Moving from a Place of Strengths

Various factors play into making career decisions and managing its development.  While goals, interests and education play key roles in career development, it is strengths that are often untapped when making career considerations. Qualitative strengths (character and cultivated virtues) are perhaps a more accurate place for reflection when visioning one’s self in a life-career whether vocational or avocational (gratifying work that contributes to human fullness and fulfillment). 

Parker Palmer encourages the search for authentic vocation that “turn[s] inward and downward toward the hardest realities of our lives, rather than outward and upward toward abstraction, idealization, and exhortation." These inscapes are the stories of simple accomplishments along the lifespan that reveal our innate resources and strengths that when embraced have the greatest potential to reveal the deep gladness that meets the world’s deep need. 

Western modernity has taught us to focus on pathology, weakness and deficiencies (quantitative aspects).  While it should and is intuitive with trained minds, it is strengths (traits, character and virtues) that when assumed and developed yield genuine, intrinsic success and effectiveness.

By example meta-analyses shows that curiosity accounts for approximately 10% of the variance in academic learning and performance and 36% of the variance in self-selected career choices. Greater curiosity-related behaviors and cognitions are consistently associated with greater learning, engagement, and performance in academic settings and work organizations.[1]

A study reported that those who develop more in justice reasoning report more career fulfillment, continue their intellectual stimulation, are more involved in their community, and are more socially conscious in young adulthood.[2]

A powerful strength that can have an immense impact on ones work is attention or flow, “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”[3]

I myself have a followed serious questions derived from the depth of  personal formation and being that landed me in a seminary where I cultivated various practices that highlighted strengths and virtues that now make up my person in relationship to the customers I serve. I am not in a “ministry” in the conventional sense, but facilitate challenging contexts with people with complex needs in a community of care.   

Today there are few decent models for reflecting on personal strengths. You can try Virtues In Action, Institute on Character. VIA Survey of Character Strengths is a self-assessment that results in a report that can be vital for creating a plan for charting or developing a career, building on signature strengths and for reflecting on improved human functioning in all of life domains.  

Gallup’s StrengthsFinder profile asks: What's the right career for me? What should I consider doing now? What is my best fit? It supports movement for the vantage of strengths. 

Move from strength.    i] Assess your talents, knowledge, experience and capabilities. Sort out what you can learn from that which is innate and enduring.   ii] Don't rule out a career possibility because you lack knowledge or experience. Those things can almost always be acquired. Evaluate whether you have the needed strengths or talents instead.  iii] Take a close look at why the role seems attractive to you. Resist being drawn to a role for the wrong reasons (for example, by prestige, glamour, or power). Make sure you love to do what the role requires.

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[1] Christopher Peterson, Martin E. P. Seligman, Character Strengths and Virtues:a Handbook and Classification. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, 135.

[2] Rest, J., Deemer, D., Barnett, R., Spickemier, J., & Volker, J. (1986), “Life Experiences and Developmental Pathways. In J. Rest, Moral Development: Advances in Research and Theory (pp. 28-58). New York: Praeger.

[3] Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper Perennial, 1990.

On Patience: Reclaiming a Foundational Virtue

We can all quote some pithy adage that recalls the virtue of patience.  “Time and tide wait for no man”; “Life is short”; “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle” (attributed to Abraham Lincoln). The tortoise and the hare tale narrative remind us that it is the slow and steady the win the race.  And by race, we should mean the important stuff of life.

Matthew Pianalto, in On Patience: Reclaiming a Foundational Virtue, lifts the notion of patience from its philosophical obscurity, defends it as a multidimensional virtue which we cannot have too much. He reminds us of its deep roots such as Gregory the Great’s dictum that “patience is the root and guardian of all virtues”. The author’s overarching thesis may be succinctly summarized as “patience is a foundational virtue,” e.g. , which plays into one’s courage to act decisively when it is expedient and wisdom that purposely exercises patience in all situations.

