• After a high school career of championships and national honors, she was the youngest basketball player in Olympic history to win a medal when the USA women’s team took the silver in Montreal - when she was just 18 years old.
• She led her college team at Old Dominion University to three consecutive major championships: first the WNIT championship, followed the next two years by the AIAW championships - and she personally racked up prestigious national awards and recognitions.
• As a pro player, she led her team to the WABA championship, and was also the scoring leader and the league MVP.
• She has been inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame, the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, the Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
• She was head coach of the WNBA’s Detroit Shock for three years.
• She is currently a full-time basketball analyst for ESPN.
• She just turned 50 years old.

Yes, this is a bit of a stunt. It raises some interest, grabs some headlines, and deflects attention from the ugly on-court fight and its fallout. But the fact is that the Shock need some good short-term help immediately, with their star out for the season.

I still remember excitedly watching Nancy and Old Dominion in those amazing championship seasons of 1979 and 1980. The team went 72-2 at that time. Few sporting events have been that exciting. There is no overstating OD’s dominance, or the personal dominance by Nancy herself.

If anyone can step back into the big leagues at age 50 and make a positive impact every minute she’s on the floor, it’s Nancy-freakin-Lieberman.

The StrengthsFinder online assessment reports my Top 5 Talent Themes as:

• Intellection
• Adaptability
• Learner
• Analytical
• Connectedness

I didn’t have to read the Learner full description to get where this talent theme was going. Some of it was predictable. Here’s an excerpt.

You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered—this is the process that entices you.

The process, the process, the process. I don’t necessarily buy that. I’ve heard this before, about other people, how they love the process of learning but they don’t care too much what they learn. I’m not really like that. I love to learn, but I love to learn something I love. You know? I may follow a process, but it’s the subject, not the process, that I love.

But if I take a second, closer look, then I admit that I do get energized by that progress curve, where learning the basics and gaining skills are swift. It’s a mystery that’s being revealed. That’s something I understood a long time ago. What I have come to recognize recently is that one should learn something beyond one’s current fields or domains. That is, rather than simply learn a new song on guitar, which I already play, I would benefit from learning a new instrument altogether.

This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential. The outcome of the learning is less significant than the “getting there.”

That’s definitely true for me. I strive to learn things but don’t care if I ever master them. I’m almost a dilettante, except I’m not even that serious. For me, out of all my Top 5 talent themes, the last one – Connectedness – is the most intriguing to me, and I see it in not only the other four themes, but also in lots of other areas of my life. So when I learn things, it’s mostly because there’s a connection to something else important to me, or I am building a new connection. That’s what I focus on – the connections – more so than the knowledge or the learning process.

When podcasting was first starting to take off, I decided I wanted to learn what it would take to make a podcast - and to make a fairly good one, for that matter. I have a lot of technical know-how when it comes to the Internet, the web, computers, software, etc. And I have varied interests, and I have a need to create. So I decided I’d launch a podcast. I came up with the name, the topics, the logo, registered the domain, set up equipment, recorded and edited my show, followed all the technical specifications, got my feed established and listed in the iTunes podcast directory as well as a bunch of others, and it was off and running. I left no detail out.

No, it wasn’t the most efficient way to get going - doing all the planning and prep up front before even recording anything. In fact, most big-name, experienced podcasters recommend that you don’t start that way - that you should just record, get a free site, and publish. But because I was into it to learn about it, I did as much as I could so that when the first episode came out I had all aspects firing along with it. I even set up a listener forum on the web site. But ultimately, once the learning and launching was over, producing the show became a time-consuming chore. It never found an audience. I put out 15 episodes in over a year, but just recently called the whole thing off. I was completely at peace with my decision, too, because it never was meant to take over the world.

As usual, I found the personalized description of how the Learner theme applies to me to be more accurate and useful than the full description. I found this part illuminating, inspiring, and thought-provoking.

