​Have you ever wondered why some things are so easy for you and other things are much more difficult?  Why some kinds of jobs appeal to you and others don’t?  Why some people are successful and others aren’t?
In a society that focuses on what’s wrong with people, Donald Clifton, the former chairman of Gallup, asks instead:  “What would happen if we studied what is right with people?”  Gallup is more than a company that conducts polls, they are a driving force in the field of strengths development.  Over three decades, Gallup interviewed more than two million people in a variety of professions to determine their strengths.  An additional four decades were spent studying the “best of the best” in their respective professions. From this research Gallup developed an instrument to identify one’s top five talents through an instrument called the Clifton StrengthsFinder.  Here are three takeaways from this study:

1. Top achievers fully recognize their talents and develop them into strengths.
2. Top achievers apply their strengths in roles that suit them.
3. Top achievers invent ways to apply their strengths in order to achieve.

One of the things Gallup learned was that if we identify and develop our talents, we have the potential to grow exponentially. By comparison, if we try to improve our weaknesses, the most we can hope for is to be average in that area. 
The application of this knowledge to career planning is profound. When you are aware of your strengths, you can identify areas that would be good career choices.  Is this job one which will allow you to use your strengths?  Is it an environment where you will thrive? 
You can use this knowledge to describe your strengths in a resume, and use the job description to show that you can perform the activities required. You will be able to paint a picture of who you are, what you can do, and how you have used your strengths in the past to accomplish your goals. 
Use this knowledge to describe your strengths in an interview.  When an interviewer asks you to say something about yourself, you will have a language to answer with specificity.  Instead of saying “I’m good with people.”  You can say, “I have the ability to sense what people are feeling and then to articulate it.  I have the ability to help people reach consensus.”
If you would like to discover your strengths, enhance your life, and receive coaching during this Pandemic and tough job market, please contact me at carolv09@cox.net.

​And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds. (Philippians 4-7 NIV)
 
Hearing this verse always arouses my skepticism. What makes a person attribute their peace to God, much less give them assurance that it will protect their hearts and minds? I have had conversations with people about finding contentment in life while they continued to strive to meet their goals. And I have observed that many people never seem content—content with what they have while knowing that others have more. This is not my issue. I know others have more and I am good with it. But such contentment is different from my experience of peace.
 
Peace to me is knowing all will be well, even when some of the things I want are missing, even when my world and the global world are in turmoil. Peace is knowing that something or someone greater than I is there surrounding me with the knowledge that I am not alone.
 
So why is this passage speaking to me now? After a period in my life when I thought things were going right, they suddenly seemed to be going wrong. Yet, I realized I was at peace. How did this happen I asked myself? Self didn’t answer. My mind told me much needed to occur before I could be at peace. However, I was at peace. When did this happen? How did that happen? Had the peace of God actually guarded my heart and mind? My skepticism arose at that thought.
 
Reflecting back, I realized that after a conversation with a friend about food sufficiency I found myself at peace. I recognized how fortunate that I was. In spite of what I thought was a financial downturn for me, I did not have to worry about food or a place to live. All would be well. I have pondered why this is so. Was it because I realized that I really had so much?
 
In the past, I have said I gave my problems to God in prayer, but instead of trusting God I tried to solve them myself. I have always pushed back against people who base their sense of peace on the assurance that God will take care of their every need. Surely, this so-called peace is untethered to how the world works. I believe that God is there to comfort, and walk with us through the rough patches, not keep us from harm or want. As I thought through this, I have come to realize that peace came not from any conversation about food, but from rejecting the idea that I could do it alone. I needed to trust God’s love. Once I did, all was well with my soul. I found a place of comfort and peace. I still struggle with this realization. But at least I struggle in peace.

​During the last nine months we have heard over and over again: “We are in this together.” But what does this mean? Does it mean we feel each other’s pain? Is it just a good slogan for TV ads? Are the people who will not wear a mask, who consider the virus a hoax, or who dismiss it as no worse than the flu really in this together with me. I think not.
 
I have friends who are in this together with me. They are the ones who will drop everything and talk, walk, cry with me, even while socially distanced on a retaining wall. They are the ones who are willing to share a bottle of wine, even while keeping their distance at the pool. They are the one who Zoom with me, even when I don’t feel my appearance is “Zoom ready.” My “We are in this together” friends listen to my pain without critique or judgment. In our conversations, they have taught me to give and receive grace amidst the risks we each take to stay connected.
 
When as a young woman, I went through a divorce while separated from my family by over 1,600 miles. My grandmother, who was so old-school she didn’t even use the word “divorce,” sent me a letter with a poem that made the miles between us vanish. The poem contained a line I have always remembered: “Love may come and love may go, but friends are the sunshine of life.”
 
Even though we are all doing this pandemic in different ways, the most important thing for me is to cherish and hold close my friends, for they are the sunshine of my life. Who are your “We are in this together” friends? My hope is that you too find the sunshine of life in these friends, as they walk beside you on this pandemic journey. 

​The catchphrase of the moment is “New Normal.” Are the times we are living through going to be our new normal? Are we looking for a new normal on the other side of COVID-19? How do we find a way to make peace with where we are now while not despairing about the future? Essentially, how do we live in liminal space, where we are mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually destabilized and disoriented; where old touchstones, habits, and comforts have vanished?
 
In her article, “Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste,” May Busch writes in the Summer 2020 ASU Alumni magazine: “The most important question you can ask yourself right now is: “How do I want to emerge from this better and stronger?” I encourage those I coach to use this time to think about their future, to improve their skills, and to create a career path or life that is consistent with their values. Are you yearning to visualize and create a different lifestyle? If you take time during this pandemic to unleash your creativity, you  will be poised to move forward confidently into a new future. How do you want the new normal of your future to look?
 
The people who think deeply about these things will be the ones who will come out the other side with a renewed appreciation of life. At the very least, they will come out of this knowing that their mothers were right to tell them to wash their hands!