Strengths Finder

Below are my top five themes of talent, ranked in the order revealed by my responses to the Clifton StrengthsFinder.

As you may know, the Clifton StrengthsFinder measures the 34 themes of talent determined by The Gallup Organization as those that most consistently predict outstanding performance. The greater the presence of a theme of talent within a person, the more likely that person is to spontaneously exhibit those talents in day-to-day behaviors.

Focusing on natural talents helps people build them into strengths and enjoy personal, academic, and career success through consistent, near-perfect performance.

How well do you think these themes describe me?

Relator

Relator describes your attitude toward your relationships. In simple terms, the Relator theme pulls you toward people you already know. You do not necessarily shy away from meeting new people—in fact, you may have other themes that cause you to enjoy the thrill of turning strangers into friends—but you do derive a great deal of pleasure and strength from being around your close friends. You are comfortable with intimacy. Once the initial connection has been made, you deliberately encourage a deepening of the relationship. You want to understand their feelings, their goals, their fears, and their dreams; and you want them to understand yours. You know that this kind of closeness implies a certain amount of risk—you might be taken advantage of—but you are willing to accept that risk. For you a relationship has value only if it is genuine. And the only way to know that is to entrust yourself to the other person. The more you share with each other, the more you risk together. The more you risk together, the more each of you proves your caring is genuine. These are your steps toward real friendship, and you take them willingly.

Belief

If you possess a strong Belief theme, you have certain core values that are enduring. These values vary from one person to another, but ordinarily your Belief theme causes you to be family-oriented, altruistic, even spiritual, and to value responsibility and high ethics—both in yourself and others. These core values affect your behavior in many ways. They give your life meaning and satisfaction; in your view, success is more than money and prestige. They provide you with direction, guiding you through the temptations and distractions of life toward a consistent set of priorities. This consistency is the foundation for all your relationships. Your friends call you dependable. “I know where you stand,” they say. Your Belief makes you easy to trust. It also demands that you find work that meshes with your values. Your work must be meaningful; it must matter to you. And guided by your Belief theme it will matter only if it gives you a chance to live out your values.

Empathy

You can sense the emotions of those around you. You can feel what they are feeling as though their feelings are your own. Intuitively, you are able to see the world through their eyes and share their perspective. You do not necessarily agree with each person’s perspective. You do not necessarily feel pity for each person’s predicament—this would be sympathy, not Empathy. You do not necessarily condone the choices each person makes, but you do understand. This instinctive ability to understand is powerful. You hear the unvoiced questions. You anticipate the need. Where others grapple for words, you seem to find the right words and the right tone. You help people find the right phrases to express their feelings—to themselves as well as to others. You help them give voice to their emotional life. For all these reasons other people are drawn to you.

Responsibility

Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it. If for some reason you cannot deliver, you automatically start to look for ways to make it up to the other person. Apologies are not enough. Excuses and rationalizations are totally unacceptable. You will not quite be able to live with yourself until you have made restitution. This conscientiousness, this near obsession for doing things right, and your impeccable ethics, combine to create your reputation: utterly dependable. When assigning new responsibilities, people will look to you first because they know it will get done. When people come to you for help—and they soon will—you must be selective. Your willingness to volunteer may sometimes lead you to take on more than you should.

Deliberative

You are careful. You are vigilant. You are a private person. You know that the world is an unpredictable place. Everything may seem in order, but beneath the surface you sense the many risks. Rather than denying these risks, you draw each one out into the open. Then each risk can be identified, assessed, and ultimately reduced. Thus, you are a fairly serious person who approaches life with a certain reserve. For example, you like to plan ahead so as to anticipate what might go wrong. You select your friends cautiously and keep your own counsel when the conversation turns to personal matters. You are careful not to give too much praise and recognition, lest it be misconstrued. If some people don’t like you because you are not as effusive as others, then so be it. For you, life is not a popularity contest. Life is something of a minefield. Others can run through it recklessly if they so choose, but you take a different approach. You identify the dangers, weigh their relative impact, and then place your feet deliberately. You walk with care.

Put On A Happy Face! Ü

As I look into the emptiness of the office cubicles, one poster strucked me always. As my company move to a new site, I'm sure that poster will be left behind. So I'm copying it to my blog so that it will always inspire me to do it daily and so that it could inspire other people to do it as well.

A SMILE costs nothing, but gives much. It enriches those who receive, without making poorer those who give.

A SMILE creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in the business and is the countersign of friendship.

A SMILE brings rests to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and is nature's best antidote for trouble.

Yet a SMILE cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away.

