“Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.” — Marie Curie

For most of my life, I have harbored an intense drive to create things. When I was young, I used to direct it at the sewing machine, knitting needles, and crochet hooks, creating beautiful garments for me and my dolls. I also colored and painted pictures, built small model cars, and took apart and put together watches and toys. I was a voracious creative.

As I got into high school, my creativity showed up as ideas–making the school newspaper new and different, reviving a defunct cheering squad for football games, assembling unique goodies for a great day at the beach.

Beyond college, I was free to fill my day up with ideas, and they came fast and furious. Often, it felt like my internal idea-generator was a popcorn maker with kernels of thoughts “popping” at every turn. Sometimes, it would even get a little overwhelming with an overflow.

A girl only has so much time to spend on her ideas, so I needed to learn how to direct them in the most productive way possible.

It turns out my prolific ability ranks Number Two on my Gallup Strengths assessment. The IDEATION talent theme reflects people who are fascinated by ideas, and I certainly have that going on. Ranking Number Two out of 34 themes certainly corresponds with how strong this is in my life.

According to Gallup:

“An idea is a new perspective on familiar challenges. You revel in taking the world we all know and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely enlightening angle. You love all these ideas because they are profound, because they are novel, because they are clarifying, because they are contrary, because they are bizarre.”

That certainly sounds like me.

“For all these reasons you derive a jolt of energy whenever a new idea occurs to you. Others may label you creative or original or conceptual or even smart. Perhaps you are all of these. Who can be sure? What you are sure of is that ideas are thrilling. And on most days this is enough.”

Yup.

I decided in order to harness my talent, I should first make sure my day is full of opportunities to create. Some obvious ones were cooking meals, decorating our house, and gardening. I also added taking action photos and videos at my daughter’s volleyball games and turning them into awesome movies for the team.

The not-so-obvious one was my career. I had just got trained as a Certified Gallup Strengths Coach and needed to build my business. It didn’t take long for my creative juices to start flowing and I figured out how to create this website. I hooked it up to a scheduling app and an email autoresponder for inquiries. I started working on a self-directed coaching program, which is coming soon.

Most excitingly, I get to use my “powers” when I coach people on how to use their talents to create an excellent life.

According to Gallup:

“An idea is a connection. Yours is the kind of mind that is always looking for connections, and so you are intrigued when seemingly disparate phenomena can be linked by an obscure connection.”

I love when I get to learn about my client’s talents and listen to their goals and dreams. My mind automatically kicks in and starts connecting the dots for them. Together was are able to create new insights and ideas that can be turned into action plans.

PHOTO CREDIT: ISTOCKPHOTO/SIphotography