Threshold Consulting: It's Your Life, Own It!

Take Assessment Further: Discover Your Vision for Your Life

Recently, I took a version of the Birkman. I now have new insights into my life style, areas of interest, and job strengths. As a career coach, I have good familiarity with several assessment instruments, including the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, the Strong Interest Inventory, the DISC, and the Clifton Strenghts Finder. Overall, I feel that these instruments can provide powerful insights into one’s preferences, interests, style and talent themes. So, I do think taking such assessments is worth the investment.

Still, I think the insights gained can only take you so far. They don’t really help you create a vision for living your life. For that you need to answer questions that get at your values, passions, vision and purpose. While there are many questions and exercises to help you uncover these, I want to share one set of questions that I particularly like.

Discovering Your Hidden Assets

Take a moment to consider your success in your career and in your life. Make sure to pat yourself on the back for your many achievements. Now, ask yourself, what have you brought to your work and life that led to your success? Chances are you will have identified assets that are in your life portfolio, especially your knowledge and skills.

Now consider this: What if you’re overlooking key elements of your success? Might you be even more successful, if you knew and could manage attributes that make you stand out? Certainly you would gain a practical advantage, but you would also reach a deeper and more satisfying self understanding.

Getting "You" into Your Self Assessment

Assessment. Now, there’s a word you probably don’t take time to think about. It means to determine a value, as in the price for a piece of property, or to determine a level, as in a level of risk. Given these meanings, it’s safe to say that you make lots of daily assessments. Mostly you assess the external world, making determinations that support your choices. And that’s a good thing; for without weighing external factors, you could be making careless decisions.

Increasingly, people like you also look internally, making self assessments. Despite the discomfort associated with the appraisals that are so ingrained in your organizational life, you want feedback. So do lots of other folks. In response to this appetite, our pop-psychology-driven culture continually seeks to spark your curiosity about how you measure up in various ways. Whether it’s a short questionnaire in popular women’s and men’s magazine, a Tickle.com test, or a short test in a chain e-mail, you want to know.