by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
The Truth About You by Marcus Buckingham is an intriguing, inspiring, action-propelling package. Buckingham's new book about discovering your true strengths is a transformational package with a book, a DVD of Marcus Buckingham personally presenting his novel insights, and then a small, pocket ReMemo pad (probably the most important part of the book). All this is packaged as a personal, self-coaching system. This is a precocious concept. As an educational technology training specialist, I give this a high A as a multi-sensory, activating experience that will drive exciting change into your life.
The DVD includes a passionate, heart-reflecting presentation by Buckingham himself. Then within his presentation, a dramatic video story is inter-cut throughout about a young boy finding his strength. Ingeniously done. The little ReMemo pad is used to record where you feel strong, and where you feel weak. And how to champion your own discovery of what you are really good at, naturally excel at in life while feeling the fun of it along the way. The DVD makes you want to read and do the exercises Buckingham suggests in the book. I even tested it on an entrepreneur- minded couple, and after seeing the DVD they stayed up late that night and read the book. Buckingham has as life-transforming power system here.
Digging up our strengths reinvigorate us and make life fun again. When we are in our natural gifts, we feel happiness, we feel strong after we do them, we demonstrate a performance excellence instinctively, and then the rewards start falling in place. We feel comfortable in our strengths as we live an energizing concept of life...true to us.
Here's a snapshot of the content flow in The Truth About You. Who you are when young will be more of you as you get older. Your strength just grows through your life. Only about two out of ten of us get to play to our strengths in what we do.
Three truths to consider:
--As you grow, you become more and more of who you really are.
--You grow most in your areas of greatest strength.
--A great team player volunteers his strengths to the team most of the time and deliberately partners with people who have different strengths.
Take your interests seriously and don't let people take you out of your strengths. Strengths aren't what you are good at, and weaknesses aren't what you are bad at. Some things you are good at you don't really like and they don't make you feel strong. Feeling strong is the indicator.
To spot a strength, use the "sign"s.
S... Success. Where does success come naturally for you?
I... Instinct. What do you instinctively look toward?
G... Growth. Where do you concentrate easily, your brain fires up?
N... Needs. What fills a need?
When these occur, it may be a strength.
Use the ReMemo pad and note on the blue pages every day for a week what makes you feel strong as you do it. You have a feeling of anticipation before you do it, and when done, you feel fulfilled by doing it. Just say what you feel when you do it and don't try to figure it out too much. Then at the end of the week, note the "verbs" and see the actions that created these feelings.
In what you do, the "what" always trumps the why and who. Always ask "What am I paid to do." This is your defining answer. You never turn your weaknesses into strengths. You will never find the perfect job, so neutralize weaknesses and expand strengths.
Now use the ReMemo pad to list on the black pages what makes you feel weak, bored. After a week read them back to yourself and they will make you feel weak just thinking about them. So what do you do with these? Stop doing it. Partner up with someone strong in that. Sharpen your strengths. Look at your weakness through a strength. Do what makes you weak by using your strength in it. Try to play to your strengths as much as you can, but there are times you must just do it.
Your organization will never know you like you do; and you'll never turn your weaknesses to strengths. Find your strengths and keep in them as much as you can.
Buckingham has a amazing method to turn your life around in The Truth About You. This is a personal bookshelf book/DVD for constant review... to build the Strongest You.
Buckingham has extra background resources on the DVD, plus a blog and more resources on his website:
www.marcusbuckingham.com
The Truth about You is that in addition to having natural Strengths you can have Spiritual Strengths. The Apostle Paul says we are also given Spiritual Gifts and strengths that function Supernaturally.
They are given to us by the Spirit and function along side our natural gifts. So where we are weak, we may be strong. In fact many of these replace a weakness we have with a Spiritual Strength that is solely from God. A Spiritual Strength not given at birth or earned, but literally provided by God's Spirit to us.
Paul explains Spiritual gifts, and these are given, regardless of how our natural gifts may function. They may enhance a natural gift or replace a weakness with a strength.
"A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have."
(1 Corinthians 12: 7-11, NLT)
So a yearning may be an indicator that God wants to give you a Spiritual gift there, even in areas where we have a history of weakness in that area. God may very well want you to be strong where you see yourself weak, although His Spirit will do it through you. The Scriptures say that He will reward those who diligently seek Him.