Driven by your talents, you may identify the specific traits or experiences that distinguish one person from the next. When you familiarize yourself with someone, you might be able to predict how the person will react in different situations.

Well now, that’s an odd thing to say. I wasn’t expecting this and I’m still not sure what to make of it. I can’t say I either agree or disagree, or that I’ve noticed any signs of this behavior. It definitely got me wondering.

Because of your strengths, you may see some value in continuous education. Perhaps this reflects your interest in particular topics. Sometimes you are fascinated with the process of acquiring knowledge or skills. Chances are good that you can be scholarly if you have a desirable goal to reach. Perhaps you are willing to examine certain topics for extended periods of time.

Aha! Now I get what they mean by “the process” - I can be scholarly when learning. That is, I go about it methodically, etc. Like a scholar. Okay, yes, I do enjoy that. And I’d almost rather not look at the “willing to examine certain topics for extended periods of time” statement. That seems to have serious crossover with the Analytical talent theme. It’s something that others can observe and decide that I get too hung up on analysis, that I ‘over-analyze’. There may have been times in the past where that has been true, but today I am taking a two-fold approach. First, I try not to let analysis or “examination”/learning go on too long without some sort of application - something that will help get or give some tangible, externally visible value. Second, I have embraced the fact that among my top talent themes are thinking, analyzing, and learning, so I am actually trying to do more of all of that. To people who might look negatively on my thinking/analyzing, I say, “deal with it”. For my part, I try to be prompt, efficient, and to produce something from all that learning, etc. I think it’s a good balance.

To some degree, thoughts come alive for you when questions are posed and answers are proposed. You might have a delightful time thinking out loud and listening to intelligent people express themselves.

Yes, that’s very true. I do think out loud in certain situations - I admit it and make it explicit that I’m thinking out loud. I don’t mind. And I’ve noticed that all of my best and most rewarding friendships have been with the most intelligent people.

You might document or store in your mind bits and pieces of information. Perhaps you want to refer to these insights or facts when an opportunity presents itself.

This is another of those “but doesn’t everybody do this?” moments. But stop for a moment and think of someone in your circles who “refers to stored insights or facts when an opportunity presents itself”. Yeah. That guy. Making small talk at a cocktail party with the Trivial Pursuit enthusiast doesn’t sound like much fun. Here’s the thing - I see myself in those two statements from the personal description, however I try to make good use of this trait in my professional career, where it might be much more advantageous than in chit-chat with friends.

In fact, I see this whole “storing and opportunistic referring” behavior tied into the contexts of my other Top 5 talent themes. For example, it’s a good thing when I’m being analytical. I see it especially tightly linked to my Connectedness theme. It really could fit seamlessly into that theme’s descriptions, it seems to me. I definitely like to store and retrieve bits and pieces of information when I’m exploring connections.

If you’ve taken the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment and want to share your results or discuss anything I’ve written here, leave a comment or contact me via email. If you’ve just got questions about any of this, feel free to contact me, too—I love to hear from readers and I love to share thoughts about this topic.

photo credits:
“books in a stack (a stack of books)” by austinevan
“writing exams” by ccarlstead

]]> http://www.paulworthington.com/blog/2008/07/11/strengthsfinder-part-4-of-6-learner/feed/ http://www.paulworthington.com/blog/2008/06/18/how-it-took-me-30-years-to-discover-hong-kong-garden/ http://www.paulworthington.com/blog/2008/06/18/how-it-took-me-30-years-to-discover-hong-kong-garden/#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:27:48 +0000 paul http://www.paulworthington.com/blog/?p=26 Follow threads. There are more connections than you think.

I know it’s ancient history to many of you, but it was news to me when I learned that the surviving members of Joy Division had formed New Order after Ian Curtis died. It went something like this: I liked “Love Will Tear Us Apart” but didn’t know who did it. I also liked “Bizarre Love Triangle” and “Blue Monday” and a bunch of other songs, and I knew they’re by New Order, but I never drew the connection until some time in 2007. I don’t even know how I first made the connection.

