Go with your strengths?

We often hear people say, “go with your strengths” but usually it’s said in jest. Most common approaches to self-improvement focus on personal weaknesses, finding out where you have shortcomings, so you can improve those and do well in all areas. Marcus Buckingham has a different idea. He proposes that it is our strengths that hold the key to living our most satisfying and successful lives. His new book, Find Your Strongest Life, makes the case for figuring out what you really do well, then altering your career and personal path to capitalize on those strengths. Only by intentionally imbalancing your life to do more of what you excel at can you achieve the happiness you deserve, he says. He speaks directly to women, because, as he quotes from compelling survey data, we are not as happy as we could be, and we are certainly not as happy as we were 40 years ago. To help sort out our strengths, he offers a free online quiz that defines a lead and supporting role. The book goes into some detail about the roles, so you can figure out what to do with the answers you get. This book is a quick read and a fresh take on self-help that I found convincing and useful. However, it falls down badly in the final section, Strong Life Tactics. Rather than a compelling action plan, he gives us a hodge-podge of questions and answers that seem far less organized and persuasive than the rest of the book. But take the quiz and read about your roles – you may be surprised.