You’ve taken the personality tests. You’ve taken time for self-reflection. Gosh darn it, you know what your strengths are!

For some of your strengths, it’s pretty obvious how you can use it in your daily life. You’re great at planning, so you create a schedule and to-do lists. You’re awesome at cooking, so you make delicious food.

But some of your strengths may be a bit harder to figure out how to use them in your real life. You know – the one with ongoing distractions, stress, and #allthethings taking up your time and energy.

How do you use those strengths in a way that’s life-giving, fun, and not just another to-do list item?

Beloved, you can start taking back your time and energy by intentionally using your strengths – even the more unusual ones!

Here’s some tips to leverage your strengths in even the day-to-day business of life so you can live intentionally with passion and purpose as God’s beloved.

What does the Bible say about living intentionally?

I’d like to think it’s pretty obvious throughout Scripture that our lives matter deeply to God. How we spend our lives matters to Him, too.

Let’s give Paul the mic, though, about being intentional with our days:

It’s pretty simple, right?

We’re called to make the most of the opportunities we’ve been given. We’re called to be wise with our time.

So what could that look like in your real everyday life?

How do you define personality?

Since this site is all about helping you THRIVE with your God-gifted personality, let’s get clear on what personality is.

Personality – the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character.

Dictonary.com

Your personality can also be called your nature, disposition, temperament, persona, psyche or identity.

It’s a modge podge of the different qualities that make up YOU.

Get practical help to intentionally use your strengths

A key step to becoming more intentional with our lives is leaning into our God-gifted personality.

I believe that when we lean into our identity as God’s beloved, we can truly thrive. After all, that’s what Coffee Chats and Yoga Mats is all about!

The free Embrace Your Potential Playbook is designed to help you start being more intentional with your time and energy. In the playbook you’ll find:

• What God says about personality. After all, He came up with the idea, so His perspective matters.
• Personality descriptions to help you determine your type. Sometimes we don’t realize what’s unique about our experience until someone describes it to us.
• Type tips for living more intentionally – by leveraging your strengths and being sensitive to your weaknesses.

Note: The type tips in this post are geared toward those who have read the playbook and know their type. Don’t know your type yet? Take a few minutes to grab the playbook and come back to this article!

FYI: Coffee Chats and Yoga Mats uses the Myers Briggs Typology Indicator®(MBTI®) and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter® (KTS®) as its primary personality references. Though these personality tools are not faith-based, they are well-researched with solid data supporting their findings.

Personality Tips to Help You Intentionally Use Your Strengths

Head’s up! You may notice that you have some qualities in common with other personality types. That’s fine. In fact, that’s totally normal. Note, though, which type you MOST resonate with so you can truly make the most of the tips.

iNtuitive Feeling (NF): Idealist

If your top preferences are iNtuition and Feeling, you have a strength in seeing the potential in others and are passionate about self-growth.

A suggestion for intentionally using your strengths:

Look for learning opportunities, ideally where you can grow yourself and pour into others (such as mentorship). This could include:

• Formal or organized activities, such as classes, community groups, volunteering/serving, books, podcasts, trainings, etc.
• Informal activities, such as casual conversations with others, troubleshooting problems, puttering around your house, etc.

How could this work in your normal life?

Learn to reframe challenges or issues as learning opportunities. Consider what you can learn in your current situation. How could this be a learning opportunity for others? This simple mindset shift may reinvigorate you as you go about your day! As one of my supervisors used to say, “Every moment is a teachable moment.”

Acknowledge that people won’t always want to learn from you or with you. And that’s okay. You are responsible for your role, not theirs.

iNtuitive Thinking (NT): Rational

If your top preferences are iNtuition and Thinking, you have a strength for strategic problem-solving and tend to be unafraid of innovative solutions.

A suggestion for intentionally using your strengths:

Try considering an issue in your life and think about how you would address it if it was for someone else. Use that cool-headed strength of yours to evaluate what factors are at play and how you can eliminate or reduce their power. Then implement your strategy. You can do this!

How could this work in your normal life?

Identify what’s your first step to make a change – and take it!

Focus on solving or addressing one area of your life rather than trying to fix everything. It can be far too easy to overthink solutions and not move forward. Each small win is just that – a win!

Sensing Judging (SJ): Guardian

If your top preferences are Sensing and Judging, you have a strength for committing to and following through on work and for valuing the importance of community.

A suggestion for intentionally using your strengths:

When you approach your work, think about the impact this could have on your community. The kind of work you’re doing could run the gamut – caregiving, manual labor, paying bills, organizing, cooking, strategizing, managing – the list goes on. You care deeply about your community and being a good citizen in that community. Celebrate that the work you’re doing matters – no matter how big or small it may seem!

How could this work in your normal life?

Post reminders where you’re working of who and what you’re impacting. This could be photos, artwork, post-it notes, or mementos. You’re not just working to work, you’re working to impact your world!

Invite others into your work when possible – and realize they won’t do it the exact same way you do. They may not do it the “right way” (i.e. the way you would do it), but giving them an opportunity to contribute and work with you could be a bonding experience for you both. Who knows – you might actually get the job done sooner, too!

Sensing Perceiving (SP): Artisan

If your top preferences are Sensing and Perceiving, you have a strength for injecting fun into experiences and being present in the moment.

A suggestion for intentionally using your strengths:

Choose to add an element of fun to the things in life you don’t enjoy doing. We all have tasks and responsibilities that don’t excite us, but we still need to do many of them. Can you make a game of the work? Listen to something that makes you grin? You get the idea!

How could this work in your normal life?

Accept that not everyone will want to have your brand of fun while doing the work. That’s okay. You can be respectful when it’s an issue for others and still be creative in how you finish the work.

When you’re not interested in finishing something that needs to be done, choose healthy rewards for yourself. What’s something you can look forward to helping you finish what you need to do? Something yummy? A hot shower? Physical activity? Whatever it is – incentivize yourself to keep moving forward because you’ve got something awesome in the near future waiting for you.

Articles related to intentionally using your strengths

• Discover Your Strengths with These Tools
• What Does the Bible Say About Using Your Strengths?
• 4 Personality Tips to Help You Set Your Intentions

Wrapping up intentional ways to use your strengths

Obviously, there are countless ways that you can use your unique strengths to live intentionally with your time and energy so you can thrive!

This article just hit a few of the many things you can try in your normal, hectic life to pursue passion and purpose as God’s beloved.

Beloved, you can start saving more of your time and energy by intentionally using your strengths – even the more unusual ones!

Don’t know your type? Let’s embrace it!

Grab the Embrace Your Potential Playbook to discover your type and get tips to help you start living more intentionally.

Do you know your type?

Try using your type’s tip for the next 7 days. Let us know in the comments how it went for you!