The Blessing of the Themes of Strength
Each of the 34 Strengths, or Themes of Talent, has its own blessings. To learn more about the blessings of your own strengths, scroll through the page or click on any of the individual buttons to jump directly to that strength. Then, consider how you use your strengths in service of God and others.
(adapted from “The Genius and Beauty of Strengths” by Edward “Chip” Anderson, on the StrengthsQuest website)
The blessing of the Achiever:
Achievers have tremendous motivation, drive and determination. It seems you are in constant motion, not in activity, rather, always striving to achieve your goals. You probably have goals for each day, for the future, and ultimate goals that drive all that you do. You strive toward excellence in all things, in performance, effectiveness and efficiency. How do you use your Achiever strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of the Activator:
Activators begin with the concept of action. You know how to make things happen. You are creative and very innovative. You have a tremendous amount of energy and motivation when it comes to turning an idea into action, programs, or services. How do you use your Activator strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Adaptability:
The blessing of Adaptability is that you are a right here – right now person, one who lives in the present. You can change, and change quickly. You are flexible and are able to meet immediate demands and circumstances that require attention. The blessing of Adaptability comes to light in chaos. In fact, chaos energizes you! You come alive as you make the changes that chaos requires. How do you use the strength of Adaptability in service of God and others?
The blessing of Analytical:
The blessing of your Analytical talent begins with the way your mind works as it automatically formulates penetrating questions. Your questions have a common theme in that they are always “truth seeking.” The particular blessing you bring is that your analytical questions seem to drill down with question after question until the truth is uncovered. Questions of “How do you know…?” “Why?” “What evidence do you have?” are constantly in your mind. These questions only lead to the deeper aspects of your Analytical talent; the real blessing of the Analytical talent involves the quality of your decisions, problem solving and planning capabilities. How do you use the strength of Analytical in service of God and others?
The blessing of the Arranger:
The blessing of your Arranger talent begins with what you can see and perceive. You see patterns and perceive how things go together or could go together; you see groupings and connections. You easily arrange items, facts and information, people, and the many things that must come together for successful events and activities. You are a genius at coordinating people and events, and you “multi-task” like few others. The ultimate blessing in the Arranger talent is seen in what you do after you have completed a project. You go back and arrange and rearrange in your mind what you did. This results in increased effectiveness and efficiency in the future. How do you use your Arranger strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Belief:
The blessing of your Belief talent starts with the fact that you have some very deeply-held beliefs about what is true, what is unchanging, and what can be, and always will be, dependable. These beliefs go very deep. They give you personal power to stand strong no matter what. The genius of your Belief strength is that from your beliefs you generate meaning, purpose and direction for your life and all you do. This leads you to possess a tremendous amount of power, drive and motivation within you. As long as you revolve your life around your deepest values and beliefs, you will make monumental impact in the lives of individuals, groups and organizations around you. How do you use your Belief strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Command:
The blessing of your Command talent begins with the fact that you can and will impact others, and you will do so with great power. You have great courage to boldly enter into a crisis or a dangerous situation. You have even more clarity of thought about what needs to be done when there is an emergency. You find that people appreciate your willingness to step up and confront dangers. Similarly, you are willing to see the way through conflicts and misunderstandings by bringing to light what is often hidden. While some get nervous because you can be so powerful, everyone is grateful when your strength of command addresses difficult situations. How do you use your Command strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Communication:
The blessing of your Communication talent is found in the profound fact that you can find words for your thoughts and feelings. Many people have lots of good ideas, but stumble in finding words to capture and convey their good thoughts. Yet, you can do this with ease. The real blessing of your talent doesn’t stop there, though. You can help other people express their thoughts and feelings as is seen in the way you can often complete people’s sentences or find the word that they cannot find in expressing their feelings. As a result, you can form deep, meaningful and bonded relationships and help others do the same. How do you use your Communication strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Competition:
The blessing of your Competition talent begins with the tremendous energy, drive and determination within you. You want to succeed. You demand success for yourself and you measure that success in terms of where you stand in comparison to others. But the drive to win, succeed and achieve isn’t focused on you alone. This can be a basis for leadership and impacting the lives of others. You can be a model and source of inspiration for others as you stimulate them to strive to be the best they are able to be. How do you use your Competition strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Connectedness:
The blessing of your Connectedness talent provides you with a very unique way of seeing events, people and the world. Your way of seeing events is to recognize that everything that happens is caused by something or someone. Likewise, what is happening right now will have a “ripple” effect into the future. You see people in terms of the accumulative events and interaction that formed them and moved them to this moment. You see the past, present, and future as connected. When you share what you can see with your talent of Connectedness, you help others gain hope as you help them see the past and “connect the dots” of their past in a more meaningful way. In like manner, you help people see possibilities by making choices now that will build a positive future. How do you use your Connectedness strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Consistency:
The blessing of Consistency involves both the way you think and process information and the way you see what is fair and equitable. Whereas others often take a long time to determine what is fair, to you it is obvious. You can quickly figure out a solution to problems in ways that treat everyone in a just and equal manner. This often involves processing a great deal of information, yet you sort through information so quickly that you may not see anything special about what you do – you do it with so much ease. In your relationships, you strive to treat everyone equally and consistently. This helps you win the confidence of others. You are a great, fair and just thinker because of your Consistency talent. How do you use your Consistency strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Context:
The blessing of your Context talent is found in the way you think about the past and use that form of thinking to learn, plan and solve problems. In your mind, the present is best understood by seeking to understand what has led up to the present. Thus, your mind often goes backwards and looks for what has caused what we are experiencing today. This look to the past gives great wisdom for understanding the present and forms a basis for making informed decisions and plans in the present and for the future. How do you use your Context strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Deliberative:
The blessing of your Deliberativee talent is found in the quality of your decisions, choices, values and the directions you decide to pursue. You take multiple things into consideration every time you make a decision or plan, and you look at an issue from multiple sides. You play the “devil’s advocate” as you think through alternatives, values and propositions. You will slow down the process whenever you are learning, planning or deciding. But this does not mean you are “slow minded.” Quite the opposite. This is part of the blessing of your talent and results in very high quality decisions and a depth of understanding. How do you use your Deliberative strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Developer:
The blessing of your Developer talent begins with what you can see in other people. You can see talents, strengths, and potential in others that they often cannot see in themselves. But this is just the beginning. You can also see what people can do to develop; it as if you see “stepping stones” for moving people from where they are to higher levels of development. You mirror back to people their progress and are a great source of encouragement for them. How do you use your Developer strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Discipline:
The blessing of your Discipline talent involves your level of personal productivity and the accuracy with which you produce things. This stems from the way you can structure tasks and your environment. You can take complex tasks with multiple stages and identify the steps needed to complete the tasks. Then, you structure the environment and organize the actions needed to complete the tasks. Finally, you begin organizing, re-organizing and structuring each action step that must be complete in order to produce things accurately. Then, you identify the fastest and most efficient methods while maintaining high quality. How do you use your Discipline strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Empathy:
The blessing of your Empathy talent involves your ability to form high quality, deep, personal understanding and relationships with others. You have an unusual and beautiful ability to feel into what it feels like to be another person, often without the other person needing to say a word. You have profound effects on others because they feel so deeply understood. Many people feel like they become healthier and more at peace being in your presence because your understanding of people goes beyond the words they can find to express themselves. While it may be hard on you to hear the pain of others, they will feel deeply indebted to you because you can understand them at such profound levels. How do you use your Empathy strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Focus:
The blessing of your Focus talent begins with what you can do with your mind. You can focus your attention to an unusual level of concentration. This enables you to amass facts and information, read with clarity of understanding, and solve problems with great precision. While others pride themselves on their ability to multi-task, you know that for you, you are most productive when you concentrate on one thing at a time. Your focusing talent results in prolonged concentration to address and solve complex problems and planning processes. You learn in great depth, and your recall is remarkable. How do you use your Focus strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Futuristic:
The blessing of your Futuristic talent begins with your incredible ability to see the future. Your ability to envision the future provides an unusual and creative way of planning and problem solving. You envision where you are heading and then structure your problem solving so that each solution provides a steeping stone into the future. Likewise, all planning is done in the light of the visions you have about the future. This gives you a powerful basis for leadership. Never forget that your visions of the future will excite the imagination of others and they will be inspired because of what you help them see. Make your visions known to everyone because they give others hope and optimism. How do you use your Futuristic strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Harmony:
The blessing of your Harmony talent stems from what you can see and how you can respond to what you see. You see where people can come together when they are in conflict, and you see how people can resolve their differences. Usually one on one and one at a time, you meet with those in conflict and help each person to clarify their own position and come to see the point of view of the person with whom they are in conflict. In so doing, you help conflicting people move to reconciliation. Often you do all of this behind the scenes, so sometimes your contributions go unrecognized. But know that even if no one knows but you, you make a significant and a very positive difference in all of the groups and relationships that you are a part of. How do you use your Harmony strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Ideation:
The blessing of your Ideation talent begins with your love of ideas and the way you so quickly learn new concepts and principles. You are not passive. It is as if you take ideas and then begin spinning them around in your mind. With each new idea, you spin it around with the many other ideas you already have. The result of this thinking, turning, and spinning around of new ideas with what you already know does two things. First, you generate new connections and insights about ideas and their implications. Second, the spinning of your ideas often results in new ideas. The blessing of Ideation is the creativity of generating new ideas as a result of contemplating and reviewing the ideas you have learned. How do you use your Ideation strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Includer:
The blessing of your Includer talent involves your ability to see outsiders and those who have been marginalized. You can see people who are physically on the outside, but most remarkably, you can discern who feels left out even though they may be physically in the middle of a group. You take action to bring people into the group, and this willingness to bring people in gives you an enormous amount of courage. You can build relationships with literally anyone. But your specialty in relationship building is with the “invisible people” and people whom others ignore. You instinctively know what to say and how to include those whom others ignore and leave out. How do you use your Includer strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Individualization:
The blessing of your Individualization talent is that you see each and every person as a one of a kind, distinct individual. More than that, you see the particular factors, qualities, characteristics, thoughts, and perception that make each person distinct. You see each person as a mosaic of highly individual factors each of which contribute to a person’s distinctiveness. Because of this, people feel special and prized by your attention. The blessing of your Individualization talent is that armed with all of this thinking and question-asking, you attempt to interact with each person based on their individual qualities. This leads to meaningful and very helpful relationships. How do you use your Individualization strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Input:
The blessing of your Input talent is based on your curiosity, which seems to have no limits. Question after question propels you to learn more and more. Sometimes you turn your curiosity to people and want to learn as much as possible about them, but for the most part you are driven to learn in general and in specialized areas of knowledge. The blessing of your Input talent is that you want to share all you learn and you can be a great communicator of this new knowledge. How do you use your Input strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Intellection:
The blessing of your Intellection talents stems from the quality of your thinking. You think about ideas, concepts, and principles in great depth. It is as if you hold discussions in your mind about ideas, observations and new learnings. This results in deep understanding and deep appreciation for the best knowledge. Out of this deep processing, you often come to new insights and understandings. The greatest aspect of your intellection is the wisdom that you gain from your in-depth thinking and internal discussions. You can think by yourself for hours, but never doubt what results: wisdom, clarity, and a firm foundation for action planning and decision making. How do you use your Intellection strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Learner:
The blessing of your Learner talent begins with the fact that you love to learn in many areas, and in fact, you want to learn something each and every day. You have thought a lot about the learning process. You know how you learn and this self-understanding provides a basis for understanding and helping others learn. Through this understanding, you can establish ingenious programs and services to help others become better learners, high achievers, and be better prepared for the future. How do you use your Learner strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Maximizer:
