In my previous article, the formula for success, I said that success is a combination of passion (the things you are passionate about and like to do), effort (determination) and talent (the qualities you have). As everyone is born with a set of talents/core qualities, or have developed them during their life, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss the core quality tool with you in this article.
The core quality tool was developed by Daniel Ofman and can be used to discover, and give tremendous insight, in who you are and what your core qualities, pitfalls, challenges and allergies are in life. Core qualities can be made visible in a core quadrant. Let’s have a look at the example below:
In this example I used one of my own core qualities: Modesty. Let’s examine this a bit further. When I am too modest I run the risk to become invisible; which is my pitfall. The positive opposite of being invisible is to present oneself, which I know I need to develop more; this is my challenge. People who present themselves too much are arrogant; this is one of my main allergies. I know I am very allergic to arrogant people. People who are arrogant trigger me to act invisible, my pitfall. Once I have developed my challenge, to present myself more, I have the dual quality to modestly present myself, which is a positive combination of my core quality and my challenge.
Let’s do another one: Another allergy I have are people who are negative all the time. Being an optimist myself, most of the times I look at things and events in my life with the glass is half full mentality. When I am too optimistic about something I can get a little naïve; my pitfall. My challenge is that I need to be more alert of people who might hurt me. To be optimistically aware is my main goal here.
The real beauty with core qualities, and creating your own core quadrants, is that they can give tremendous insight in your own qualities and challenges in life. When working with core qualities myself I had various ‘Aha!’ moments. These were real moments of insight and I will remember them for the rest of my life. I now have the power to identify and work with my challenges.
For example: If people often tell you that you are too fanatic about something you can be sure they are referring to one of your pitfalls; a too much of one of your core qualities: dedication. If you are conscious enough you can now work on your challenge; to be helpful and have more compassion. If you can develop this you can be a dedicated helper. Wouldn’t that be a great?
If you have read my article learn about yourself from the people you resent you should now know that there is much to learn from the people you are allergic to. The core quadrant model explains why; the allergy you have for someone’s behavior is always a too much of something you need to develop yourself: your challenge in life. This puts the people you resent or those who you are allergic to in a whole different perspective, as they are helping you to indentify your challenge in life.
Great post. You made some really good points about core qualities. Gave me something to think about. Gotta watch out for those pitfalls.