This assignment was a great eye opener and not necessarily in a bad way. It forced me to look at the positive and negatives of my personality from the point of view of others and the test. People have always asked in interviews and such, “What would you say your strengths are?” That was always a hard question for me to answer because through out life people can tell you a wide variety of different things. As for me, I never really reflected on the positive side of myself, I always focused on the things I failed at in life and forced myself to do better. Looking back, I probably beat myself up too much about it and it was counter productive. I always thought of it as being resilient but this course has made me rethink the definition of resilience.
I would say that the test was pretty spot on because the top two are about putting others before self as well as just being open and honest with others around you. I was kind of shocked that love of learning was not higher on the list because I have always been the type of person that if I am not learning something than I am bored. I must be learning either to knit, reading or something of that sort. I do not believe the test is wrong, however I do believe that they have to rank things on which on they see as more important in your specific personality.
One strength that the test listed which I had never considered before was appreciation of beauty and excellence. I guess being able to see beauty in every day life whether it be nature to the miracle of science is a strength. I cannot imagine going through life without being able to see the beauty in all the things I come across. I know that the mountains are one of the things that I can always appreciate the beauty of. Science has always been one thing that has interested me not because it is something that I can learn and grow in but it is an ever growing and evolving field. To me, that is beautiful and amazing.
When it came to time to ask family my strengths and major weaknesses, I knew I had to find just the right time to do it. My family has always been the type to hide shortcomings so getting the weaknesses out of them was going to be a challenge. One of the strengths that my family listed that the test did not was assertiveness. I have to say I agree with the test on this one because I am not typically an assertive person but I can be if the situation calls for it. I guess you could say it is not in my every day nature to be that way but if it is necessary I can do it. Other than that, they were on the same page with the caring, compassionate and kind.
When it came time to go over my major weaknesses, it took them quite some time to come up with them. However, it was not because they were trying to sugar coat them judging by their body language and the looks on their faces. It was more because I don’t believe they truly paid that much attention to faults within the family. For the first major weakness, they named me a “worrywart.” According the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a Worrywart is defined as, “a person who worries too much or who worries about things that are not important.” I do agree with the fact that I do tend to worry about things especially about severe weather, deadlines and being late. On the other hand, I do not worry about unimportant things. I tend to keep the serenity prayer in mind when it comes to worrying. The second major weakness listed was that I take things too personal, this one I can agree with.