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[Music]
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after interviewing tens of thousands of
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people about their work everyone from
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housekeepers to salespeople to teachers
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to generals all different kinds of
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people all good at their job the biggest
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most enduring discovery that I've come
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to at least and there's a lot of
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different discoveries but but the most
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enduring discovery is that work I mean
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the experience of working can be great
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it can thrill you and it can challenge
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you and it can it can restore you it can
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make you feel powerful strong I mean not
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every day right I mean there's days when
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you come in and it's like everyone's
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just taken and I wanna annoy Marcus pill
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or or days when you come in it's just
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boring but there are the moments at work
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on there there are other moments moments
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where you get to feel like you're really
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using your strengths well you get in
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that zone where we're the right
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decisions just just comes so easily to
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you or when you feel creative Without
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Really Trying and you and you just got
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one idea after another well you feel you
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feel challenged in just the way that you
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like to be challenged or moments when
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you dive into something and you get so
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involved in it so focused on it that
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when you're done with it you're not
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tired in fact you're kind of fulfilled
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and you and you almost wish that the
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activity that you were doing well your
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whole job was that activity moments like
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that what can be great just because it
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can show you how great you can be and
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your company knows this I mean that
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that's why they're forever talking about
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our people are our greatest asset they
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know that if you and everybody else but
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if you can find a role in which you can
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play to your strokes most of the time
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then everybody wins you win because you
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feel more productive more engaged you're
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your teammates win because they feel the
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difference you customers feel the
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difference that the company sees the
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different everybody wins so wouldn't it
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be great I mean wouldn't it be great if
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you got to play to your strengths most
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of the time if you could find a role
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where you play to your strengths for
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most of your working day I mean how cool
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would that be
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well it'd be cool but the research shows
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that actually very few of us managed to
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get to that place in fact if you ask
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this exact question if you ask what
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percentage of your typical work day do
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you spend playing To Your Strengths if
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you if you actually ask people that
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question what you get back is that less
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than two out of ten of us listen two out
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of ten of us actually got to play to our
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strengths at work I'm not an idealist I
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didn't I don't know about you but I
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didn't expect that number to be 80% I
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didn't expect eight out of ten people to
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say yeah we skipped to work we play our
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strengths most of the time I mean
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there's a reason they call it work right
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but two out of ten actually less than
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two out of ten it's actually 17% it just
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seemed really low to me and I suppose
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well for me anyway that begs a question
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and that question is are you one of the
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two out of ten and if you aren't how'd
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he get to be now it wasn't always this
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way was it I mean it wasn't always this
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way when you were a kid I mean if you
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think back to when you were kid didn't
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you on some level kind of know
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instinctively what got you out of bed
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every day you knew what classes you
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wanted to go to or what or what teachers
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you wanted to hang out with or what our
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kids you wanted to go play you snow in
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stink tively wonder what your strengths
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were what strengthened you and you and
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you kind of felt maybe you could not
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tick you later but you you kind of felt
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that that the world was gonna wait for
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you and one day you're gonna pop out and
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and and you're unique mark was gonna be
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made on the world and then sometime
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between then and now some part of that
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childish hopefulness evaporates doesn't
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it withers away and we get to work and
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we're not really sure what our mark is
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anymore
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now there's all kinds of reasons why
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that happens why don't we lose touch
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with what our strengths are and what our
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contributions should be we got to fit in
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we got to do what our parents want us to
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do we got to get a job we got to pay the
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bills and then you get the job and then
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you're gonna do it your boss once and
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then here's your job description and we
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got to do what the company wants so yeah
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maybe some of those things are to blame
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for getting you off your strengths path
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but I think
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I think if you look closely you might
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find that what's holding you back from
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really playing To Your Strengths isn't
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this other stuff your boss your company
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your job description maybe what's
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holding you back from playing To Your
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Strengths is what you believe
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maybe you've become trapped by a very
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few myths myths that you've been told
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are true and they're not if you could
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explode those myths and if you could
