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Strengths Explorer: Achieving

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You have more energy and more goals than other people. You love a sense of accomplishment.
Clifton Strengths Explorer

Youth with Achieving in their top 3 enjoy getting things done. They thrive on challenges and goals that allow them to accomplish tasks-big and small. Gallup writes about those with Achieving, “the more you get done, the more you feel like a successful person…An award, a good grade, or praise can mean a lot to you because it feels good when your effort and ability are noticed.” Youth with Achieving are hard workers and are always looking to go above and beyond what is required of them.  

When you think about the youth in your life, can you name someone like this? I know I can. One student I interacted with at Johnson-Brock on our strengths day comes to mind. Once of the activities we love to do with youth on strengths days is ask them to depict the senses of their strengths. We give them utensils and a blank piece of card stock in order to show what their strengths sound like, smell like, taste like, feel like, or look like. The results are astounding. This mentee with high Achieving, was one of the first ones to complete her drawing. Her drawing depicted Achieving beautifully, but her actions did even more. Right when she was done, long before most others had started, she hopped up and asked, “what’s next?” When I explained that we are going to wait until others are done, she quickly found ways to do more. First, drawing another picture on the back of her paper, then starting to collect the markers, then practicing what she might share about her drawing. All this she completed before most other students were done.

24.9% of our mentees who have taken SE have Achieving in their top 3 themes. Youth with Achieving like to do; here are a few action items, taken from the Strengths Explorer report, that can allow you to help develop your mentee’s Achieving theme.
  • Challenges are important to you. If every goal on your list is easy, it might not feel good. Set some big goals. Do you want to learn another language…. Score three goals in a game…write a song… teach yourself to skateboard? Set some goals that will really make you feel proud when you accomplish them.
  • People might tell you that you are a “self-starter” because you are always working at something. Look at the things you want to do. Make a list, and decide what is most important. Then, do those things first.
  • You work harder and longer than most people. Try to be an example and a motivator to people who are working together on teams or big projects. Sometimes, just one very hard worker helps the whole group get more done.
Tess

Image Credit (http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/12/super-hero.gif
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