Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Strength #4: Context

It shouldn't be a surprise that this post appears before I write the next post about a book I just finished. I feel like I need to explain myself.

A while ago I wrote about a test I took online related to a book I read that helps reveal a person's strengths. I listed my strengths as revealed by this test and explained a bit about the strength that appeared first, which was learner.

This other strength, as determined by this test, is context. It is defined this way:

You look back. You look back because that is where the answers lie. You look back to understand the present. From your vantage point the present is unstable, a confusing clamor of competing voices. It is only by casting your mind back to an earlier time, a time when the plans were being drawn up, that the present regains its stability. The earlier time was a simpler time. It was a time of blueprints. As you look back, you begin to see these blueprints emerge. You realize what the initial intentions were. These blueprints or intentions have since become so embellished that they are almost unrecognizable, but now this Context theme reveals them again. This understanding brings you confidence. No longer disoriented, you make better decisions because you sense the underlying structure. You become a better partner because you
understand how your colleagues came to be who they are. And counterintuitively you become wiser about the future because you saw its seeds being sown in the past. Faced with new people and new situations, it will take you a little time to orient yourself, but you must give yourself this time. You must discipline yourself to ask the questions and allow the blueprints to emerge because no matter what the situation, if you haven't seen the blueprints, you will have less confidence in your decisions.


So now that I've explained that, stay tuned for a book summary that I until now knew very little about: World War One.