them away from confrontation and toward harmony. In fact, harmony is one of your guiding values. You can’t quite believe how much time is wasted by people trying to impose their views on others. Wouldn’t we all be more productive if we kept our opinions in check and instead looked for consensus and support? You believe we would, and you live by that belief. When others are sounding off about their goals, their claims, and their fervently held opinions, you hold your peace. When others strike out in a direction, you will willingly, in the service of harmony, modify your own objectives to merge with theirs (as long as their basic values do not clash with yours). When others start to argue about their pet theory or concept, you steer clear of the debate, preferring to talk about practical, down-to-earth matters on which you can all agree. In your view we are all in the same boat, and we need this boat to get where we are going. It is a good boat. There is no need to rock it just to show that you can.

Learner

You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered—this is the process that entices you. Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences—yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential. The outcome of the learning is less significant than the “getting there.”

Adaptability

You live in the moment. You don’t see the future as a fixed destination. Instead, you see it as a place that you create out of the choices that you make right now. And so you discover your future one choice at a time. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have plans. You probably do. But this theme of Adaptability does enable you to respond willingly to the demands of the moment even if they pull you away from your plans. Unlike some, you don’t resent sudden requests or unforeseen detours. You expect them. They are inevitable. Indeed, on some level you actually look forward to them. You are, at heart, a very flexible person who can stay productive when the demands of work are pulling you in many different directions at once.

To learn more about your strengths and to discover your Top 5, visit http://sf2.strengthsfinder.com.

Closing night

The rep has closed!
And by all accounts, it was a tremendously successful run for both shows.
140 performances with over 15,000 people in attendance.

And I can hardly believe that ‘Ice Maidens’ opens in a week and ‘Christmas Carol’ goes into rehearsal two days after that. It seems like play-making never ceases. And I am completely fine with that aside from the fact that I my ability to correspond with the outside world (family, friends, etc.) is severely handicapped due to this nurtured sense of busyness. I just hope they read my blog!

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Changing the subject entirely I bought a very handsome butternut squash and a rather seductive bunch of beets at the last farmer’s market of the season. I brought them home in my oh-so practical and oh-so charming basket. Every time I use that basket I get a complimented on it. Just so you know, in addition to being keenly convenient, baskets are apparently excellent conversation starters.

Look Ma, straight hair!

I look exactly like my mother and all of my sisters rolled into one.

The stylist who straightened my hair with a hot flat iron said that the texture of my hair was unlike any she had encountered before: like baby and bunny hair.

Maybe I’m a baby bunny?

Goodnight Moon. 

Goodnight Moon is a children’s book written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd. It was first published in 1947, and is a highly acclaimed example of a bedtime story. The content depicts the process of a little baby bunny saying goodnight to everything around: “Goodnight room. Goodnight moon. Goodnight cow jumping over the moon. Goodnight light, and the red balloon…”

Job security

As the wandering woman that I am, I am all too familiar with highs and lows of job insecurity. Sometimes its quite exciting to be let loose upon the world…freewheeling and dealing your way through each year. But most of the time its the bane of every actor’s existence….pinning down your next job, and the one after that, and the one after that, months and months in advance. And its always a very palpable and sudden shift from enjoying one job, keeping your energies and attention on your present responsibilities, relaxing into the position so to speak, and then…BAM! suddenly your woefully aware that deadlines are pressing and audition dates are approaching. Its only October but my mind is in March. 

Except it isn’t. 

This year job security is altogether and entirely appealing…especially in these recessive economic times. Working for a company that I have fallen in love with, and who, in turn, has reciprocated my affections with an offer of a resident artist/administrator for the entire 2009 year…..its awfully enticing. Particularly because I believe that what is happening here, in this little corner of the world, is pretty god damn spectacular…..and I’m a part of it. And will be, for another year to come. 

!

(And I haven’t even made it through a winter yet!)

Punking out

The transformation has begun! With just a few weeks to go before opening night, my scaldingly punky character is starting to emerge. 

Oddly enough, straightening my hair is really the part of the look that makes me feel like an entirely different person. 

I think the portrait of Queen Elizabeth I in the background is a bit anachronistic. 

 

Habit

I twirl my curls.
I have done so for years.
And when I do it I’m sure I look quite vapid, but I honestly can’t help myself.

I reach my arm up to the crown of my head, select a perfect ringlet, and lift it repeatedly, letting the curl spiral through my hand and back into place. 

I decipher out the tightest little ringlet at the nape of my neck, and boing! bounce! pull it like a spring.

I do this when I’m concentrating. I do this when I’m not concentrating. When I drive. When I read. When I’m nervous. When I’m calm. When I look at restaurant menus.

I do it in meetings. In the bank. In the grocery store. In bed.

Basically, I do it  whenever I worry….and I worry a lot. 

I’ve tried to quit this tactile habit.
But to no avail.
Sometimes friends and family call me out on it.  

They swat at my hand. Or gently clasp my restless fingers in their palms. 

And it always surprises me.
I feel utterly exposed and frustrated because most of the time,
I twirl my curls completely subconsciously.

It feels so nice! Its my favorite habit! 
Its like my fingers are talking to my curls and curls are talking to my fingers.
My fingers darn and weave. My ringlets arch and flirt.
They dance a little jaunty jig together.

Admiring the canvas

In the palatial spring,

I set this crystalline skyline upon my sill,

the glass refracted the earnest green upon the hill. 

  Now, in the flinty days of fall,

my daily veiw

has taken on a humble auburn hue. 

 

Day. End of Week.

8am wake up with a stiff neck, take a shower longer than time allows, brew the coffee pre-prepared the night before, boil the oatmeal, watch the news, scuttle down the hill to rehearsal, rehearse, research the McKnight foundation, rehearse, meeting regarding the McKnight foundation during lunch break, eat apple, run from bumble-bee, rehearse, rehearse, restore the room, changeover the set, boil cauliflower, eat cauliflower, put on make up, do hair, drink coffee, perform Nurse Kelly, say a line dyslexically?!, enter early after intermission, talk-back for the elderhostel group, go home, drink a side-car, watch documentary called ‘Friends of God’ as research for new play, 1am retire to bedroom…..revisit day. sleeeeep?

Rehearsal

Rehearsals are underway for the new play. 

 

A family to construct to deconstruct to reconstruct. 

A whiskey addled young woman, weary with guilt. 

A sister drowned. A sister grown. 

A song to sing.

Faith to find.

I. am. audience.

Theatre touches me.

We story tellers can forget  how much influence we truly wield.  We get used to telling the same story night after night and we don’t realize that we may be changing people’s lives while we go about ‘our business’. 

I cried my eyes out at the one-woman show I saw tonight. It spoke to me in ways she probably didn’t envision.