This is the third in a five-part series on Strengths Finder, a fantastic resource from Gallup that helps people realize their strengths. Our culture seems obsessed on exposing our flaws and weaknesses and how we can “improve” by altering or even reversing those traits. But Strengths Finder is all about uncovering your innate strengths and building those virtues. I’ve already blogged about my #1 strength, INTELLECTION, and my #2 strength, HARMONY. Now, the journey continues with my #3 strength: INPUT.
After taking the Strengths Finder questionnaire, I was left scratching my head over a couple of my revealed top-5 strengths.
Intellection? Is that even a word?
Harmony? That’s a “strength”? Sounds more like a perfume.
Which brings me to my third highest strength: input. Once again, I had no idea what this “strength” even meant. And so, I did some digging…
INPUT: What It Is
According to Strengths Finder, people talented in input simply crave collecting. This collecting can encompass physical objects like Pokémon cards and seashells (yes and yes, for the record) as well as intangible information: blogs, books, quotes, nonsensical facts like the color of a giraffe’s tongue, etc.
Truthfully, I was probably most freaked out by this aspect of my revealed Strengths Finder results. As far as I remember, nothing was ever asked about my collecting habits. So, like, how in the world did it know I collect…well, everything?
INPUT: Implemented
From as far back as I can remember, I’ve collected. Growing up in Georgia, I made it my ongoing mission to collect more and more stuff to cover my bedroom walls and display on my shelves: beanie babies, magnets, keychains, MLB hats, Phillies memorabilia, the ridiculous list honestly goes ON.
I even saved all my notebooks from high school and college. Boxes upon boxes of notes on Chemistry and Calculus and 37 flavors of English.
WHYYY.
For years, this “madly collect everything” process was fun and exciting and cute. Like, seriously, how awesome was it that I saved a rock from my old Pennsylvania driveway??
Alas, eventually there comes a point when collecting all this $#!* grows beyond overwhelming, and this so-called “strength” feels more like a tightening noose.
INPUT: Hitting the Reset
“You really don’t feel comfortable throwing anything away,” my Strengths Finder book told me. Warned.
Ain’t that the truth.
After I finished working at Camp Ridgecrest last summer, I retreated to my old home in Georgia and consciously decided to start throwing stuff away. I needed to physically and emotionally lighten my load.
Those old academic notebooks were toast. And so much more.
I’ve learned that one can only hold so much. By the end of that “reset,” I’d filled 3 large garbage bags of then-former belongings and a couple other large bags of unneeded clothes which I then gave away.
I felt fantastic. I still left a bunch of my stuff in Georgia before returning to California last fall, but essentially everything most important to me now fits either in my car or bedroom here on the West Coast.
If my Georgian bedroom were to spontaneously burst into flames, I would not lose any sleep over losing my massive Phillies collection or those meaningless academic awards adorning my walls.
INPUT: Finding an OUTPUT
Several practical tips stood out in my Strengths Finder action plan for input. The ones that resonated most were:
- Devise a system to store and easily locate information.
- Schedule time to read books and articles that stimulate you.
- Deliberately increase your vocabulary. Collect new words.
I actually tutor SAT students, and it’s killed me that I don’t know many of the vocabulary words on their practice tests.
ME — the English major. The writer. The author. He really doesn’t know what “gambol” means?
I want to stop collecting rocks and start collecting words.
Beyond databases and books and words, I’ve learned my affinity for travel caters greatly to this input strength. It explains all the more clearly why I love/long to travel and visit new places, accumulating a more thorough archive from which to eventually write.
But beyond all these me-centric tasks, I want to actually do something with this supposed strength. Do something for others.
Once again, a particular excerpt of my Strengths Finder resources convicted me for input:
Your mind is open and absorbent. You naturally soak up information in the same way that a sponge soaks up water. But just as the primary purpose of the sponge is not to permanently contain what it absorbs, neither should your mind simply store information. Input without output can lead to stagnation. As you gather and absorb information, be aware of the individuals and groups that can most benefit from your knowledge, and be intentional about sharing with them. [emphasis mine]
“Input without output” — to me, this phrase evokes far more than a simple obsession for collection; to me, this phrase encompasses my lifelong search for community and belonging.
It’s all well and good to archive information and travels and experiences. But what’s all that inputted “stuff” without a fulfilling output? Without a person or people to impact?
I’m reminded of the parable of the talents. How those two guys went and invested their talents while that one wretched dude ran and hid his.
I don’t want to run and hide stuff in the ground.
My church often closes its services with a prayer that goes something like this: Lord, fill us up so that we may be poured out. Bless us so that we may be a blessing.
Even though my affinity for collecting still bothers me sometimes (note to self: LEAVE THAT STUPID “UNIQUE” ROCK ON THE GROUND), I now realize this is just an aspect of my personality that, like anything, needs direction and purpose. Strengthening.
I don’t want to collect/experience things or even travel and withhold the experience for myself. I want to share and invest it.
Share and invest my heart with you all.
I want to learn more about faith and struggle and relationships and personalities and story and how our jagged puzzle pieces somehow fit into this “messed up mass of flesh” that encompasses the entire human race. The Body of Christ.
I want to employ the written and spoken word alike in blessing others with everything that enters my “sponge.” More than anything, I desperately want to bless you all after how you’ve constantly blessed me.
How I long to multiply my output after 26 years of stockpiling input.
INPUT QUIZ: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever collected? Without looking it up, can you tell me what “gambol” means? Hint: it has nothing to do with slot machines. How healthy do you consider your input/output ratio?