There’s a similar story around Depeche Mode and Erasure. And there’s a similar story around Bauhaus and Love & Rockets. So I started listening to those bands and others from the same period, all a little more closely. I started discovering some music I really liked and some I didn’t really care for. But I never would have found any of it if I hadn’t stumbled onto these little connections.

I had started playing with concept maps a while back, and an early result of that play is my now-famous concept map of “The Old Apartment” by Barenaked Ladies. I was fascinated by these new musical connections I was learning about, so I decided to keep track of them in a map of their own.

I had started another map that was pretty much the same idea, only it started with the connection of guitarists Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton through the Yardbirds, and grew out from there to encompass The Who and the Faces and the Rolling Stones, and Humble Pie and Bad Company and … well, you get the idea.

I started a new map, beginning with Echo & the Bunnymen. That led me, of course, to Julian Cope and The Teardrop Explodes. And when I added Siouxsie & the Banshees that led me, of course, to the Sex Pistols and Magazine, and Adam & the Ants, and Bow Wow Wow, etc.

Not too far into making the new map, I recognized the scope would be British punk and post-punk, circa approximately 1976 – 1986. As reference sources, I am using Wikipedia and MusicBrainz, among others. The contributors to those sites and databases are driven to include every possible combination, all collaborations, a great deal of trivia. For my band tracing map, I found I have to really zero in on some fairly coarse chunks of data.

To keep the work simple, at least in these early seeding stages, I formed a handful of guidelines that just came about organically as I added names and relationships. Without some operating rules, the map would be immense and complicated, with so many relationships requiring qualifiers.

Rules for the Band Trace map

1. Work with bands, even duos, but not solo artists.
   1. Therefore I included Pet Shop Boys and Yazoo but excluded Gary Numan.
2. Focus on actual named band members who recorded albums as part of the band.
   1. This rule counts out collaborations of: songwriting, singer duets, or other one-off guest appearances, and touring-only members.
   2. Therefore I will ultimately include Robert Smith as a connection for Siouxsie & the Banshees because of the live album Nocturne and his work on Hyæna, but I’m not yet counting the Morrissey/Siouxsie duet on “Interlude”. Bending this rule could be good or bad, so I am still thinking about it.
3. First emphasize individuals who formed bands, and then those who joined bands.
   1. Therefore I will have to focus only on named recording full-fledged band members, and I will be able to trace band genesis as well as growth and progress.

Here’s a tiny excerpt of the map so far. The example here shows how Siouxsie & the Banshees, Ultravox, the Sex Pistols, and Swing Out Sister are all connected. Click this thumbnail to see it larger (and even the larger image is only half the size of the original).

Photos: Paul Worthington and Yves Lorson

There are times when I shoot in a definite “stock photography” style. So I get that this is recognizable as stock. And I released it under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, so anyone is free to use it so long as they properly attribute the work to me. So I get that people like how easy it is to use this photo in blogs, etc. But I uploaded this photo over two years ago, and yet people are still finding it and using it to this day. I’ve tried to figure out how my photo keeps getting chosen, why it’s so popular, and so on, but I have yet to crack the mystery.

Here’s a list of all the web sites I know of that are using my photo, to date. It’s an average of almost one per month since January 2006. Wild.

