The only thing more interesting than a story about another person is a story about our own self.
Why is this so?
Because, naturally, most of us are more interested in reading about ourselves than reading a condensed history of the ten most famous people who ever lived.
This is the natural way of human behaviour and there doesn’t seem to be any indication that this is suddenly about to change.
DFQ #07:
In 100 words or less, post a story about yourself.Focus on your Top Strength from DFQ#6 and think of an amusing story that illustrates, or derives from, your top strength.
As you think about this story, recall some details about the setting, the people involved, the provocation and the ‘punch line’ or the outcome.
Don’t feel the need to interpret the story or comment too much on it–just tell it!
We are your devoted audience. Make it a good one 🙂
(NOTE: I realise this is a bit like karaoke and asks you to step-up. But if this DFQ is not for you, no problem, just skip it. All SOT training (even leadership training) is opt-in/opt-out).
Curiosity is one of my strengths. When working in a small town in Argentina I noticed a sign for the annual spring dance that the local community was organising. So not being sure what it was all about I decided to find out a little bit more and stuck my nose in while all the preparations were going on. To my delight they were in the process on organising the spring queen parade, and even more delightful was the problem they faced … one of their judges had pulled out. I think being a foreigner and that I showed some curiosity and interest I ended up being a judge which was a pretty fun experience.
I’ve chosen perspective to talk about. This is an interesting for me as I tend to use this on a daily basis. Not being an engineer, I am amazed at the number of times I site with very experienced engineers to review designs and am able to identify significant flaws. This is nothing special on my part but does show the advantage of looking at things from a different perspective. It keeps me in a job …
Not so good on the story telling but here goes. I had just relocated with my husband and this had been a particularly stressful time he had not found the move as easy as he thought he would. I didn’t know anyone in the city.
I’d been in a new city for 2 days and he needed to work late. Around midnight I heard the door open and yelling and he’d been hit by a car walking home covered in blood, concussed and not coherent he just wanted to clean up an go to bed. Not a good idea I thought I called an ambulance and they needed to take him to hospital, they asked if I wanted to follow but as I had no idea where the hospital was they agreed I could travel with them.
Ambulance staff, hospital staff and his co-workers who I managed to track down were all fantastic. After 36 hours I finally got to go home and crash myself. It’s amazing what you can achieve on adrenaline, and knowing you need to be there for someone else.
The first mind was to skip this DFQ because of weakness my English.
I started to learn English almost a year ago in my early fifties. My desire is to read, write and speak English fluently. I believe that my today’s weakness will become the strong one. Because of PRR, of course.
So I am glad to gotten into the SOT.
With incantation “SDNT CVSTOBVS QRH PRR” I will get any accomplishments I want.
That’s it.
I don’t mind the karaoke element. I like to talk about myself. However, I am struggling to find a relevant and interesting story…
Curiosity is my strength, which does make a lot of sense to me. Now to find a story about it.
All I have for now is a nice anecdotal story which is funny and illustrates cvs2bvs very well.
On the first meeting of my Wife’s best friend, we exchanged a kiss on the cheek which for some Australians is a bit familiar. For me it was not common, but welcome.
On saying goodbye the cheek- kiss was accompanied by a very enthusiastic grasp of my bottom.
I was surprised, but this is my kind of thing, so I returned the gesture, with a little more gusto than was offered to me.
This was received with a negative reaction and a look of slight disgust, but nothing was said. I didn’t know why she reacted this way, but I didn’t let it bother me.
On the way home I mentioned the exchange to my Wife and told her that I couldn’t understand why she would initiate the tone, then react the way she did.
My wife then told me that she knew the reason. It was in fact my Wife who had grabbed me inappropriately while the kiss on the cheek was taking place.
We found it very funny, and I see that it is a great example of three people with a different cvs. My Wife’s cvs being a bvs for me!!
I’m not good with stories about myself
Once upon a time, I thought it was just great to have an MBA. I like it and enrolled for the study and I graduated. Then, only I found out I was no master … and supposely I am a Master in Business Administration. But far from it, it should be Minor in Business Administration MBA, and I am starting again ….
I was woring overseas in a team environment. We made a judgement call that caused a lot of angst. So much so the Minister and health officals wanted us to recind our judgement. The three of us were adamant we had made the right call and against nationial castigation on TV, the radio and in the newpapers we stuck to our position. Several weeks later other international consultants were called in to
” review our position” a very stressful time for us. Fortunately everything we said was validated! this not only made us feel good and relieved but people then stated how much they valued our opinions! We wondered if that would have been the case had the outcome been different but we were pleased we let integrity drive our desision and we did not give into the the threats and fear. A lesson well learned.
Caring.
i was on a holiday with two friends and there partners who were coincidentally friends from school also. We had planned a trip to the beach for a week. and by day one i could already feel the tension between the two couples. For some reason they didnt like each other and somehow had convinced my friends to feel the same way. it was the last night and the couples had decided to do there own seprate activities myself caught up in the middle had decided to remain neutral. and it wasnt long before they had broken out in an argument. There was yelling screaming pushing and shoving and once everyone had settled and everyone had returned to there seprate rooms my friend had broken out into an anxiety attack i had absolutely no idea what to do but some how my subconscious and common sense took over. as he lay there gasping for air and convulsing i had ordered his girlfriend to move away. i started to imitate calm relaxed breathing and for him to focus on nothing but deep breaths. it was amazing i had took charge and in no time at all he returned back to normal. scared is an understatement.
I think of myself as a “jack of all trades”, pretty persistent and stubborn. It’s fitting therefore that my story includes ostriches, for they are known to bury their heads in the sand. No, they don’t actually, that’s a myth. They do have long, long necks that are weirdly supple and amazingly strong. When our kids were tiny, my husband and I decided to swop our city life and give up our busy careers for a quiet family life on a farm in the South African Karoo.
We had plenty of ostriches on our farm and I was soon to find out that rearing ostrich chicks isn’t for the fainthearted. A large percentage of incubated chicks are born with a “club foot”. The chicks also get attacked by ants and literally get eaten up. I discovered through trial and error (and a lot of persistence) that Terramycin for humans works for ostrich chicks. It cures ant bites in a day. I also figured out a way of making foot casts out of wire hairpins that worked like a dream. Together with my husband we devised a fail proof way of introducing incubated chicks back into the wild with “odopted” parents. We regularly had school kids visit our farm and it was on one of these occasions that I unwittingly chose to inspect a newly hatched batch of chicks. As I was walking through the ostrich camp towards the boundary fence where all the kids were, I suddenly felt a rush of air at shoulder height. Instinctively I knew I was in trouble and without a glance I ran.
I have no recollection of how I got to be standing on one side of the fence next to a bunch of kids, with an angry flapping ostrich facing us on the opposite side. I am told that I could have put the best Olympic hurdlers to shame the way I cleared that fence!