As I shared before, self-awareness is critical for success in life, work, and relationships, and there are plenty of great tools out there. If you commit to learn from just one tool, you will be farther along today than you were yesterday, and tomorrow you will be farther along than you were today. So, what tools do I use when I work with people?

The two tools I like best are CliftonStrengths® and the Enneagram—and I’m certified to use both. Rather than use them separately,...

Sometimes you find remarkable insight in places you didn’t expect. With a teenager in the family and two on deck, I’m reading a book called, Screens and Teens by Dr. Kathy Koch. As you can guess, the book is about technology and teenagers. It's full of great ideas, but I didn’t expect it to be so relevant to adult life and work.

In the book, Dr. Koch identifies five core needs—along with five core questions—of every human being. She shares them to say that many...

Are the top areas of talent for women different than for men? How are the strengths of Millennials unique from other generations? How is Japan different than every other country? These are the fascinating questions answered by Gallup, which recently released the all-time results of its CliftonStrengths® talent assessment.

The report, which reveals the results of more than 21 Million assessments worldwide, provides an interesting look into the top most frequently occurring strengths by...

My friend recently took his family to Disney World®. Knowing his strengths, I got to thinking about how he "does" Disney, and how might someone else with different strengths do Disney differently? In this post, we consider how the 34 strengths might behave in the Magic Kingdom®.

By "34 strengths," we’re referring to the 34 CliftonStrengths® developed by behavioral psychologist Donald Clifton (Happy Birthday). Knowing your top strengths has great value for life and work, even...

I got to thinking how my strengths might affect the way I want to celebrate, and how folks with other strengths may celebrate theirs. We've already considered how the strengths may do Disney World® and choose a baby name. In this post, we wonder what they might do on their special day.

By "34 strengths," we're referring to the 34 CliftonStrengths® of talent. Being aware of your talents, growing them into strengths, and aiming them toward your goals is a key to success in life and...

It's Halloween time, so we got to thinking how our strengths might dress up for the holiday. We've already considered how the strengths may celebrate their birthday, do Disney World® and choose a baby name. In this post, we wonder how they may dress on Halloween.

By "34 strengths," we're referring to the 34 CliftonStrengths® of talent. Being aware of your talents, growing them into strengths, and aiming them toward your goals is a key to success in life and work.

Here are costume...

If you're like me, you've struggled with prayer. But I believe for the Christian, prayer isn't supposed to be the hard work. The hard work was already done by Jesus to make us approved and accepted by God. Now we get to relax in the river of grace and enjoy God.

Prayer is a means to do that. But what if our prayer lives become an obstacle to swimming in grace, enjoying God?

That's why I got so excited when I started noticing different types of prayer in the Bible.

For example, in the letters...

Several of my friends are preparing to have babies. That made me wonder how people with different strengths might choose a baby name. We considered the same thing with Disney World, so we thought we’d do the same with baby names.

How would the 34 strengths choose a baby name? By "34 strengths," we’re referring to the 34 CliftonStrengths® developed by behavioral psychologist Donald Clifton.

Explore how the 34 talent themes deal with change.

Achiever®: You race to find a...

When I was a child, the neighbor boy flashed some flashy magazines at me.

We were underneath the trees that bordered my yard. The shade cast dark shadows on us, which concealed our activity. He didn’t tell me these magazines were forbidden, but I sensed it in the hushed secrecy of the shadows.

Time stood still, pregnant with exhilaration and danger. We could be caught. But it didn’t matter, this I had to see. At that point, I was too young for my parents to have considered giving...

When you feel unworthy of God’s love, think about this:

Not all feelings can be trusted. They come and go as the wind blows. They can lead you astray. Feelings are not your true north.

God will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). He has compelled himself to obey His own Word because God never breaks His promises. God’s Word says He will never leave you, so He won’t.

God’s love is not based on your own nature or ability or goodness—it’s based on...