Some people are too tired to give you a SMILE. Give them one of yours, as none needs a SMILE so much as he who has no more to give :-)

Surely if only everybody smile at each other sincerely, everybody will feel better and get along better. It starts with me. I must not be a passive receiver always, sometimes I have to be a proactive giver! As the short saying tells us, a smile is free so don't be a scrooge! Who knows, your smile may make someone's day complete (I know who makes mine...) or make someone's day start right! hehe.

Review on "Care for Christmas?"

While searching for the website of our Church, I stumbled upon this interesting review of our Christian Christmas play, "Care for Christmas?". I just want to share it with you.

A Review of Two Musical Plays

Dec 28, 2006
- Kathy C. Uykiat
"Tsinoy: Chopsuey"

Care for Christmas?

The Chancellor has prepared a Christmas musical for all members of United Evangelical Church of Malabon. I admire the originality of the playwright, Tim Benedicion. His target viewers are the busy people who do not care about Christmas. Hensie Reyes and Wenselyn Reyes are responsible for the lyrics and music while Nenel Arcayan, a Chancellor repertory directed the musical play.

This story tells about the life of the Pilgrims. Richard Pilgrim is the head of the family. He is a corporate businessman who makes himself so busy during Christmas season and neglects his family because of his work schedule. Sarah, Richard's wife is a rich woman who does not stop to bother about her children even during the Christmas season. Peter Pilgrim is their eldest son who is relatively quiet but more mature than his siblings. Tracy Pilgrim is their second child and the eldest sister who holds her own opinion higher than anyone else. Henry Pilgrim is their third son and actor wannabe. He overemphasizes everything he says and does. Malcolm Pilgrim is their fourth child, a bit mischievous and the narrator of the story. Sandy Pilgrim is their fifth child but she acts more like a child and wants everyone to be done her way. Their youngest child Alice Pilgrim is sweet, adorable, and innocent. She may hold insights unknown to other family members.

Other characters that are significant to this play are Jack Dawson, Richard's right hand man and Kim Clark, Richard's secretary. The white clothed man represents Jesus Christ who is interested to see how different characters interact with Him and how people treat him during this time of the year.

The conflict of this drama starts when Tracy and Sandy had a fight over a small matter, and then Alice tried to stop them both but she was accidentally pushed away by Tracy. Alice lost her consciousness and needed to be brought in the hospital. This incident happened on Christmas eve. There is a 50 percent possibility for her to live. Richard blamed God for what happened as he lost his hope. On the other hand, his sons reminded him that God never leave them. They cited some examples such as the materials blessings that they possess to show that God is powerful and He had always blessed them from the start. The tragedy brought a good outcome because the whole family commit themselves to Christ, followed by the positive changes in their lives.

This musical play simply teaches us that we must hold on to the promises of God. He is always there for us but we have to surrender ourselves to Him first before we attain His wonderful grace, His salvation. Remember that the purpose of this Christmas is to commemorate His wonderful gift to us. God gave us His Son to save us from our sins.

The message is very apt even if it is not Christmas season. We are about halfway through the year, so it is a good time to evaluate again our lives, to really search where is God in our lives.

Color Quiz

Haha... Is this true kaya? This test is a kind of personality test which determines your attitude and your possible problem. It is similar to the one I had undergone during the choir's outing - the DISC test, which determines your strength and weakness. But it is different in its method. It made me understand myself and others a little more.

Well, some of the statements sometimes reflect my inner thoughts. Well, let's just say that the results are not always reflective. People change so these statements will definitely change. But it is still fun to know, right? Hehe Ü Enjoy!

Byron took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "His need to feel more causative and to have a wide..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

Elections and the Fear of God

Have you ever thought how life would be easier if everybody would just get along, if everybody would love and care for each other, if everyone would just be nice to one another without thinking that he or she might get something out of being nice... what a world that would have been!

And yet God chose to place us in this world where, most of the time, people do things out of selfishness, pride, jealousy, foolishness and many other reasons. The sad thing is, most of the time, people are not unaware of what they are doing. It is the same as a person who puts shades while doing these horrible things. They know it is bad enough to even think about these things (they see through their shades), but they still do it (pretending not to see it). The recent Philippine election was a testament to this fact. We see people deliberately killing each other for the position - no wonder they say that in the Philippines, "People would even kill just to serve." Actually, we should add a follow-up question "They serve who?"

The Bible accounts in Judges the many errors of God's people so that we could learn from their mistakes. I agree with what my Bible Study leader has been repeatedly saying in the Bible Study..."Not only did the Israelites went through the cycle of forsaking God, but they (this includes the judges) also became worst and worst than before." The Israleites knew what they were doing was wrong and yet they chose to do it out of convenience, practicality, and fear of others.