http://dailyslackr.blogspot.com/2008/05/two-lifesaving-productivity-tools.html

http://joychaser.com/2008/01/04/how-to-make-an-inspirational-pick-me-up-journal/

http://zenhabits.net/2007/10/6-rules-for-dealing-with-habits-vs-tasks/

http://www.zimmi.cz/clanky/vyhledavac-do-sesitu.php

http://www.greenpandatreehouse.com/2007/12/04/time-money-managment-one-size-does-not-fit-all-in-most-cases/

http://www.greenpandatreehouse.com/2007/11/30/financial-goal-for-2008/

http://www.blatternet.ch/index.php/2007/11/20/uber-das-notieren/

http://cvillain.com/2008/02/28/silence-on-school-awards/

http://www.simplyneecy.com/blog/2008/02/one-of-my-favor.html

http://www.greenpandatreehouse.com/2008/03/07/writing-a-good-job-recommendation/

http://twopenniesearned.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-temping-can-be-rewarding-lifestyle.html

http://silverclipboard.com/2008/03/13/ubiquitous-capture-tip-keep-your-notebook-cheap-and-messy/

http://www.ourblogtemplates.com/2008/03/list-of-useful-contents.html

http://www.skelliewag.org/on-writing-and-you-255.htm

http://www.investorblogger.com/archives/buzz-journyx-will-it-keep-you-on-time

http://vervecoaching.com/leadership-for-unprecedented-results/

http://kojasa.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/twd-self-management/

http://www.reason4smile.com/2008/05/15/what-i-learn-from-messing-up-with-mashing-up/

http://www.catchtheposts.com/5-simple-tips-to-make-your-idea-journal-more-efficient/

http://www.ripplesofimprovement.com/index.php/mindset/14-powerful-techniques-to-implant-an-affirmation-deep-in-the-subconscious/

http://myfla.ws/blog/2008/05/15/phew-for-pew/

http://www.scifirama.com/index.php/2008/06/431/

The StrengthsFinder online assessment reports my Top 5 Talent Themes as:

• Intellection
• Adaptability
• Learner
• Analytical
• Connectedness

Throughout my career, I have been called out at performance review time for my adaptability, my ability to focus, lead, and stay productive during emergencies and times of unexpected change. For years in the early part of my career I was a Unix system administrator in a highly unstable environment, and I was repeatedly singled out for my calming influence when things went bad. Now, as a consultant who also travels a lot, I have to deal with the unexpected on a constant basis. It’s the same in my personal life - I have learned over the years to roll with whatever comes my way.

Having said all that, I was very surprised to see a talent theme called ‘Adaptability’ show up in my Top 5, let alone all the way up in the #2 spot. It’s because I don’t see myself as either ultra-rigid or ultra-flexible, I don’t crave boring routines on one hand or crazy unpredictability on the other. So I have to keep reminding myself about what a talent is (a natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving) and what a strength is (the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance, gained by investing in talents).

As with my #1 talent theme, Intellection, I had to read the Adaptability full description to start getting the right idea about what it meant to have an Adaptability talent theme. Only in this case, I had to re-read it a couple of times. It started to make sense, and I also learned that I really had to concentrate on what in the descriptions applied to me, personally.

The line in the full description that jumped out at me first was, “But this theme of Adaptability does enable you to respond willingly to the demands of the moment even if they pull you away from your plans.” I caught the “respond willingly” part and figured that was an important word selection. It implies that I have free will, I take personal responsibility for my actions, and I make choices instead of passively drifting along - all concepts that resonate with me. There was another part of the full description with which I didn’t agree, however, the part about almost looking forward to unforeseen detours, etc. Time to look into the personalized guide.

Just like when I was studying Intellection, I found the personalized description of how the Adaptability theme applies to me to be the most accurate and ultimately the most useful information. It noted some things I had half-expected to read, things such as, “Driven by your talents, you are quite comfortable letting the day’s events and people’s demands determine what really deserves your attention.”

But then the personalized guide threw in some points that I hadn’t expected to see in a description of Adaptability. Their unexpectedness made them no less true - in fact, they’re right on the money.

