Discovering Your Interests and Strengths

LOQ LearningObjectiveQuestion

Across various occupations, attitudes toward work tend to fall into one of three categories (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001; Wrzesniewski et al.). Some people view their work as a job, an unfulfilling but necessary way to make money. Others view their work as a career. Their present position may not be ideal, but it is at least a rung on a ladder leading to increasingly better options. The third group views their work as a calling. For them, work is a fulfilling and socially useful activity. Of all these groups, those who see their work as a calling report the highest satisfaction with their work and their lives (Dik & Duffy, 2012).

This finding would not surprise Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990, 1999). He observed that quality of life increases when people are purposefully engaged. Between the anxiety of being overwhelmed and stressed, and the apathy of being underwhelmed and bored, lies flow. In this intense, focused state, our skills are totally engaged, and we may lose our awareness of self and time. Can you recall being in a zoned-out flow state while texting or playing an online game? If so, then perhaps you can sympathize with the two Northwest Airlines pilots who in 2009 were so focused on their laptops that they missed Earth-to-pilot messages from their control tower. The pilots flew 150 miles past their Minneapolis destination—and lost their jobs.

Csikszentmihalyi [Chick-SENT-me-hi] came up with the flow concept while studying artists who spent hour after hour wrapped up in a project. After painting or sculpting for hours as if nothing else mattered, they finished and appeared to forget about the project. The artists seemed driven less by external rewards—money, praise, promotion—than by the internal rewards for creating the work. They do what they love, and love what they do.

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Fascinated, Csikszentmihalyi broadened his observations. He studied dancers, chess players, surgeons, writers, parents, mountain climbers, sailors, and farmers. His research included Australians, North Americans, Koreans, Japanese, and Italians. Participants ranged from the teen years to the golden years. A clear principle emerged: It’s exhilarating to flow with an activity that fully engages our skills (Fong et al., 2015). Flow experiences boost our sense of self-esteem, competence, and well-being. Idleness may sound like bliss, but purposeful work enriches our lives. Busy people are happier (Hsee et al., 2010; Robinson & Martin, 2008). One research team interrupted people on about a quarter-million occasions (using a smart-phone app), and found people’s minds wandering 47 percent of the time. They were, on average, happier when not mind-wandering (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010).

Want to identify your own path to flow? You can start by pinpointing your strengths and the types of work that may prove satisfying and successful. Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton (2001) have suggested asking yourself four questions.

You may find your skills engaged and time flying when teaching or selling or writing or cleaning or consoling or creating or repairing. If an activity feels good, if it comes easily, if you look forward to it, then look deeper. You’ll see your strengths at work (Buckingham, 2007). For a free (requires registration) assessment of your own strengths, take the “Brief Strengths Test” at AuthenticHappiness.sas.upenn.edu.

The U.S. Department of Labor also offers a career interest questionnaire through its Occupational Information Network (O*NET). At MyNextMove.org/explore/ip you will need about 10 minutes to respond to 60 items, indicating how much you would like or dislike activities ranging from building kitchen cabinets to playing a musical instrument. You will then receive feedback on how strongly your responses reflect six interest types (Holland, 1996):

Finally, depending on how much training you are willing to complete, you will be shown occupations that fit your interest pattern (selected from a national database of 900+ occupations). A more comprehensive (and fee-based) online service, called VIP, assesses people’s values, interests, and personalities; suggests occupations; and connects people to job listings at Jobzology.com.

Top performers are “rarely well rounded” (Buckingham & Clifton, 2001, p. 26). Satisfied and successful people devote far less time to correcting their weaknesses than to sharpening their existing skills. Given how stable our traits and temperaments are, this is probably wise. There may be limits to the benefits of assertiveness training if you are shy, or of public speaking courses if you tend to be nervous and soft-spoken. Drawing classes may not help much if you express your artistic side in stick figures. Identifying your talents can help you recognize the activities you learn quickly and find absorbing. Knowing your strengths, you can develop them further.