Lack of Tenacity
A few years back, a friend introduced me to the Working Genius assessment. I loved it. I’ve taken a lot of assessments through the years, and while they all have limitations, I find them really helpful. I like to say that assessments are like looking at a painting of you, not looking in the mirror. It’s a version of you that doesn’t encapsulate everything but shows certain aspects of who you are. What felt a little different about Working Genius is its claim to be “80% productivity and 20% personality“. While DiSC, Right Path, Enneagram, Myers Briggs, etc have helped me understand aspects of my wiring, Working Genius connected on a different level. So much so that I went through the process to get certified this past year.
You can deep dive here, but essentially WG breaks down 6 potential ‘geniuses’ into the following categories:
Geniuses – The types of work that give you energy and joy.
Competencies – Things you can do well but don’t necessarily love.
Frustrations – Work that drains you and should be minimized.
The six Working Geniuses are:
Wonder – Asking big questions and identifying possibilities.
Invention – Creating new ideas and solutions.
Discernment – Using intuition and judgment to evaluate ideas.
Galvanizing – Rallying people and getting things moving.
Enablement – Helping and supporting others to execute.
Tenacity – Pushing projects across the finish line.
My specific profile ends up shaking out like this:
Geniuses – Wonder & Discernment
Competencies – Enablement & Galvanizing
Frustrations – Invention & Tenacity
One of the biggest takeaways from WG has been the way that my lack of Tenacity has impacted my life. Add to that my adult diagnosis of ADHD this past year, and it’s become wildly evident to me that, while I LOVE dreaming about what COULD be, there is so much about my wiring & my brokenness that keeps me from actually following through with the things I’ve dreamed of or have felt compelled to do.
One of those things has been music.
On April 14, 2022, I published a blog in which I declared that I would be releasing 1 song per month starting in May for the rest of the year. That would be 8 songs. Well, almost 3 years later and I’ve released 3. Well, 5 if you count a couple of Christmas songs I released at the end of the year, but those weren’t on the original list of 8 songs I wanted to release, so I don’t count them.
For both practical & emotional reasons, I just never followed through. And it eats at me.
Over the last few months, I’ve been feeling compelled to finish some things I’ve dreamed about. This project to release original music is at the top of the list.
I took a big step a few months ago in connecting with someone who would help me make this happen. In a twist of fate, who I thought would be a complete stranger turns out to be the husband of a youth pastor I’d connected with before who also works at their church. Rather than a song a month kind of schedule, I’m working with him to release a 7ish song EP at some point in 2025.
Will it happen?
Will I actually follow through with something?
I honestly don’t know. But the more I understand myself, both my unique wiring & brokennes, the more I feel like I’m able to compensate for those frustrations & follow through so that projects like this aren’t just fun things to “wonder” about, but actually do.
We’ll see.