• Because of your strengths, you surround yourself with lovely things. These have the power to soothe, calm, energize, and inspire you. - Wow, is that ever the truth. I’ve been working on defining and putting into action my values, mission, guidelines, and goals, independently of StrengthsFinder. That’s all the subject of many future blog posts. But one of my chief values is beauty, and that starts to take concrete form in my life through what the SF2.0 people call “lovely things”. So when I read this, it kind of blew my mind.
• The arts or nature itself enhances your sense of well-being. - So true. Trying to be objective, I’d say probably nothing enhances my sense of well-being more than “the arts or nature”. I grew up not far from the Gulf of Mexico, only 30 minutes from the beach. I was introduced to the Rocky Mountains probably around age 12-13. I ultimately made the choice to move closer to the mountains than the beach. Being at the beach makes me feel very calm and relaxed. But being in the mountains makes me feel energized and inspired. The choice was easy. And the subject of “the arts” is something I’ll cover in depth later.
• It’s very likely that you may enjoy reading. To some degree, it allows you to gather certain kinds of information to expand your storehouse of knowledge. - As I wrote earlier, I don’t know what this is doing in my Adaptability description, other than the paragraph goes on to tell me I don’t like being around restless people when I’m trying to read. Well, yes. But more striking is that the SF2.0 assessment accurately predicted multiple times that I like to read, that I need to read, that I read for knowledge, and so on. I was impressed when I read this description.

Studying this talent theme of mine also got me thinking about the concept of luck and what it means to be lucky. Lots has been written about luck. Some people believe in it, some people believe there’s no such thing, some believe you can only hope and pray for it, some say “being lucky is believing you’re lucky” or “you make your own luck.” I think there’s a difference between the kind of luck that’s just random chance or coincidence or a pleasant surprise and the kind of luck that one makes for oneself through attitude, practice, applied experience, and every choice - conscious and unconscious - one makes every day. (Hmm, sounds suspiciously like strengths, doesn’t it?) I believe in both kinds of luck - random and willful. For years I’ve been aware of how lots of things, big and small, break my way when I need them. It feels like I’m lucky, but I know it’s my outlook and my behavior and my circle of friends and, yes, random chance - or “dumb luck”. I see this notion of an Adaptability talent theme being tied up one’s perception of being lucky. In terms of StrengthsFinder, I can see how the strength I’ve developed around Adaptability as a result of my own work multiplied by a talent could be easily mistaken for luck. This is the kind of new insight synthesis that makes me like StrengthsFinder so much.

If you’ve taken the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment and want to share your results or discuss anything I’ve written here, leave a comment or contact me via email. If you’ve just got questions about any of this, feel free to contact me, too—I love to hear from readers and I love to share thoughts about this topic.

photo credits:
“detour” by Spiicy
“lucky cat” by Paul Worthington © All rights reserved.

• Don’t be in a hurry - Allow yourself plenty of time during every stage of your journey. You’ll feel a lot better and make smarter choices along the way if you don’t have to rush everywhere.
• Plan and prepare - Do your research to know where you’re going, when you have to be somewhere, and all the logistical details that get you from point A to B: Flight number, time, airline, gate, arrival time, frequent flier number, rental car membership number, reservation confirmation number, driving directions, address of the hotel, hotel membership number, hotel confirmation code, driving directions to and from your client site and the hotel, driving directions to the airport from both hotel and client, return flight number and so on, transportation to and from home airport if necessary along with confirmation numbers and dispatch/customer service phone numbers. You don’t want to have to figure this out on the fly, and you don’t want to have to dig for anything while driving, etc.
• Whatever happens, roll with it and don’t lose your cool - Things will go wrong, plans will change without your permission, there’s always something unexpected that will happen. Just roll with it. Be smart and use what options you have, but don’t lose your cool about things you can’t control. And definitely don’t yell at innocent service workers. Practice being patient and serene. You can do it.
• Don’t count on good signs and instructions - Take it from me, an experienced traveler: nearly everything and every place has extremely poor signs and instructions. I’m talking about booking travel and accommodations, using airports, rental car desks and lots, highways, hotels, everything. Most places are run by people who have no idea how to communicate clearly and efficiently with signs and instructions or directions. So don’t count on them. And when you find yourself in a tough spot because someone failed with the signs and so on, roll with it and don’t lose your cool. This is where the other guidelines will really help you - don’t be in a hurry, do lots of research, planning, and map-printing, etc., and just remain calm when things go wrong.

