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Focus: "Where am I headed?" you ask yourself. You ask this
question every day. Guided by this theme of Focus, you need a clear
destination. Lacking one, your life and your work can quickly
become frustrating. And so each year, each month, and even each week
you set goals. These goals serve as your compass, helping you
determine your priorities and make the necessary corrections to
get back on course. Your Focus is powerful because it forces you
to filter; you instinctively evaluate whether or not a particular
action will help you move toward your goal. Those that don't are
ignored. In the end, then, your Focus forces you to be efficient.
Naturally, the flip side of this is that is that it causes you
to become impatient with delays, obstacles, and even tangents,
no matter how intriguing they appear to be. This makes you an
extremely valuable team member. When others start to wander down
other avenues, you bring them back to the main road. Your Focus
reminds everyone that if something is not helping you move toward
your destination, then it is not important. And if it is not important,
then it is not worth your time. You keep everyone on point.
- Learner: You love to learn. The subject matter that interests
you most will be determined by your themes and experiences, but
whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of
learning. The process more than 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 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 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".
- Achiever: Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive.
Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if
every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve
something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by
"every day" you mean every single day - workdays, weekends, vacations.
No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the
day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you
feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning inside you. It
pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is
reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it rekindles
itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment. Your relentless
need for achievement might not be logical. It might not even be
focused. But it will always be with you. As an Achiever you must learn
to live with this whisper of discontent. It does have its benefits.
It brings you the energy you need to work long hours without burning
out. It is the jolt you can always count on to get you started on
new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply that causes you to set
the pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group. It
is the theme that keeps you moving.
- Competition: Competition is rooted in comparison. When
you look at the world, you are instinctively aware of other people's
performance. Their performance is the ultimate yardstick. No matter
how hard you tried, no matter how worthy your intentions, if you
reached your goal but did not outperform your peers, the achievement
feels hollow. Like all competitors, you need other people. You need
to compare. If you can compare, you can compete, and if you can
compete, you can win. And when you win, there is no feeling quite like
it. You like measurement because it facilitates comparisons. You like
competitors because they invigorate you. You like contests because
they must produce a winner. You particularly like contests where you
know you have an inside track to be a winner. Although you are
gracious to your fellow competitors and even stoic in defeat, you
don't compete for the fun of competing. You compete to win. Over time,
you will come to avoid contests where winning seems unlikely.
- Strategic: The Strategic theme enables you to sort through
the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be
taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on
the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where
others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out
alternative scenarios, always asking, "What if this happened? Okay,
well what if this happened?" This recurring question helps you see
around the next corner. There you can evaluate accurately the potential
obstacles. Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to
make selections. You discard the paths that lead to nowhere. You discard
the paths that lead straight to resistance. You discard the paths that
lead into a fog of confusion. You cull and make selections until you
arrive at the chosen path - your strategy. Armed with your strategy, you
strike forward. This is your strategic theme at work: "What if?" Select.
Strike.
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