My Top Five Strengths

What is the High 5 Test?

The high 5 test is an online strengths finder test. This test features 120 questions that are all based on a sliding scale from totally disagree to totally agree. These questions all involve various scenarios based on how you would choose to think or feel in a situation. To answer these questions, it is best that you answer based on your first reaction. At the end of the test, you are given a list of your top five highest strengths and a description of each one. In this blog post, I will talk about my highest strengths and how they can be helpful in my future career.

My 5 Highest Strengths

According to the high 5 test, my top five strengths are peace keeper, empathizer, optimist, thinker, and believer. Surprisingly, this test described me and my strengths pretty accurately.

Peace Keeper

"Peace keepers are masters of balance. Their strength helps them find alignment and build bridges among people to reach the best outcomes. They feel emotionally drained by constant friction among those who do not seek common ground."

I think that a peace keeper perfectly describes my personality because I am always trying to avoid any sort of conflict. I am also the person that remains neutral instead of picking a side between two friends that may be arguing. If possible I try to encourage people to get along rather than disagree.

Being a peace keeper can definitely help me in the future with my business career. Trying to maintain peace in the workplace can encourage others to stay peaceful as well. This can lead to an improved company culture and increased moods of employees and customers. Peace keeping will also help projects that require group collaborations run smoother.

Empathizer

"Empathizers are great at understanding how people feel and use this sensibility to do good for others. They become frustrated when asked to disregard feelings and focus solely on logic instead."

An empathizer is a very accurate way to describe me. I am a person that is very feelings based and I like to do whatever will help others. I also am the person that everyone cents to and can come to for advice. I think that I do a good job of understanding what people may go through and trying to help them through it. I actually think that I spend a lot of time listening to people and just letting them share their thoughts.

Being an empathizer can help me in my future career in a lot of different ways. If I end up in a career that allows me to work with clients, being an empathizer could help me better understand the needs of those clients.

Optimist

"Optimists enjoy praising the good in people and are grateful for what they have. They find it difficult to be around those who constantly focus on the negative."

Out of all five of the high 5 strengths, I think that an optimist describes me the best. I try to always stay in a positive mood and always look at the bright side in any negative situations. I also tend to avoid negative people that are always trying to bring other people down with them. I am also the person that tries to uplift everyone and put them in a better mood.

I think that optimism is pretty similar to a peace keeper and can have the same benefits in the workplace. Optimists can help everyone in the workplace increase their mood. Optimists can also help reduce stress in the workplace.

Thinker

"Thinkers enjoy mental activity, intellectual discussions and time alone in reflection. They find it difficult to work in teams that tend to act before thinking." I would definitely consider myself to be a thinker and sometimes even an over-thinker. I always think everything through before making a decision. Being an active thinker would be a huge benefit in the workplace. Critical thinking can help me with problem-solving and having to make difficult or important decisions.

Believer

"Believers' actions are driven by core values that cannot be compromised at the expense of success. Believers get drained if their beliefs and values are questioned, or if they have to do something that goes against their principles." I never really thought of myself as a believer but after learning about this trait I would consider myself to be a believer. I am a person the subconsciously acts based on my personal morals and values. While I am able to work with others who do not share the same values sometimes it can be a bit draining. I think that in general being a believer is good because it means that you have learned quite a bit about the person that you are. Being a believer can help in the workplace with any manager or upper lever position. A manager should be one that is able to successfully run a business without compromising the reputation of the business.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I really enjoyed taking the high 5 test. It was interesting learning more about my biggest strengths and it was also surprising to see how accurate the test results were about my personality. Once I begin my professional career, it will be interesting to see how these five strengths appear in my work.

How I Overcame Adversity

What Does it Mean to Overcome Adversity

In my opinion, overcoming adversity means being faced with a problem or challenge and having the strength to successfully handle it. Adversities can come in many different forms such as job stress, school stress, car trouble, family stress, and many other issues. For this post, I will be talking about adversity in an academic sense.

Background

During my four years of high school, l I always knew that I wanted to graduate with an academic honors diploma. An academic honors diploma was a step higher than a regular diploma. This diploma meant that not only did you graduate high school but you graduated at an advanced level. This diploma meant that you took a lot of honors courses and excelled academically. To graduate with academic honors, you have to fulfill specific requirements. These requirements included things like taking a certain amount of honors classes, maintaining a high GPA, having a good attendance record, etc.

