Skip to main content

Strengths Explorer: Future Thinker

By
Your mind loves to think and dream about the future. You are a person who thinks about what is possible, not what is impossible.
Clifton Strengths Explorer


For youth with Future Thinker, the future is full of possibilities. They love to dream, create, and brainstorm. Most find thinking about the future monumentally more exciting than thinking about the present. Gallup writes, “your visions of the future might be bigger than most people’s because thinking big is one of your talents.” Future Thinkers don’t just think about the future for fun, they enjoy doing so in order to find meaning. They are naturally oriented to look for meaning and purpose in what they do. Gallup explains, “You like to think about the important things in life, what they mean, and how they are connected to reach other.”

At our strengths day in McCook, Nebraska this year, I had the opportunity to sit down with a young woman and explain her strengths to her. During our discussion she mentioned that she has a hard time concentrating in class. I asked why that was, and she said that her mind wanders to her cupcake store. So I asked naively, you own a cupcake store?! She replied, “I will.” She went on to explain what it will look like, the colors of the walls, and the flavors she will sell. You see she led with Future Thinker, so to this young lady, the future of owning a cupcake store was so much more fascinating and exciting than anything she was learning in the classroom.

31.5% of our TeamMates mentees have Future Thinker in their Top 3 SE themes. In research conducted with Gallup using the Gallup student poll, our mentees have higher levels of hope. Hope is the energy and excitement we have about the future. The reason our mentees have higher hope is because they have something consistent to look forward to each week-their mentor coming to visit. By just showing up in a consistent regular way, you are building on your mentee’s hopefulness. And if your mentee has the Future Thinker theme, by just showing up, you are implicitly sending them the message that their dreams matter and can one day come to fruition. Even if their dreams about the future seems highly unlikely, even if they pester you with questions about life that you haven’t discovered the answer to, and even if they seem inattentive as their mind wanders to their future cupcake shop, show up anyway.
-Tess


Image Credit: (http://strengthsschool.com/future-thinker-strengths-explorer/) 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Strengths Activity: DBT House

By
The featured activity this week has become a recent favorite of the TeamMates Strengths Team. I learned of it by attending the Green Hills AEA Conference this past summer. The breakout presenter, Louise El Yafoori, taught on mitigating culturally sensitive trauma. This activity comes from the practice of Dialectical Behavior Therapy. While it can be used in very targeted ways for working with certain groups of kids, we found it a powerful reflective exercise that we all could benefit from. We facilitated this activity at our annual strengths day at the Gallup campus this year and the results of this learning and self reflection were highly impactful. Consider doing this activity with your mentee as a way to deepen the conversation around strengths and talent by incorporating discussions of values, role models, support systems, and more. Activity Instructions:  On a blank piece of paper, sketch out a house. Your house should include: a foundation, walls, windows, a door, roof, ch
Post a Comment
Read more

Achiever: Fulfillment from Accomplishment

By
People exceptionally talented in the Achiever theme work hard and possess a great deal of stamina. They take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive. Clifton StrengthsFinder We are excited to hear from Stephanie Pravecek about Achiever this week. Steph is the Events Coordinator for TeamMates and leads with Achiever, Responsibility, Discipline, Consistency, and Relator. People with high Achiever are hard workers, list makers, and doers. It is very difficult for Achievers to take a break when there is a task at hand that needs to be completed.  Once one task is complete it is on to the next and then the next. Achievers set out each day to accomplish at least one task but, there is much more fulfillment when multiple things are crossed off the “to-do” list for the day. This does include weekends and vacations, as REST or RELAX are not words you often hear in the vocabulary of an Achiever. As a guest blogger this week, I am going to put more of a personal ton
28 comments
Read more

Strengths Activity- Strengths Metaphors

By
A fun activity we have done with students is Strengths Metaphors. We often have a tendency to limit and confine our strengths to the two-sentence definition of the theme we find on the 34 list. Strengths manifest uniquely in each person based on their other 5 or 2 themes, their age, their background, their life experiences, and so much more. The Strengths Metaphors activity is a great way to break the themes of out of the boxes we put them in. Fill out the worksheet or engage in a conversation using the prompts on the sheet. Pick one of your top 5 or top 3 themes.  Describe what the theme looks like, what color you would associate with it, what it smells like, what it sounds like, and any other sensory descriptors you would add to the selected theme.  Share with your mentee and ask your mentee to share with you. Share with each other why you chose to assign these specific descriptors to the strength.  If you have similar strengths to each other, discuss the differences between
3 comments
Read more