Pianalto selects three major virtues—love, courage, and wisdom –to argue that there is a close connection between them and patience. In a broad conception of patience (gathered from Gregory), he argues, “When we wait, forbear, endure, or persevere with patience, we maintain an attitude of acceptance toward the various burdens thrust upon us by a situation” (57). This is to say that there are various aspects to the virtue of patience, viz., self-possessed waiting, forbearance, endurance, tolerance, and perseverance, while on the other hand we can wait with patience, forbear with patience or persevere with patience (buying one’s time). This is a crucial lesson for those who carry deep burdens for social change. One learns to temper virtuous anger or righteous indignation; anger is kept under rational control

Aristotle taught that patience like all virtues is constitutively valuable. Pianalto expands with the astute opinion that virtues derive their worth from their telos. That is they are valuable because they are instrumental to living a good life construed not primarily individualistically. This teleological dimension or a reference point (i.e., a worthy goal or a long term plan), informs us in a technological age where we are more prone to rely on instant responses and information that calm our anxieties and need for certainty. So what if it becomes evident to us that a goal we are pursuing is hopelessly unattainable? What if, e.g., one is terminally ill and in excruciating agony? Should she continue to be patient? Pianalto states poetically that “there is a kind of patience that endures — that can endure — even if our particular faith is shaken or our hopes are dashed” (134). Allow me to note that the opposite of faith is certainty and it is rather akin to doubt. Thus patience is more than necessary to live a fully human life. 

Text: Matthew Pianalto, On Patience: Reclaiming a Foundational Virtue, Lexington Books, 2016.

Cycling, a Catholicon for Holistic Health and Welfare

Cycling is by far one of the best fitness practices/sports all-around with its collective and inclusive benefits. I have been cycling to work, pleasure and fitness since 2008, when the price of gas hit $3 a gallon. I may have saved a lot of cash, but it's really been other benefits that are making more sense to me. Cycling is good holistically with respect to maintaining well-being. Add to this, I have found a personal response through human action,  as small as it might seem, to the global climate crisis. I began small with an old bike, riding to work, and found a reunion with the bike carrying a bodily connection with an archetypal spirit of an adventurist of local intersections amid landscapes (world of direct experience) by way of cycling field work and the inner landscape (inscapes) of narrative, language, human aspiration, poetry, paradox, myth, etc. Cycling has proven to be almost a catholicon for holistic health and wellness, and has such potential to change an individual if perhaps this account (logos) were considered and experienced by more.

See:

Get Inspired: How to get into cycling

Cycling to work can cut cancer and heart disease, says study

Car-Free or Lite Living: a Path to Sustainable Living

The Human Condition Exposed Around the Election Cycle

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. - David Hume

Is the national election a telling barometer of people's en masse functioning with respect to the hierarchy of needs?  Perhaps it is, for you can observe large sections of party support and even third party supporters and surmise an aggregate sense of where people are in terms of needs on the scale of human motivations. Luis Durani in “The Teflon Don of Politics: Donald Trump andMaslow” strongly suggests that there is currently a large segment of American culture that hungers for a personality that produces a kind of drama that addresses their lower “base needs for security, including personal, financial, health and well-being.”  The very notion of the “American Dream” for any large constituency may simply be the next upper stage in their hierarchy of needs.

There are also those who are centered on vision for changing culture with creative foresight and want of leadership that shares in such pursuit of higher, more complex issues such as national and global economy, ecology, scientific innovation, education and—dare I say it—capacity for peace (vs. the long-standing, antiquated, conventional military industrial complex). I myself have experienced persistent shifting over the years with respect to how I view leadership based on my own maturation and movement toward self-actualization (human flourishing). I have come to appreciate a non-anxious presence in myself and in others, something that is revealed in times of crisis and in one’s everyday practices.

Of course, it would challenging to ever see an self-actualized leader elected as president, since less than 1% of the population gets to that level (according to Abraham Maslow). Perhaps the deep dislike of President Obama is due to the reality that he is closer to self-actualized, as suggested by some.  Caroline Presno lists the following self-fulfilling categories for which Obama demonstrates: possessing perspective, capacity to resolve dichotomies, being respectful and humble, problem focused, and understanding and acceptance of human nature.

If anything is telling during this election cycle, it is the instinctive need for safety and survival subconsciously driving a fact-bending way of seeing things. American political culture to the dismay of some cannot evolve into a multi-party contest (better alternatives) but rather must stay mired with strident, opposing views as people with whom we disagree—those who literally pose a threat. And so people overlook the flaws and lies of a candidate, twist and contort reality to fit their group’s view of, e.g., climate change, immigration, affordable health care, gun control, etc.