The manner of forsaking God maybe different from that time to this generation, but one way or another if we are not careful, we will relive the mistakes of the Israelites because the root is basically the same - convenience, practicality and fear of others. I must confess that I find myself struggling in this battle arena. How many times have I said I'm sorry because I hurt others? How many times have I made wrong decisions in my life? How many times have I tried to people please than to please my God?

I could still remember a story from when I was a youth. What if God was a guest in your house, would you let him in your living room only where you show off the finest materials, furniture, and household wares? What if He asks you to let Him enter your bedroom or your closet? Would you bring Him to where you go, where you work, where you hang out? Will you let Him in your secrets? I'm sure that if it is someone special, you wouldn't dare to show off your bad traits or the bad side of you! Why? Because there is an element of embarrassment or a hint of fear.

When we come before our God, let us strip ourselves of all these things. He is a holy God, therefore we should also strive to be holy. It is a fact that we cannot be perfect in this world, but God is glorified when we strive to be like Him in this ungodly world. Let us not wait until that time when we don't even feel the shame of doing evil things or when we blatantly (in the open without the shades) do these things. I pray that we will all be men and women who fear God more than we fear circumstances and people.

Dazed Amid the Blaze

My thoughts:

Last night was a very scary night for the people in Caloocan specifically 8th Ave. (I live a street away from the main street of 8th Ave. where the real blaze is happening). Although my family were a street away, I could still feel the heat, the fire burning. As I go up to the 5th floor terrace, I could see a small shanty and several others around it being swallowed in flames.

As I recall, I've been in this situation before when my neighbors house got burned also. Back then, I really had no idea what was happening. As a small child, I couldn't do anything as I was being taken care of by my mom. All I remember was being held by my mom as we went out of the house to a nearby relative's house for safety. This time around as an adult, I suddenly felt dazed/confused in all the commotion.

Suddenly,...
1) Priorities are tested (What should I bring if ever the flames get near - what I need or what I want?)
2) True care is measured (As I look into the burning house, I thought of the people who lived in that shanty. I also thought about the adjacent house which sold gas tanks for the stove. I thought to myself "what if the fire gets into that house?" - selfish or for others)
3) Tensions arise (I told my brothers to quickly pack something - maybe 3 sets of clothes and to just stay put),
4) Lessons are learned (Is this a reminder from God to cherish what He has given me? What is God saying in all this?)

I said a little prayer in the midst of this that went something liek this.

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My prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, I may not know what is your purpose in doing this. I may not know what is to happen to me or anyone. I may not know of many things, but this i know - that You, o Lord, are a great and good God. I know in your perfect will and timing that You have planned all things to happen. Yes, I am finite and You are infinite. I pray that You are still glorified in the midst of this. Help me not to be too concerned of myself. Help me to be a person who gives praise and thanks always even in the midst of suffering and sadness. I pray for comfort to those who have lost their homes in this blaze. Be with us tonight! In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Through the Bandages

My thoughts:

Last March 11, my high school friends and I visited one of our high school friends (Mark) who had just undergone a major surgey a few times already. We, together with Mark's college school mates, had prepared a surprise party for him in his house. Of course, I had been Mark classmate for a long time now. I'm not sure when it started but I think we were classmates since kindergarten if I remember it correctly. It was good to see him again in person after not seeing him after graduation. Sadly, I has no contact with him for about 5 years til that day. My only source of news about him was Abigail and Adeline.

Anyway, when we gathered at his house's living room, we really did surprise him, even his parents. No one knew about the party, but still Mark and his parents welcomed all of us. When we saw Mark, he had a bandage on the right portion of his face where the operation was done. Each of us told something about how Mark has influenced our lives. One way or another, he has been the silent supporter of all of us. He truly was a God-sent friend who would walk out of his way to help his friends in need. The testimony went on for a long time but still God gave him strength to be able to listen to all of our testimonies about him and God's benevolence in his life.

When his dad shared about his last surgery, I couldn't help but think of how God was in control of the whole situation. The timing, the place, the people who operated, the people who were inspired - all was God's handiwork! What was more amazing is how God is continually using mark's life as a beacon that would reflect God's glory all the time. His persistence in coming to church despite having undergone the surgery is very touching and it shows how He values God in his life.

The bandages was not a hindrance to coming to church because, inside mark was a very healthy Christian! I hope and pray that you get better each day so that we can praise and worship God together!

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My prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for letting me get to know you better in the person of Mark Alvin Chua. I know that You have ways of teaching us how to be good Christians and I believe You have used Mark as an inspiration of how we should not give excuses in doing the things that will glorify You. May you continue to bless Mark and his family and I sincerely pray for Mark's gradual recover. Thank you for the opportunity to meet him again after many years. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.