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...

The first time I heard someone speak in tongues, I thought he was speaking Greek. That’s because I took Greek in college and wasn’t good at it. And because of that, I didn’t know what Greek really sounded like. After I figured out it wasn’t Greek, I realized that maybe it was tongues. I would have preferred Greek.

But tongues are what it was. Up to that point the only experience I had with tongues was something I read somewhere, and in the corner of my memory, a...

We introduced the idea that there are different types of prayer and we can find our strengths in prayer. Prayer isn’t supposed to be the hard work; the hard work was already done by Christ to make us approved and accepted by God.

You’re going to lean toward different types of prayer—your sweet spot in prayer. The point is to discover your sweet spot so it can lead you into a deep and satisfying relationship with your Heavenly Father.

In order to help you find your prayer...

As the head of Human Resources for our company, I have a vision for our employees. It comes down to five words. We want to be:

• Person-centric
• Performance-minded
• Strengths-based
• Engagement-focused
• Self-aware

Here’s what I mean.

In Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Truth About Employee Engagement, he writes about the three causes of job misery.

Job Misery

One of them is anonymity—the sense that at work, you are unknown as a person. What a sad thing! Being unknown at work makes...

Life is a process of becoming more aware of yourself and others. As you do, you become more effective at life and work. As you pay attention to those around you, you notice different types of people.

Understanding things like what drives them, how they communicate, how they contribute, what they need, and what can be their downfall, will help you as you relate to them.

Everyone is different, and we can’t pigeonhole anyone into one category. But we can use our understanding as a starting...

I came across the speech I wrote as a senior in high school. That was 1995 and I was 17. Popular were the “Things I Learned…” books, so in 1995 I wrote the 95 things I’ve learned so far. Here they are in original form, that is, unedited. I still agree with most of them, although I would love to rewrite a few.

When I was assigned to write a speech about my experiences thus far, I immediately felt overwhelmed. How could I possibly include every moment that has been...

Sometimes connections between ideas come when you’re not expecting them, even in front of a room of people. Recently I was leading an introductory strengths workshop for a team. While explaining the concept of talent, I shared Gallup's definition of talent:

Talent by Gallup

“Talent is naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied.”

Each of us is naturally good at certain things, and these things fall into one of three...

Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matthew 5:6).

What does it mean to be filled by God? It begins with hunger.

I've been praying before, and suddenly, everything disappeared. All that mattered was what he said, what he promised. All that mattered was what he did, what he was doing. All that mattered was God.

I was at once like the dark, barren world before it was made, still formless and empty and void. Then slowly and surely...