So, I spent all of my four years of high school aiming for that academic honors diploma. School was always naturally easy for me so when senior year came I knew that I had worked hard enough to earn that diploma. However, during my second semester of senior year, that diploma didn’t look so promising. Not only did the academic diploma require you to maintain a high GPA, but you also had to pass every class with at least a C. This was a simple task until I had to take trigonometry.

The Situation

Trigonometry was the hardest class that I had ever taken as a high schooler. I was typically good at math but trigonometry was far from my strongest course. I just could not understand any of the material. It got to the point where I stopped doing the homework because I couldn’t figure out how to do it. After failing so many quizzes, and missing a few homework assignments my trigonometry grade was in trouble. With only a month left in the semester, my trigonometry grade was a D. This meant that I only had so much time to bring my grade up to at least a C. I had worked so hard all throughout high school for that academic honors diploma but this one class would determine whether or not I received it.

How I Overcame the Situation

Within the last month of the semester, I worked really hard to improve my grade. I started staying after school and going over the lessons one on one with the teacher. I also signed up for tutoring sessions during the week. I was glad to see that my work seemed to be paying off. My grade went up to a C and all that was left was the final exam. I studied for the final every day for a week. Then to my surprise, I passed the final and received a pretty decent grade. This class seemed like it was going to be nearly impossible to pass and part of me was starting to just accept the fact that I wouldn't be getting the academic honors diploma. However, after putting in all my effort toward my goal I passed the class and received the honors diploma. Overall, I learned that it is important to not give up when you are faced with adversity. Obstacles can be difficult to deal with but that just means that you may have to work a little harder.

How My Least Favorite Class Became My Most Influential

The most influential class that I have taken at Marian is BUS-309 which stands for Comprehensive Analysis of Business. I took this class last semester and at the time I hated that class.

The course was technically 3 classes built into one which consisted of finance, law, and strategy. So, we learned different material in each of those sections. However, on top of learning material for three different sections, we were also given a semester-long project to work on. We were paired into groups and as a class, we were all assigned the same business client. Our task as a group was to research and agree on a company that we believed would be a good fit for our client to acquire. Then at the end of the semester, our entire class would present our acquisition ideas to our client and other faculty/staff. So with all the work assigned for this course, I had a pretty busy semester.

On the first day of class, the professor pointed out to us that only 10% of students would receive an A. So, that should give you a little bit of an idea of how difficult this class was designed to be. The professor also referred to finals week as "hell week" and that we should clear our schedules to be completely available for that week.

For just this one class, I had daily homework assignments, daily study sessions, and weekly group meetings. I ended up pulling so many all-nighters to get my work done. I tried complaining to the professor so many times about needing time for my other classes but he’d always say “treat my class like the real world and prioritize your time”.

A couple of weeks into the course we had our first quiz and let’s just say that I was not too happy with my grade. If I was going to be ready for “hell week” I had to have better preparation. So, after realizing that this course was going to be pretty challenging for me, I started taking advantage of my professor’s office hours. I visited his office with questions about the material pretty much every day. Even when I didn't have any questions regarding class material from that day I still dropped by just to say hi or ask about upcoming tests/assignments. Along with office visits, I also started to participate more in class by asking and answering questions. I also attended every single study session that there was before major quizzes or exams. I even started prioritizing this course over the other courses that I was enrolled in for that semester. However, even when I felt like I was putting all of my efforts into this course it still did not seem to be paying off.

So, after completing "hell week", and all of the graded homework assignments, exams, and presentations I thought that there was no way I’d get any final course grade higher than a C. Then unexpectedly came final semester grades and I actually screamed out loud when I saw my BUS-309 grade. Not only had I received a better grade than what I expected but I even passed with an A.

At the beginning of this semester, I stopped by my BUS-309 professor’s office and thanked him for my grade. He then let me know that I shouldn't have been surprised with my grade because I deserved it. He told me that I got an A because of all the extra effort that I put into his course. He never required students to ask him questions and attend study sessions but he paid attention to the ones that did.

This course was supposed to be tough so that students would learn what it's like in the real world. Once I graduate I will be responsible for myself and there won't be teachers around to tell me what to do. All of the quick deadlines served as a way to see how we could handle pressure and fast-paced situations. I also learned to step outside of my comfort zone because I had never taken classes like this before. I was so used to just doing assignments, turning them in, and getting an A but this class forced me to really engage. Most importantly, the business field is all about communication and personality. I learned that it is important to reach out when I need help and ask questions because if I don’t then I won’t receive that help. The professor acknowledged my work and saw that I wanted to improve.

Overall, after having some time to reflect, I’ve realized that what I thought was my worst class turned out to be my most influential.