The blessing of your Maximizer talent starts with what you can see in people. You can see the strengths and talents, the potentials and the capabilities, and you can see the emerging abilities within people even before they can see them. You can literally see what people could be like if they were to fully develop and maximize the talents, potential and emerging abilities within them. This results in you having an incredible impact in the lives of others. As you hold up pictures and mirrors of what you see in others, you help them form new concepts of themselves that build hope and motivation to achieve and be what they have the capacity to be. Moreover, you are a great “coach” in moving people to their greatest potential and in moving people into roles where their potential can be lived out. How do you use your Maximizer strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Positivity:
The blessing of your Positivity talent is found in the impact that you can and will have in the lives of other people. You see the best in each person, and want to bring out the best in everyone. People grow because of your influence in their lives. You have great impact on groups and individuals. Simply stated, everyone gets better if you are nearby and interacting with them. How do you use your Positivity strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Relator:
The blessing of your Relator talent is found in the fact that you can form relationships with virtually anyone. You prefer relationships that are real and genuine, and can form relationships with people older, younger, or the same age as yourself. You also form relationships at different levels of closeness or intimacy. You make a difference in people’s lives, and that difference you make can be a driving force in your life. How do you use your Relator strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Responsibility:
The blessing of your Responsibility talent is found in the depth and quality of relationships you are able to form with people. Because you are a person of your word, people trust you. It is this trust that bonds you to others and others to you. Your ability to build trusting relationships helps you to have a highly persuasive and influential impact on people; people will only willingly follow those they trust, and trust is what you have the talent to generate in others. One of the greatest blessings of your Responsibility theme is the level of commitment you are able to generate in others. This stems from the fact that you make such deep commitments to others, their full development and personal fulfillment. How do you use your Responsibility strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Restorative:
The blessing of your Restorative talent is found in the way you can think and fix things. This is key to all problem solving. But your ability to fix goes beyond patching things together. The way you restore things involves bringing them back to life. Accordingly, you can have a restorative effect on relationships, and in fact, entire organizations. The blessing of your Restorative talent is that you are so good at figuring out what is not working, resolving that and then guiding people to a way of being healthy and highly functional. How do you use your Restorative strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Self-Assurance:
The blessing of your Self-Assurance talent begins with your confidence. You have a quality that is often called resilience. This means that you can “bounce back.” Accordingly, you have an attitude that no matter what happens to you, you will in fact, “bounce back” and quite probably reach higher heights even if you momentarily fail. The blessing is that you not only have confidence but an inner compass for deciding what you need to do and how you need to do it. How do you use your Self-Assurance strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Significance:
The blessing of your Significance talent begins and ends with the difference you are determined to make. You cannot stand the thought of living and dying and there being no difference, and you want that difference to be significant. There is great energy, power, determination, and motivation within you to make a significant and lasting difference in the world. While others may consider you egotistical this is not your motive. You want to make a significant difference because there is a lot wrong in the world and you are trying to make the world better. At the same time, you want to be recognized for the difference you make. But the difference you make is the driving force. How do you use your Significance strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of Strategic:
The blessing of your Strategic talent involves the way you think and generate alternatives. When faced with a problem or dilemma you can quickly generate multiple alternatives to circumvent obstacles that prevent your progress. Sometimes you think in a backwards manner by first visualizing the outcome you want to produce and then generating multiple alternative paths to get to that objective. The blessing of your Strategic talent is that you can quickly sort through the various alternative paths and determine the one that will work best and most efficiently. How do you use your Strategic strength in service of God and others?
The blessing of WOO:
The blessing of your WOO talent involves the impact you can have on other people and the ease with which you can win them over. You have an incredible ability to meet new people and almost magically know what to say in order to draw others out. Other people love the way that you can affirm a person so quickly. People love it when you connect with them. You can also be a catalyst in helping people connect with one another. You have the capacity to transform a crowd of disconnected people into a group and this is no small accomplishment. How do you use your WOO strength in service of God and others?