There is little doubt that lower motivational functioning is certainly at play this election. In past elections, you heard much ado about, e.g., the "family"; this election people at large are concerned about jobs, money, guns, ISIS. Out in the open are the magnifications of potentially dangerous aspects of the human condition and cognition, the exposure of salient vulnerabilities of peoples and the shear disappointment of many who find no consolation in the choices for leadership before us. 

Integrity: More than Honesty

Integrity is more than simply being honest and authentic, for it has a complexity that extends beyond the literature of being “true to self” and connects with other core virtues. By definition "integrity" is derived from the word  "integer",  meaning  "wholeness".  Systems with integrity towards a common purpose are balanced, in step, and working towards a common purpose.

Psychologically it conveys the human need to recover being-in-the-world and in society. That is, with respect to extremes of the mean good, we identify the excess as self alienated at the expense of others, e.g., arrogance, boastfulness; and the deficiency as accepting external influences, that results in inauthentic self (persona), perhaps even splitting or fragmentation.

Integrity speaks into self-differentiation, as it informs us of the practice and need for goals and committed pathways even when it may costs us. In the helping field this translates in how one provides treatment of others and self with care, evidenced by helping those in need, sensitivity to the needs of others, and self-care. This examination is most vital in most professions, since they inherently require us to work outside the rigidness of policy while still meeting goals.

We get a glimpse into the complexity of integrity via Giotto Integrity Test which measures and supports reflection  of habits, attitudes and behaviors that have impact on organizations.  

Giotto Scale	Areas assessed within the context of Giotto	Low scores may indicate	High scores may indicate
Prudence	Degree of care demonstrated when carrying out tasks [4]	Prefers to leave mundane tasks to others	Careful when carrying out given tasks
Fortitude	Attitude to work	Likes to keep work in perspective	Driven by a work ethic
Temperance	The ability to control aggression in whatever form	Impatient of the foibles of others	Slow to anger and calm in the face of adversity
Justice	The fairness shown in judging the actions of others	Tends to be more emotional or suspicious when making decisions	Balanced, rational and impartial in decision- making
Faith	The sense of obedience to organizational policy	More likely to lead and innovate than follow rules	Shows obedience to authority and a sense of duty
Charity	The degree of directness, honesty and openness in dealing with others	Closed and secretive about intended actions	Honest and open when dealing with others
Hope	Assesses a sense of purpose and forward-looking approach	Somewhat traditional and wary of rapid change	Resourceful and enthusiastic about the future

The results of the Giotto Integrity Test stimulate interesting discussion and often uncover rationale for interpersonal feelings of distrust, interpersonal tension and conflict. The resulting information can be used to develop an individual’s ability to identify individual differences and respond accordingly to improve interactions in the tensions of an organization or perhaps being-in-the-world. 

Longing and Lust: Progressive, Evolutionary Sources

I share two good sources that offer a potential to inform and assist us with navigating relationships by way of language and science in this post-modern era. Being illuminated on such topics as longing and lust (eros) is so vital today, for many are deeply lonely, many marriages for reasons they know not (mostly conventional and narrow reasons at best) and many are questioning the outdated forms of marriage seeking deeper meanings, fulfillment and belonging.

One source is Christopher Ryan who co-authored with Cacilda Jetha, Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, andWhat it Means for Modern Relationships. Ryan in an interview on Ted Radio Hour helps us to get at lust and sex with his scientific dialectic. 

Ryan argues, 

“Marriage," "mating," and "love" are socially constructed phenomena that have little or no transferable meaning outside any given culture. The examples we've noted of rampant ritualized group sex, mate-swapping, unrestrained casual affairs, and socially sanctioned sequential sex were all reported in cultures that anthropologists insist are monogamous simply because they've determined that something they call "marriage" takes place there. No wonder so many insist that marriage, monogamy, and the nuclear family are human universals. With such all-encompassing interpretations of the concepts, even the prairie vole, who "sleeps with anyone," would qualify.” 

The second source is “The Transfiguration of Aloneness: David Whyte on Longing and Silence” an article by Maria Popova concerning David Whyte’s meditation in Consolations:The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words concerning the word “Longing.”

Whyte provides this insight:

In the longing and possession of romantic love, it is as if the body has been loaned to someone else but has then from some remote place, taken over the senses — we no longer know ourselves. Longing calls for a beautiful, grounded humiliation; the abasement of what we thought we were and strangely, the giving up of central control while being granted a watchful, scintillating, peripheral discrimination. The static willful central identity is pierced and wounded, violated and orphaned into its own future as if set adrift on a tide.

Together these two sources support an inner conversation that may well help us along the path of experience from loneliness unto an unfolding knowing, getting at real substance of the flourishing spirit of humanity. 

The Art of Self

One of the inherent frustrations among Westerns in modernity is the quest to discover one’s purpose, sustainable contentment, and further making a livelihood out of meaningful work. Daily we are subject to an overwhelming barrage of scripts that promise to make us safe and happy yet fail to do so.  Hence the notion of happiness is generally connected to moments in a day that must be maintained by rising above boredom or repressing chronic, internal anxieties or stress that would quickly exhaust the average person if it were not for material consumption, the technologies created to “save time” and the need to be always doing something.

Carl Jung said that with all this resistance and distraction, consciousness is still pressing forward "to its own inertia, but the unconscious lags behind, because the strength and inner resolve needed for further expansion have been sapped." Hence there is a disunity with oneself that breeds discontent. A critical atmosphere thus must develop—the necessary prelude to conscious realization. This is a quiet call from within to listen, to pay attention to the hidden, to possess the secret imprisoned in inescapable egotism yet gradually to be revealed by way of discovery, a natural progression within all of us that often goes unnoticed or unheard until it is late in life. It is the inner voice that begs your reflection now and over time and promises wholeness, completeness, human flourishing.

While I have been on this path for many years, I recently came across an exercise in Friedrich Nietzsche’s  Schopenhauer as Educator that essentially was written to provide an a starting point to youth or any searching individual who is willing to chase a set of probing questions over time as a method to assist in the cardinal yet byzantine task of knowing oneself. Nietzsche begins, and I recommend as a threshold this project.   

How can one know himself? It is a dark, mysterious business: if a hare has seven skins, a individual may skin himself seventy times seven times without being able to say, "Now that is truly you; that is no longer your outside." It is also an agonizing, hazardous undertaking thus to dig into oneself, to climb down toughly and directly into the tunnels of one's being. How easy it is thereby to give oneself such injuries as no doctor can heal. Moreover, why should it even be necessary given that everything bears witness to our being – our friendships and animosities, our glances and handshakes, our memories and all that we forget, our books as well as our pens. For the most important inquiry, however, there is a method. Let the young soul survey its own life with a view of the following question: 

Here is Nietzsche’s method laid out in the form of questions. I suggest take several weeks to do this. Lay out your musings on paper or document; keep coming back to it and lay it out, expand it as described below.  The numbering is mine for which I recommend following before moving to the next phase. I have provided some alternative translations in the brackets.

[1] "What have you up to now truly loved, [2] what has drawn your soul upward, [3] mastered [dominated] it and blessed [uplifted] it too [at the same time]?" [4] Set up these things that you have honored [revered objects] before you, and, maybe, they will show you, in their being and their order, a law which is the fundamental law of your own self. [5] Compare these objects, consider how one completes and broadens and transcends and explains another, [6] how they form a ladder on which you have all the time been climbing to your [true] self: for your true being lies not deeply hidden in you, but an infinite height above you, or at least above that which you do commonly take to be yourself.

Finally Nietzsche exhorts, “There may be other methods for finding oneself, for waking up to oneself out of the anesthesia in which we are commonly enshrouded as if in a gloomy cloud — but I know of none better than that of reflecting upon one’s educators and cultivators.” Here (the method above) Nietzsche gives us a place to start—consider those who have informed use over time, the various people and actions of others that have influenced us and have in part breathed life into us or imparted to us a model of what we intrinsically view as genuine and worthy of holding on to which may well inform us about the person we are and wish to be.