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replace them with what's true and really
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act on it then maybe you could take back
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some of the control of your work and
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maybe you could spend more time
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deliberately each week spend more time
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playing To Your Strengths
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his is one of those myths that as you
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grow you change we've all heard that one
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right as you grow you're supposed to put
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away your childish traits you're
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supposed to acquire more skills and
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acquire more experiences and become more
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balanced more well-rounded you're
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supposed to become an adult but the
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problem is it isn't true the truth is as
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you grow you don't change your
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personality as you grow you become more
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and more and more of who you already are
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my son Jackson jaxa text four and a half
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years old and already I know some stuff
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about him I can see that Jack physically
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hates to lose not in a I prefer winning
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to losing kind of way that all kids have
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but in a physical hatred of losing he
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seizes his favorite football team on TV
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losing he almost were not almost he
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can't stay in the room he's got a run
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out he's got to bury his head in the
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cushions and like pretend he can't see
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it
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so that he can't see it I mean the kid
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just hates to lose I've also seen and
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this is odd but because I don't have any
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of this he has a craving for order this
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is the kid that won't close the fridge
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door unless the ketchup has been told so
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the labels facing out o or who panics
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when we're on the plane and I leaned
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forward to close the blind of the window
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that might just might partially belong
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to the seat in front of me I told you
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that dad that is well although that is
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those personality traits in a four and a
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half year old and kind of funny bottom
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line for Jack is they ain't gonna change
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he's gonna have that same craving to win
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at forty four as he doesn't
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and at 84 when he sees his grandkids
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with their playthings littered all over
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the player room floor his need for
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structure is still gonna fire off so the
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point of life the jack isn't to replace
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that the point is to channel it his his
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dreams may change his his circumstances
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may change his achievements may change
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but the core of him the the strongest
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and most dominant parts of his
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personality those are gonna stay the
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same those are going to stay constant
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and so will yours
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and that's okay now this doesn't mean he
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can't grow and you can't grow and I
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can't grow it doesn't mean that we can't
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learn new skills we can but this
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actually points to the two the second
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myth that might be holding you back
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the myth that you're gonna grow the most
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you're gonna learn the most in the areas
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where you're weakest that one sounds odd
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but if you think about it it was
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ingrained in you really early wasn't it
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because when you when you were a kid and
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you were in class or you're in school
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and and you found out you were good at
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maths but not very good at English you
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didn't get more maths did you you got
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more English you got remedial English
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and your parents were in on this game
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they were part of the in graining
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process gallop the gallop organization
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once asked this question your child
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comes home with the following grades
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English a social studies a biology C
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algebra F which grade deserves the most
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attention from you the question didn't
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say if you pick one of the grades you've
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got to ignore all the others it just
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said hey look here the grades and you've
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only got one thing to invest in your
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child your time
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which grade deserves the most attention
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the most time from you 77% of parents
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would focus on the F now the point here
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isn't that you should ignore the F any
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more than you should ignore your own
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weaknesses you can't ignore weaknesses
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the point is simply and the the truth if
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you like the truth that should replace
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the myth is that you're going to grow
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the most you're going to develop the
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most in the areas where you already know
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the most you grow the most in your areas
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of strength in your areas of weakness
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yeah you can learn but what learnings
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you
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gained our achieved with great effort
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and difficulty and you don't get very
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much bang for your buck I mean me
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growing up I had a weakness for
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confrontation I'm not this wasn't very
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good at confronting people Ike remember
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you know when I had to try and persuade
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my dad that I wanted to do something
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that he wouldn't let me do I would I
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would prepare I would I would think
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about the arguments I wanted to make or
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the the examples that I'd pick and I
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even actually rehearsed the actual words
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the actual words I would use I would be
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totally prepared but somehow in the heat
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of the moment in the heat of the
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confrontation my my brain would shut my
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mouth down just couldn't find the words
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they'd get like stuck in the Gaza door
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gives it or whatever this part of the
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neck is it stuck right here I choked
