I sort of wanted this post to immediately follow my weakness post but I made that blackberry post so this is going to have to do. I’m typing this up at 11pm after waking up at 7 and working a full day, followed by a track workout, and then another 3 hours of a meeting about a potential business proposition, so I’m not exactly in the mood to do this. However, considering 229 unique people have visited this site in the past month, only of which 20-30 I would think are loyal readers, I will work through what I believe is going to be a good post. Off topic real quick though. I didn’t have my phone so I didn’t set an alarm this morning and the most amazing thing happened, I woke up at 7:00 am on the dot which is when I set my alarm for. I was in disbelief. Strangely enough I awoke to a scene from Family Guy when Chris threw a javelin through Meg’s arm…

At the urging of JC, he wanted me to take this test that relates to finding out a person’s strengths and weaknesses. This was completely new to me so it was funny how it worked around my blog topics. Now I sort of want to take this paragraph and devote it to JC because I could pretty much write pages upon pages about him. JC, my dad for those who don’t know, is big on self improvement. He is always looking for ways of bettering oneself through secrets to successful thinking, healthy lifestyles, and new enhancements to try. JC is a salesperson’s dream. If you can get him to think that the product or service has any positive spin on living a better life, he’s all about it. He takes about 10 supplements each day and always has a new motto he’s preaching. The funny thing is, you’d think he would live the lifestyle of Jesus Christ with the amount of knowledge he has about living the right way. I don’t really need to go into detail but let me just say that he doesn’t always practice what he preaches. A lot of my wild side is taken directly from JC’s genes and I’m a mix of him and my mom’s prudence. So if you know how wild I can get, that’s watered down compared to him.

So he wanted me to take this test to identify my strengths. Hilariously enough, the book has a unique code in the back of it that you have to cut open to enter the code in the site. Well the reason he wanted me to take it was because he didn’t realize that you had to cut open the packet to get the code so he couldn’t figure out how to take it himself. He is really being brought into the internet age kicking and screaming. I could devote entry after entry to this but maybe later. So at his urging I spend 20 minutes taking the test answering questions about hard work, ethics, future thought, and mainly just about my value system and at the end it spits out 5 traits that they consider your strengths. I want to share each one, it’s short description, and then what I think about it. This is my blog, thus my self reflection and you can stop here if you have no interest. The 5 traits were responsibility, analytical, discipline, consistency, and individualization.

Responsibility – People with a responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say and do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty. As much as you yearn to be #1, you might realize cheating is unacceptable. Your integrity demands that you say what you mean and mean what you say. Your compliments are hard-won and genuine. As a result, people really value them.
I found this to be along the lines of truth. As CK4 can attest we play the fairest rules of beer pong with no bouncing, no deathcup, no ball bounceback, which shows the respect for rules. I am always adverse to cheating and that’s why you’ll see me end up with some 11’s on my scorecard. My praise isn’t the easiest to earn which is why I tend to point blankly point out faults of others. I seem to find more fun in telling people how bad they did something opposed to how good. However, Jkash was questioning my praise on his entries to UrbanDictionary and I once again giving him a pat on the back for being recognized.

Analytical – Driven by your talents, you may have little difficulty finding the right words at the right time to express what you are thinking or feeling. Maybe you can present your concepts in a reasonable, orderly, or methodical way. As a result, some people might say you know how to get your ideas across to people. Because of your strengths, you may be sought out for advice by individuals who appreciate your methodical thinking style. To some extent, your approach prevents people from being distracted by their own or someone else’s emotions. Perhaps you help them concentrate on the facts more than on their feelings.
I sort of felt like this one was Psych 101. I really don’t have too many people who seek my advice for much so I can’t claim that all of that is true. I would like to think I give a realist viewpoint and won’t beat around the bush. I just paraphrase the analysis but it also mentions being good with numbers and I’ve learned that some people either are awful with numbers, or just choose to ignore them when making business decisions. From reading the journal each day, I think I have a better grasp on how much 1 million vs 100 million vs 1 billion is than probably 95% of the population, which my guess would have no idea how much things in that amounts of money are worth.

Discipline – You set up procedures and guidelines for completing your tasks. You use these approaches with regularity. You probably experience less success when circumstance or people prevent you from relying on the methods that work so well for you. It’s very likely you characteristically are unsentimental and realistic, especially when you must plan how to do something efficiently, reliably, or predictably time after time.
I personally think JC has instilled some of this discipline in me. The guy literally has 10 lists going at one time and writes down everything in his follow up book. I feel like he just likes making the list sometimes more than actually completing whats on there. But these are all good things for being organized and actually completing something. He’d tell you I do a pretty good job, but could still do a better job. He’s probably right.

Consistency – Perhaps you favor the company of those who avoid conflict or refrain from spreading rumors. Chances are good that you sometimes recognize that certain individuals appreciate your practical, straightforward, or realistic way of thinking. You understand that you cannot win every contest, and now and then you even prefer to share honors with certain people.
I thought this wasn’t a bad analysis. I liked the last line because even though I’d prefer winning over losing, I really could care less about the outcomes of most things (if my money isn’t on the line).

Individualization – You now and then delight in helping people. Perhaps you hope they find your companionship pleasant and choose to spend more time with you. It’s very likely that you may update certain individuals about current events. Chances are good that you may want to offer your assistance to people.
I almost felt like this paragraph was speaking about my blog. I never thought I was doing this to help people or update them about current events, but now that I think about it, why the hell else am I writing this at now 11:45 so that you can type in my web address and entertain yourself for 10 minutes. The individualism trait might also explain why I prefer the company of myself and dislike the rest of the population.

I know that was lengthy and if you got this far I’m shocked that you would read an in depth personality test about yours truly. As avid readers of this blog you are learning more about me than I probably know about myself. I also want to point out that everyone will be honored at the end of this test so I hope I didn’t come off like a douche saying how good I am.