The disciples were seeking God diligently and then all kinds of Spiritual gifts come on them. The people where amazed as they had knowledge of things when not educated, and speaking skills when they were common fishermen. The transformations amazed the crowds. When Spiritual gifts come on us our families, friends and acquaintances will be amazed at the dramatic change in us.
Paul said He would rather boast about His weaknesses. Why? Where Paul had shortcomings, The Spirit of God put in Him strengths and abilities to function in Spiritual strength where he was humanly weak.
King David said many times in the Psalms that his strength was through God's power. The Lord, the great one, was his strength.
"God arms me with strength,
and he makes my way perfect." (Psalm 18:32, NLT)
"God is awesome in his sanctuary.
The God of Israel gives power and strength to his people." (Psalm 68:35, NLT)
The Prophet Isaiah said that God rescues us from all our troubles and gives us new strength:
"Because of his great power and incomparable strength,
not a single one is missing.
O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles?
He gives power to the weak
and strength to the powerless.
Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength." (Isaiah 40:26-31, NLT)
Our natural bodies have many weaknesses. But even in our weaknesses here on earth we are promised Heavenly strengths. We will inherit Heavenly bodies to replace these earthly bodies. So where we are weak here on earth we will be made strong in Heaven. Regardless of how effective we are on earth with what we have to work with here, as far as our natural strengths go, we will be made perfect when we have Heavenly bodies after we die.
"There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory. It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies." (1 Corinthians 15:40-44, NLT)
Our natural bodies of earth are weak, but our Spiritual bodies of Heaven are strong. So, what we do on earth will be rewarded but according to how we live here on earth. It is important to realize we have two existences in our lives. One on earth and the other in Heaven promised to us when we live our earthly lives one in Jesus.The Heavenly lifestyle is unexplainable, more appealing than the earthly lifestyle of today. It supersedes anything we see and experience on earth now. It is so beyond earth in its magnitude and its euphoric delights. It is the best investment we can make in life to guarantee we live this after we live this life. Jesus said this life has it sorrows, but the next life is eternal happiness. How do we guarantee our Heavenly rewards? In Catching a Glimpse of Heaven, E. M. Bounds talks about what Heaven is like and the character of the person who gets there.
"Heaven will be the pursuit, enjoyment, and increase of life. It will be eternal Life in Heaven, will be a rapture. Mind, soul, and spirit will be widened, elevated, deepened, refined, and beautified by it. Everything will conspire to make the life supremely blessed and glorious. Christ will feed that life on the richest pastures and lead the way to fountains of living water. 'God will wipe away all tears' from the eyes of that Life."
"The power of the Holy Spirit puts in us a thirst for Heaven, until all other tastes grow pale in us. The power of the Spirit binds us to heaven because Jesus is its center and glory."
"The Holy Spirit implants Heaven in us."
"The law for Heavenly contestants is severe self control.... to restrain appetites of pride and self seeking. Purity of character reigns in Heaven but money does not."
"The building blocks of character are faith, a faith built on Jesus Christ. Virtue with courage as the chief and distinguishing idea in virtue. Knowledge including Spirit revelation through reading the Bible which yields a power, strength and light. Temperance with self control of passions, temper, appetites and desires. Patience to contend with earthly hindrances, persecutions, temptations that create conflict with our inner life in Spirit to the world. And become God-like in knowing God. Until we of the brotherhood of earth are like the brotherhood of Heaven. To prefer others before ourselves. To follow Jesus command to put others before ourselves."
"Death has no fascination for the true Christian, but he does not fear to die or fear to live. We find ourselves out of tune with earth, a world chilling to us, its companionship dull and insipid, Heaven is our natural home."
"It is to unfasten our hearts from earth and fasten them to Heaven. God must destroy our infatuation with our earthly homes so that we seek a home in Heaven."
The truth about you is that you will have two bodies.... an earthly body with natural birth gifts and this natural body has potential of Spiritual gifts planted in it Supernaturally... that you can use along with your natural gifts.
Then you will be transformed into a Heavenly body after this earthly body dies. It will have the Heavenly qualities... of constant love, joy, absent of pain, and eternal sense of wonder, as we live a life not even comprehensible with our human minds.
A glimpse of Heaven for just one second while on earth would change our perspectives forever. We would choose Heavenly priorities on earth as our chief aim. We would live looking forward to the wonderful moment of being in a marvelous ecstasy in presence of God forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment