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Always Play To Your Strengths!

Greetings from beautiful Lake Tahoe. The snow-covered trees look like a fairy tale. Well, my first day skiing was a disaster. I SUCK at skiing. I spent the whole day falling on the beginner run. By the end of the day I knew that if I wanted to enjoy the rest of my days on the slopes I had to switch back to what I was reasonably good at – snowboarding. I went to the rental store and traded in my skiis for a board.

Day 2 was epic! After a couple runs on the beginner slope to refresh my memory, I was off to the intermediate runs. It was a good reminder that you don’t have to be good at everything. You will be more successful and have more fun in life if you play to your strengths.

Sometimes this is counter-cultural. We are trained to focus on our weaknesses. The focus of every appraisal and all professional development seems to be on what we need to improve. But that is not the only way and maybe not even the best way to approach your job or even your life. There is another school of though that says that your strengths (or gifts) are the most valuable assets that you bring to your work and your life and it is usually what gives you the greatest fulfilment. So in every situation look to see how you can best utilize your strengths and where you see a hole that you can’t fill, team up with someone with a strength in that area.

There is an online assessment tool that helps you to find your top strengths; www.gallupstrengthscenter.com. The results are not always what you expect. For instance, my top strength is Connectedness…. I never thought of connectedness as a strength. Then I read the description:

Things happen for a reason. You are sure of it. You are sure of it because in your soul you know that we are all connected. Yes, we are individuals, responsible for our own judgments and in possession of our own free will, but nonetheless we are part of something larger. Some may call it the collective unconscious. Others may label it spirit or life force. But whatever your word of choice, you gain confidence from knowing that we are not isolated from one another or from the earth and the life on it. This feeling of Connectedness implies certain responsibilities. If we are all part of a larger picture, then we must not harm others because we will be harming ourselves. We must not exploit because we will be exploiting ourselves. Your awareness of these responsibilities creates your value system. You are considerate, caring, and accepting. Certain of the unity of humankind, you are a bridge builder for people of different cultures. Sensitive to the invisible hand, you can give others comfort that there is a purpose beyond our humdrum lives. The exact articles of your faith will depend on your upbringing and your culture, but your faith is strong. It sustains you and your close friends in the face of life’s mysteries.

Life becomes a lot more joyful when we know our strengths and play to them! See you soon, I’m heading back up the mountain!

Joyfully,

Copyright 2018, Matik Nicholls

What Is Life?

I live in an area that’s surrounded by forest and yesterday after I went for a short jog I took a detour into the bush. Venturing into nature is one of my favourite pastimes. For me it is deeply restorative. Yesterday, I felt more alive as the sights, sounds and smells of the forest invaded my senses.

I have always found that nature is so full of life. I was hearing several birds calling, crickets chirping and the river bubbling over the rocks. I felt, heard and saw the breeze blowing through the trees and rustling the leaves and causing branches to sway. As I stood beneath the trees pondering that thought, a question rose like bubbles to the surface of my mind, “What is Life?”.

Science says that what distinguishes living creatures from inorganic matter is:

  • Metabolism
  • Growth
  • Adapting to the environment
  • Responding to stimuli
  • Reproduction

While this is meant in a very physical sense, I began to look at it much more holistically. What does it mean for a human being to truly live.

Metabolism

We take in food and oxygen and produce waste and carbon dioxide. Other organisms depend on our waste for food and we depend on others for our food. It’s a wonderful symbiosis. But we are not only physical beings. How do we nourish our minds, our hearts, our spirit? And what do we give off to others? To live, is to be engaged in a symbiotic relationship with all of life where we give and receive in an endless rhythmic cycle. Life is an artful relationship with our world where we are both giver and receiver. If we only inhabit the role of the giver, we are already dead. If we are here only to receive, we are already dead.

Growth

We are constantly changing from the day we are born until the day we die. The inevitability of death is in fact another evidence that we are alive. Life is our continual addition to what we already know and believe. Every new experience should add to us and alter the whole. At the end of our life we should be like an old tree where every ring of its trunk tells a story. Evidences of storms and droughts and sunny days and times of plentiful rain are all written in its flesh. Our minds and hearts should be no different; constantly expanding with the providence supplied by each day of life. Life is leaving wiser and fuller than when you arrived. If we decide that we know it all already, we are already dead.

Adaptation

Our mindset has to adapt. We can’t stay stuck in the same songs from yesteryear and refuse to embrace the technology of today. We have to remain relevant. We have to learn new ways of thinking. New ways of being. New ways of expressing the variety of life. Life is about survival. If we do not change with the world we are already dead.

Responding

Inanimate objects do not respond to stimuli. Love.. no response. Hate.. no response. Our ability to relate to each other is perhaps one of the most intangible expressions of the joy of life. Everything is connected. There are trillions of interactions (stimuli and response) taking place on planet earth every second. Life is relationship. Cut off our minds and hearts from the rest of humanity and we are already dead.

Reproduction

We are hard-wired for sex. The primal urge to reproduce is powerful. Not only physically,  there is also a deep human need to leave a piece of ourselves behind or to live on in some meaningful way. We somehow know that we are meant to have impact beyond the length of our days. We want to leave a mark on the world. To live is to leave a legacy that outlives your body. If we are not fulfilling the purpose for which we were born, we are already dead.

Choose to live!

Joyfully,

Copyright 2018, Matik Nicholls

Building International Partnerships

Hi there,

If you are interested in learning more about Building International Partnerships then please register for this executive development workshop! We will be covering all types of partnerships from customer partnerships to joint ventures.

I will be facilitating a rich and interactive experience that takes you from strategy creation through to implementation!

If you could share with your networks as well that would be greatly appreciated!

Joyfully,