Have you ever felt pressured to be more creative, more methodical, or be something you’re not?

Would you like to spend your time doing what you love and what you are really good at?

Would you like to avoid the jobs you dislike without guilt?

You don’t need to change your personality to fit your activities…Change your activities to fit your personality!

The first thing you need to do is to figure out your strengths and your weaknesses.

What do you love vs. what do you loathe?

Go get a piece of paper and divide it in half.

On one half write “Love to do/Good at”, on the other half write “Dislike/Not good at”.

You have personality strengths and interests that can make you enormously successful in life, you just need to figure out what they are so that you can start emphasizing them!

Do you like the variety of constantly doing something new, or would you rather learn a winning system and work that system over and over again?  Write your answer on the cooresponding side.

Do deadlines motivate you, or kill your creativity? 

Do you like creating your own plan of action and setting your own tasks, or do you prefer to be given clear instructions to follow? 

Do you enjoy interacting with people, or would you like to minimize that? 

Are you the person who comes up with creative solutions, the one who organizes the efforts, or the technical person who gets it done? 

Which aspects of your job do you like the most or do most easily? 

Which were your favorite parts of previous jobs? 

Which things do you dislike the most or have the most difficulty with? 

Which things do you never want to have to do again? 

When you finish filling out each side, compare the lists to the job you have. 

Are you getting to use the traits on your “enjoy” list, or do you have to do a lot of things on your “dislike” list? 

Your objective is to do more and more of your favorite activities, while minimizing your least favorite. 

In case you think that this is somehow unfair or selfish, just remember that you are most useful to your company and your coworkers if you are doing tasks that excel at! 

You will get more done, and your positive attitude will benefit the people around you. 

Also, since everybody is different, there is someone out there who enjoys and excels at the very tasks you dislike. 

Homework: Brainstorm and list out ways you can use your strengths to be more valuable to your employer or to improve your current situation. Then list ways that you can automate, delegate, or in some other way get out of doing the unpleasant jobs.