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every tell him now going into the
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workplace people figured this out about
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me and they counseled me they'd sort of
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take me under their wing and say you
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know here's a nice assertiveness
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training course go take that or that
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they give me little tips and hints you
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know some of which by the way quite good
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always look people directly in the eye
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if you want to confront them or um or as
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they raise their voice lower yours all
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good stuff and I worked at it and I got
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better I got better I went from terrible
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to really bad I'm much much better use
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of my time would have been to take all
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that training effort and energy and
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stuff and put it into my strengths
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because if you want to grow like me
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you're gonna have to take all your
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creativity or your effort all of your
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push and your drive and invest in those
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areas where you have some natural
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strengths there there you're gonna see
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giant leaps of learning so do that
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manage around the weaknesses and I know
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I mean you you hear that and you go yeah
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that'd be great
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I'd be nice awesome but I actually don't
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work alone why cuz I actually work in a
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team I work in a place where people
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expect all kinds of different things of
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me
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I can't selfishly just focus on my
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strengths the team the people at work
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right there they need more from me the
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team needs me to to chip in and do
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whatever it takes to help the team isn't
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that actually the right
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the responsible thing to do put your
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strengths second to the needs of the
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team well in a word no no that's
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actually the the third myth that might
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be holding you back from living a life
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the place to your strengths the myth
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that what the team needs from you is to
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put aside your strengths and do whatever
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it takes to help the team win the truth
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is that what the team needs from you is
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not a chip in it needs you to it needs
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you to find out what your strengths are
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and volunteer those most of the time
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because if you look at the best teams
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they're not filled with perfectly well
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rounded people the team is well rounded
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precisely because each of the players
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isn't and I know just like you do
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conventional wisdom has been banging on
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for years about how the fact that you
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got to put yourself aside for the
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benefit of the team when conventional
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wisdom resides in cliches doesn't it
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like like there's no I in team but as
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Michael Jordan once said there isn't
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when I mean if you want to be part of a
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really strong powerful rockin team then
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then then you're not chipping in are you
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you're figuring out what your strengths
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are and you're volunteering that most of
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the time and hopefully everybody else on
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the team is doing the same so if you
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want to be part of a great team do that
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a lot figure out what the best is that
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you've got to bring and then bring it
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often then you'll win you know if you
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want to become one of the two out of ten
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then above everything else try and
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remember this when it comes to how you
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spend your time at work you may have a
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lot more control than you think
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I mean sure there's only two out of ten
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people that get to play to their
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strengths most at the time but maybe the
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only thing that's stopping you from
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joining them is what you believe to
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become one of the two out of ten it's
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not about changing jobs or changing
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bosses or changing companies it's about
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changing what you believe if you can
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take those three myths that may well be
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holding you back and explode them and
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put in their place those three truths I
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mean really understand what those three
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truths are that that if you that if you
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grow as you grow you don't become
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somebody else you become more and more
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and more free already are but you're
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gonna grow and develop the most in your
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areas of greatest strength and then what
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your team needs of you most of all is
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for you to bring those strengths
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deliberately I mean if you can really
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put those into practice then you can
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start taking control of how you spend
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your time at work and don't expect
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dramatic change around out of the game
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because I don't I mean you're gonna come
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into work tomorrow
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that's gonna be the same people and it's
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gonna be the same company and it's gonna
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be the same need same expectations but
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but so what
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don't get discouraged start anyway start
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taking control of how you spend some of
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your time at work start putting some of
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your minutes around your strengths
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rather around your weaknesses don't wait
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for that perfect job or that perfect
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company or that perfect basket because
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these things may never come start today
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start figuring out how you can focus
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more of your minutes on your strengths
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this week than you did last week start
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taking control today change how some of
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those minutes are spent at work start
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playing To Your Strengths
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[Music]
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[Music]
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you