The Volkswagon Jetta “coelacanth” commercial:

For search, I primarily use Google, like most people, and occasionally use Yahoo! search, either by accident or because I want a different perspective. I never use Microsoft for web search, because the results usually don’t get me where I want to go. It doesn’t matter.

When Microsoft announced its unsolicited bid for Yahoo!, my first reaction was dread. Such a merger of giants very rarely works, rarely delivers the promised shareholder value (disclosure: I do not own shares of any of them), and rarely benefits consumers. This isn’t just my observation - there’s a lot of factual support to be found via places like Tom Peters and Oligopoly Watch.

I have been contemplating for some time moving all my email to Google, and therefore changing contact and login information for some 300 sites where I currently use my Yahoo! info. A successful bid from Microsoft to buy Yahoo! would have hastened that decision and migration. Now that Microsoft has walked away from the bid, I am leaning more toward bailing out anyway, but at a more leisurely pace.

When the bid was first revealed, I read so much speculation on the web about the probability of the acquisition going through and about whether that was a good or bad thing for either company. By March, nearly everything I read from industry insiders all over the web was that the acquisition was inevitable, that Yahoo! would be forced to succumb, that Microsoft really badly needed Yahoo! and their search advertising business, etc. Now that the news is out that no deal will be made, the rampant majority opinion seems to be that Yahoo! is now doomed, walking away was the smartest thing Microsoft could do, etc. I hope that Yahoo! can fix their problems and that Microsoft can deliver on their promise to compete and innovate because I want to see all three - Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! - remain healthy and strong and competitive, each in their own way. Fight it out in the open market. I think that’s good for business and good for consumers.

The StrengthsFinder online assessment reports my Top 5 Talent Themes as:

• Intellection
• Adaptability
• Learner
• Analytical
• Connectedness

When I read the book, I made it a point not to read any of the talent theme descriptions. I read their one-word titles, but none of the accompanying detail. Similar quizzes and tests have reported similar things—thinking, analysis, learning. I expected to see things like that in my SF2 results. From the names of the talent themes, I kind of expected to have on my list things like “Context” and maybe “Input”. But I got a slightly different Top 5 than I thought I would.

The first time I read the talent theme descriptions behind my Top 5, I felt a mixture of recognition of familiar concepts and a fairly strong reaction that something was wrong. At first look, I thought the assessment results were way off when it came to Adaptability and Connectedness. I will write about each talent theme in depth, each in its own post, but I can tell you now that I quickly discovered all five talent themes on my list are correct. It was a matter of reading all of the description material with an open mind, re-reading it, and realizing what parts applied to me the most. I think this is the right way anyone taking the SF2 test should approach the results.

The description of Intellection, from the StrengthsFinder Full Theme Descriptions, says that I like to think, I like mental activity and introspection, and that “this mental hum is one of the constants of your life.”

Photo by Corey / Ten0fnine

This is the part that jumped out at me: “You are the kind of person who enjoys your time alone because it is your time for musing and reflection.” Boy, is that true. It’s no surprise to me that Intellection was my #1 talent theme. Interesting that it’s called a “talent” theme. It seems to me that this one, more than the others in my Top 5, is mostly about what I like or need versus what I may be good at or what may come naturally easy to me. But I can extrapolate from “you like to think” to “a need for mental activity”.

I’ve read others’ reactions to their own StrengthsFinder results where Intellection was one of their top 5. Almost to a person, their first reaction is, “doesn’t everyone like to think?”. Those people must be missing the point. It’s more than “everyone thinks”, for sure. But it’s not true to say “everyone likes to think”.

