Using Your Strengths to Achieve Stretch Goals
This year, I found myself looking forward to something I usually dread: the OrangeTheory 1-mile benchmark.
Running has never come naturally to me. It’s been a challenge since I was a kid, but this time felt different. I’ve been focused on strengthening my health and fitness this year and wanted to put it to the test.
Instead of just pushing harder, I took a strengths-based approach. CliftonStrengths is a framework that identifies your natural patterns of thinking and doing, and I wanted to put mine to work deliberately. I’ve coached leaders on this for years. Applying it to my own fitness goals took longer than I’d like to admit.
I used Competition to set a stretch goal and push myself to beat specific targets in real time. I used Strategic to break the mile into segments and adjust my approach as I went. And I used Futuristic ahead of time to picture exactly how I would feel when I finished, which made me want to get there.
In the end, I set a personal record, cutting 41 seconds off my time from seven years ago.
Your strengths will likely look different from mine. Here are a few examples of how others might tap into theirs:
• Relator: train and go through the experience with someone you have a strong connection with
• Responsibility: make a clear commitment you will follow through on, to yourself or others
• Focus: zero in on one specific target and block out distractions
Why a Strengths-Based Approach Works
Most people try to achieve hard goals by forcing effort or fixing weaknesses. That approach has its place, but it is often not the most effective or sustainable path to performance.
When you are working against your natural wiring, everything feels harder than it should. Not because you lack commitment or discipline, but because the method itself is creating resistance. When effort feels like a slog before you have even started, that is useful information, not a character flaw. It is often a signal that you are approaching the goal in a way that does not fit how you are built.
When people work with their natural patterns instead of against them, progress tends to accelerate. Not because the goal gets easier, but because the energy required to pursue it is working with you instead of against you.
What This Looks Like With a Client
I saw this recently while coaching a leader on their vision work. They kept trying to carve out solo reflection time and coming up empty. When we explored what had actually worked for them in the past, they lit up talking about brainstorming and collaborating with others. That’s their wiring. They weren’t failing at vision work. They were trying to do it in a way that was working against their grain.
Once we identified that, the path forward became obvious. The goal didn’t change. The approach did.
A Different Way to Think About Goals
You don’t need a CliftonStrengths profile to start applying this. The next time you are facing a stretch goal or a challenge that feels harder than it should, ask yourself three questions:
How have I approached hard things successfully in the past?
What does that tell me about how I am wired?
How can I apply that insight to what I am working on right now?
The goal isn’t just to push harder. It’s to work smarter by working with who you already are.