There are a lot of books and articles out there about habit building. They describe the mechanics behind habits and explain why habits are so important and helpful. They also propose ideas for building new habits. And yet I still get a lot of questions about habits. I also quite often hear popular myths about habits that have already been busted but are still being repeated. This article was created to battle those myths and tell you how I work with habits. I hope you find it useful in your quest to build strong habits!
Talents define how we do things, not what we can do or who we can be. This concept is one of the most important discoveries I’ve made in working with talents and strengths. My Activator talent helps me in making decisions and not worrying too much about the consequences. My Empathy talent allows me to tune in to the emotions of my interlocutor. But my talents do not define what I can and can’t do. Realizing this has helped me to shift how I perceive and analyze my talents. As a result, I can now build on my strengths in a much more mature way. One way to do this is by analyzing talent domains.
After taking the StrengthsFinder test you get a number of reports with descriptions of your Themes. Many people focus only on the Signature Themes Report. But there is one that is much more useful and that has much more personalized description of your themes. It’s called Strengths Insight Guide.
Your Themes are interdependent
You can’t analyze your Themes independently. They are interdependent. It’s smart to analyze your Talents in context of all your Talents. If you have Activator and Arranger you will act differently than the person that has Activator and Harmony.
In the former case you will be willing to start your initiatives and actions and you will know who you should engage into your activities. You will be able to manage many activities at a time. You won’t be afraid to start new ones even if you will know that they will cause some turbulence in the beginning.
In the later case you still will be willing to start new initiatives but this time you will want to make sure that what you do won’t cause unnecessary friction in the group you will work with. You will make sure that everyone are aligned with your ideas. You still want to start quickly and you will act quickly but that human angle will be important for you.
You can analyze all your Themes in that way. Every single pair from your Signature Themes will influence the way you do things.

Signature Themes Report vs Strengths Insight Guide
What is the difference between those two reports?
Signature Themes Report
This report contains general descriptions of the Themes. Every person that has Activator Theme will get the same description of that Theme, and even if the rest of the Top 5 is completely different. It’s useful to learn about the Themes itself. You will know how Activator is perceived by others. It allows to understand others with that Theme.
Description of Activator: “When can we start?” This is a recurring question in your life. You are impatient for action. You may concede that analysis has its uses or that debate and discussion can occasionally yield some valuable insights, but deep down you know that only action is real. Only action can make things happen. Only action leads to performance. Once a decision is made, you cannot not act. Others may worry that “there are still some things we don’t know,” but this doesn’t seem to slow you. If the decision has been made to go across town, you know that the fastest way to get there is to go stoplight to stoplight. You are not going to sit around waiting until all the lights have turned green. Besides, in your view, action and thinking are not opposites. In fact, guided by your Activator theme, you believe that action is the best device for learning. You make a decision, you take action, you look at the result, and you learn. This learning informs your next action and your next. How can you grow if you have nothing to react to? Well, you believe you can’t. You must put yourself out there. You must take the next step. It is the only way to keep your thinking fresh and informed. The bottom line is this: You know you will be judged not by what you say, not by what you think, but by what you get done. This does not frighten you. It pleases you.
Strengths Insight Guide
Strengths Insight Guide shows your personalized description. Each Theme is described in context of other Signature themes. You share those descriptions only with people that have exactly the same Signature Themes as you have. Order is not important here. So a person with Activator, Strategic, Developer, Adaptability and Relator will have the same descriptions in that report as a person with Relator, Strategic, Developer, Activator and Adaptability.
Example of the different descriptions
You can see examples of the descriptions of Activator for two persons that share Activator Theme but have different Top 5s.
First person – Activator Strategic Developer Adaptability Relator
Instinctively, you want to be in charge. As soon as you have made up your mind, you are eager to get started. People who interfere with your progress probably irritate you. Because of your strengths, you sometimes make people feel special. Typically you point out the importance or usefulness of something they said. By nature, you naturally gravitate to situations where you can be your true self. You feel life is wonderful when people listen as you share stories about your successes, failures, talents, limitations, hopes, or fears. Chances are good that you are comfortable telling others stories about your personal habits, qualities, experiences, or background. Your forthcoming nature probably enables others to share their thoughts and feelings with you. It’s very likely that you may pay close attention to intelligent conversations. Perhaps you give credit to certain individuals who make key points that advance everyone’s understanding of a particular theory, concept, or idea. Sometimes you file away or make a mental note about specific information, knowing it might be useful one day.
Second person – Strategic Futuristic Activator Ideation Maximizer
Because of your strengths, you traditionally determine for yourself and others what should be done. After you have made up your mind, you typically waste little time moving forward with projects or assignments. By nature, you undertake projects on your own. This is apt to occur when individuals delay decisions, block approvals, or continue meeting without finalizing plans. You probably help them overcome their objections and quell their fears by starting to work. You simply intend to prove to them that the impossible is possible. Driven by your talents, you generate enthusiasm so people become as eager as you are to transform an idea into something tangible. You are energized, not paralyzed, by opportunities and possibilities. It’s very likely that you are comfortable telling others stories about your personal habits, qualities, experiences, or background. Your forthcoming nature probably enables others to share their thoughts and feelings with you. Instinctively, you typically feel good about the quality of your life when you can arouse your friends to produce results. You often motivate them with compliments. You also say, “Let’s start working.” You probably issue direct orders when the need arises.
Summary
You get a great insight with the Strengths Insight Guide. I know many people who read it and had goose bumps because these descriptions were so exact. They were about them. Use the opportunity you have after taking the test and read that report. I promise, you won’t regret it!
Talent is a natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving. You’ve probably seen this definition many times, and therefore you know that everyone has talents. Everyone! There is, for example, the talent to start acting on ideas quickly, to notice potential problems, to see connections between ideas, and many, many other ordinary skills that we don’t typically notice. At the same time, we may know that we lack many talents. And this is natural. There is nothing bad about it. However, you may ask the question – when is the lack of a talent a weakness? Read on to find out!
StrengthsFinder is a very practical tool. After identifying your Talents, it then encourages you to develop them. One of the available tools that you can use to develop your Talents is the framework called “Name it, Claim it, Aim it.” In this post, I explain how you can use it. Read on!