In my particular combination of talents in my Top 5—the talent themes, their order, and how I scored in each theme—the StrengthsFinder site gave me a personalized guide. This goes beyond the standard full theme description and tells me a “what makes you stand out” description that’s tailored especially for me. In My Personalized Guide, the StrengthsFinder description of Intellection as it applies to me specifically gets a lot more precise and applicable to me, personally. In particular, it says I appreciate intellectual discussions, I like to expand my knowledge by reading a lot, I examine ideas, theories, etc., from a variety of angles, and I desire to seek the truth. All true.

Photo by Gisela Giardino

This is where the Intellection description got most interesting for me. Different than the more general stock description, this personalized description zeroes in a lot closer to me. First, it indicates I like to periodically expand my knowledge by reading. That’s very true, and I’d go further—I love to read and I am reading all the time, all kinds of materials, in all kinds of media. I don’t do it only to be entertained or simply to pass the time, I do it to know more.

Second, they used language that gives me better insight about how Intellection applies to me. The full description has language such as “you like to…”. This personalized description has language such as “driven by your talents, you periodically…” That’s a significant choice of wording, because now I can see what “you like to think” means in the context of a talent as opposed to a mere preference.

Thinking is not merely daydreaming or fantasizing, although it is a superset of those two along with many other intellectual activities. The full description says this mental activity may be about solving a problem, or developing an idea. I’ve always done a lot of “what if” thinking. Like the fun old question that keeps getting asked of every new generation: If you had a super power what would it be and why? Except I think it through and try not to miss any constraints or implications.

How does one say “I like to think” or “one of my top talents is thinking” without sounding superior and pretentious? Go back and read your personalized guide again, that’s how. As the full theme description says, “The exact focus [of my mental activity] will depend on your other strengths.” I found that to be true as I read and thought about the descriptions of the other talent themes in my Top 5. I will go into the details of these interactions in the upcoming posts remaining in this series.

If you’ve taken the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment and want to share your results or discuss anything I’ve written here, leave a comment or contact me via email. If you’ve just got questions about any of this, feel free to contact me, too—I love to hear from readers and I love to share thoughts about this topic.

My next work project had already started. I had to be in Seattle the next Sunday night so I could begin a workshop with my client bright and early Monday morning. The prep work for this kind of workshop is long and intensive, and the funeral was going to put a crater in my week. But we don’t choose when we’re going to pass after something incapacitating like a stroke. There was never any question I was going to go be part of the funeral.

I made my travel arrangements. I could pay for a flight out of my frequent flier miles on United. The little Kansas town is Pittsburg, halfway between Kansas City and Tulsa. I needed to get there in time for the services Wednesday afternoon. Nothing from Denver to Tulsa would get me there in time, considering I’d have to drive more than two hours from anywhere I touched down. So I got a flight to Kansas City Tuesday night. I’d be able to drive without it getting too late, and without me getting too sleepy behind the wheel.

I planned to stay in Kansas Wednesday night, then fly home to Denver Thursday morning. On Friday, I’d have to drive my wife to the airport so she could fly to Chicago to visit her ailing father. She’d be coming home late Sunday night, but I’d be leaving for Seattle early Sunday afternoon. So we would miss each other in transit. I arranged for our next door neighbor to take care of our dogs for several hours until my wife got home. In the meantime, in addition to prepping for work, I’d be setting things up for the dogs and neighbor and getting a few things in place for my wife while I was gone for the next five days. The weekend was going to be action-packed.

Tuesday came. I was ready in the afternoon, and getting from home to Kansas City was a breeze. I travel a lot for work, and it’s tiring but old hat now. In the car on the way to the Denver airport, I realized I had forgotten to bring a light winter coat. I had checked the weather forecast for that part of Kansas, and I knew there were severe thunderstorms predicted for Wednesday night through the first half of Thursday. But the weather in Denver was so sunny and mild that I completely forgot. I decided to buy a light coat when I got there. I would be driving past much of a major metro area and was sure I’d find something.

