After 6 years lying dormant, I’m firing up this blog. A very 2012 thing to do, I know. In case you’re interested, here’s the reason. It may seem like I’m meandering, but stick with it. I’m going somewhere.
Since 2016, I’ve lived in two vocational worlds: church music ministry and residential real estate.
And at times, the tension between the two can be challenging in how to best spend my time. I believe God has given me a measure of success in each and that I’ve done fairly well.
However, during the busy seasons, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all that has to get done in each, which has, at times, given me a sense of burnout.
I’ve been in one of those seasons recently. When they happen, I can get very introspective and reevaluate everything.
Due to that, I have recently committed to understanding how to best use my time for each to best serve the people I serve. To do that, I’m committed to working within my strengths. Here’s how that came about.
Recently, I was on a call with other growth minded agents in a group called Inspire, and we were challenged to use the CliftonStrengths assessment as a guide to know how to best use our strengths in our real estate businesses.
CliftonStrengths (formerly StrengthsFinder) is a test I had taken years ago. It categorizes 34 strengths in order and shows you where you are most talented and least talented. The idea is to know what you’re good at and focus your efforts on those areas to maximize your effectiveness, reduce struggle, and thrive instead of burning out.
The instructor was making the point that you’ll be more effective for everyone around you and more fulfilled if you’re working within your strengths.
So, I found my log in, accessed the report from when I had taken it before, reviewed the top 5 and unlocked access to all 34 strengths.
What I found is that my number one strength, according to the assessment, is ideation. In other words, I love coming up with ideas.
Of the other 4 in my top 5, 3 have to do with thinking. So, 4 out of my top 5 have to do with strategic thinking.
In thinking about how to best utilize that, I want to have a place to put out ideas that would help other people. Using what I’ve learned through reading, classes, and experience, I would like to serve you on this website.
As a backdrop to that, it confirms for me the yearning I have had for expressing thoughts, writing, creating.
What better way to do that than a blog?
Ok, there are probably better ways in 2025. However, as a way to get ideas out into the world with the goal of helping other people with insights from from my experiences, I’m choosing this format at this time.
Against conventional wisdom, I don’t expect it to be a tightly knit, narrowly focused blog. At least not now. As I said before, I live in two vocational worlds. Residential real estate and church music ministry.
So, there will be some articles on one and some on the other. That may limit who is interested enough to read. I don’t mean one to be a distraction to the other. I just know that to actually post here, I’ll need a simple strategy. So, at this time, I’m not limiting the content to just one or the other.
At a later time, I may transition these separate topics into separate sites. But we’ll just see where this takes us.
So, here we are. I hope to be a help to you in the process.