Strengths Essay Essays

Strengths Essay Essays Strengths Essay Paper Strengths Essay Paper Student Name Professor Name Course Title Due Date (D/MonthN) What Makes Me, Me: My Strengths, Behaviors, and Natural Talents Having completed the Gallup StrengthFinder test I feel that I gained more insight in my personal specific strengths and character traits. While my top five strengths came as no surprise to me I nonetheless feel a heightened consciousness of my natural talents. My strongest asset, according to StrengthFinder is an accepting awareness of others paired with the ability to include them. This strength goes hand in hand with the developer theme, my next talent on the list, which describes the apability to recognize and cultivate potential in others. Discipline, consistency, and responsibility, my last three items on the top five list are strengths that indicate routine, structure, and adherence to stable values and commitments. As a freshman at CSUN I believe a clear understanding of my natural abilities can help me focus on my strengths and assist in the selection of a customized career plan, thus aiding my successful education and career. Including and developing others, will help me socially, while discipline, consistency, and responsibility can serve me academically, nd culturally at CSUN and in my future. It would seem that my includer talent enables me to help others that might be new in a situation or place. When I first came to CSUN I didnt know anybody. I had met with Jeff Stork, the Womens Volleyball coach once, and had been introduced to the girls on the team. I felt insecure and intimidated at first, but overcame these feelings quickly and bonded with all my team mates. A few weeks ago, Coach Stork informed us that three recruits were coming to visit campus and check out the Matador Volleyball program. I volunteered to guide the prospective new players, and truly enjoyed being able to share my experiences with them. It came naturally to me to try to include the girls, and make them familiar with everything that I had experienced as new, scary and strange. Furthermore I enjoyed introducing them to my current team, take them around campus, and generally make them feel accepted and welcome. After learning about my natural talent of including others, I feel drawn to situations where I can utilize this strength. There may be a welcome committee hat I could Join, to help newcomers transitions into our college as smooth as possible by getting them introduced and involved in existing groups, after-curricular activities or sports programs. I feel I could be a true asset in that aspect. Another one of my strengths is the talent of developing, which would also aide in recognizing and cultivating potential in others in situations where they might feel new, unfamiliar or even excluded. I really enjoyed meeting with my career counsellor because she not only advised me about my talents, but also assisted in planning my lasses, I believe I would appreciate being able to give sound advice to other, new students. One of my strong suits has always been tuning into the emotions and needs of other people, therefore I trust that a sort of mentorship would suit me perfect, and allow me to utilize my character strength best. My senior high school year I was able to coach a middle school co-ed volleyball team in my home town. Not only was this experience one of my fondest memories, as I enjoyed encouraging and nurturing the youngsters, it also opened my eyes to a coaching or possibly teaching areer, which I find very intriguing. Discipline, consistency, and responsibility are traits that imply structure, adherence to clear rules, and commitment to values. These strengths can certainly benefit me in academically, here at CSUN. The discipline theme for example comes into play in detail orientation. Even as a child I have always pursued meticulous detail and perfection, and to this day precision is a core part of who I am. An important strength that applied in a time of challenge is consistency. I have played volleyball since I was in third grade. During my freshman year in high school I played JV until the varsity team made the playoffs, at which time I was moved up to varsity by their coach. Since sophomore year I was then on varsity. The problem I experienced was with the varsity coach, who had a daughter on the team, and did everything in her power to pad the stats in her daughters favor. The setters were even instructed to only set to the daughter so she could get all the kills. It was painfully obvious that there was no equal opportunity on the team, nor was playing time based on capability and performance. All that mattered to the coach was to push her daughter n the foreground, while slighting everybody else, including myself. It was very difficult for me to accept the fact that the whole team suffered under the favoritism displayed by our coach. My conviction of equality, especially on a team-sport team, made it challenging for me to stay on the team. I was frequently approached by strangers from the audience and even opponents coaches inquiring about the reason behind my sitting on the bench. Quite honestly, I had no good response to these questions, as I personally agreed with them. While the coachs daughter has lways been a good player, I felt that the coach was trying to bend the rules, and tip the scales in favor of her own daughter, which was unacceptable to me. My own mother begged me to quit the team, but I stuck it out. After all, I had committed to playing the whole season, and was not about to quit half way through. It is difficult for me to explain the pain this preferential treatment caused me. Today, I can easily see that my StrengthFinder character trait of consistency was what drove me back then. I value equality, and have little tolerance for individuals who bend the rules to it their situation, or benefit themselves. It was also the strength of consistency that helped me coach my own team. Having been on a team that was ruled by unequal treatment made me more aware of equality, and I applied my personal experiences when I coached my own team. In the future I would like to continue coaching, as I feel very strongly that my high school dealings with that coach made me a stronger person and athlete. Only now I realize that consistency is one of my top five character strengths, and therefore part of what makes me, me.