The Kansas City airport is a dump. Maybe I’m spoiled by Denver International Airport, the crown jewel of America’s air transportation system. I had brought my work laptop in the naïve belief I’d be able to do some work while not involved in family matters. I’ve got a card for it that lets me get online almost anywhere. I found a place to sit in the KC airport, got online, and looked for locations of Kohl’s and Wal-marts along my route. Time was a critical factor, because I would have just enough to make it to the Pittsburg Wal-mart if everything went right. But it was April and I knew my chances of finding any cold weather garments would be dwindling as the seasons changed. I headed for the Hertz rental car counter.

The Kansas City Hertz rental car system is broken. Long waits while the agents looked for available cars, Gold reservations unconfirmed because of stupid business rules, etc. I don’t want to waste time writing any more about them. I finally got my car and left the rental lot. Within minutes I was headed the wrong direction on the highway. Wrong turns and u-turns were the rule for the next hour thanks to Kansas City’s pathetic and confusing highway signs and names. One such wrong turn put me in Olathe, Kansas. I knew how to get on the right track from there. The silver lining was that I was in a retail district and almost immediately spotted a Target. I stopped and went inside.

The clearance racks in the men’s department were full of some things that might have worked for me, but they were all in sizes small to medium, which wouldn’t fit, or extra large to extra-extra large, which would just look ridiculous. Also, men in Kansas apparently wear a lot of caps – baseball, golf, trucker – and pullover sweatshirts.

Back on the road, my next chance was the Wal-mart in Fort Scott, Kansas. Time was running out, I was getting hungry, and I was happy to see the Wal-mart as I pulled into town. If I could find what I needed there, I wouldn’t have to speed like I’d been doing, past farms and cows for the last two hours. It was dark now, the temperature was dropping and the wind was growing. This store had a greater selection of everything – the hats and sweatshirts and more seasonal items and even one or two attractive jackets – but it was still all the wrong size. Some of it would have been inappropriate for the time, anyway. So I headed to a checkout lane and bought two protein bars and two bottles of water. I waited while a family paid for groceries ahead of me. I rushed back to the car and headed south to my last chance.

The Wal-mart in Pittsburg, Kansas, is mercifully located at the north end of town. I knew from the web lookup I had done three hours earlier in Kansas City that the stores along my way would close at 10:00. I pulled into the parking lot at 9:48. Inside, there were tempting t-shirts from all the local schools – Frontenac, Girard, Pittsburg, Columbus, even Pittsburg State University. I found lots of casual winter outerwear possibilities, too. Almost all of the items were mediums – too small for me. There were some smalls, some XXLs. In the last corner, I found a clearance rack. It was like others I’d seen earlier in the night – nylon shells for golfers, breathable tops for runners, tracksuit slouchwear. There was a black and dark-blue jacket, it looked like a combination of some water-resistant polyester panels and polar fleece. Size large. My size. I pulled it on. I couldn’t believe my luck. It fit, looked appropriate, wasn’t too light or too heavy, had deep pockets. I checked the rack for others, but in my hands was the only one in my size. It had been marked down due to the approach of Spring, and the price was finally $7.

At the checkout lane, I waited while a group of four young men bought beer and cigarettes ahead of me. I paid for the jacket and made happy small talk with the little old cashier. She thoughtfully asked if I wanted to wear the jacket out, and I said I did. She apologized that she didn’t have a way to cut off the tag hanging from my jacket, but I assured her it was okay. I put it on while walking out the door at 10:02, and at that hour in that weather it was the warmest and most perfect jacket I had ever owned. I bit through the tag’s plastic ring with my teeth while I watched the guys from the checkout lane speed away in their truck. I zipped the jacket, got in my car, and cruised slowly to the south side of Pittsburg, to the Econo-Lodge where I had reserved a room. That jacket kept me warm and dry for the entire trip, and I took it with me to Seattle the next week and the week after that. I’ll have that jacket for a long time.