How to Improve Your Wellbeing: Season 1 Wrap

Below are audio and video plus a transcript of the conversation, including time stamps.

Your CliftonStrengths can empower the 5 elements of your wellbeing -- career, social, financial, community and physical. But how does this happen if you are struggling in one or more of these elements? Whatever your Top 5 or Top 10 talents are, Appendix 1 of Gallup's Wellbeing at Work book has Strengths Insights and Action Items that can move you from struggling to thriving as you apply those talents to fuel your wellbeing. Join Jaclynn Robinson and Jim Collison as they wrap Season 1 of How to Improve Your Wellbeing to learn more.

Self-awareness is the first step. ... It's always great to just think about what each theme potentially looks like when it's thriving and struggling.

Jaclynn Robinson, 19:04

If your wellbeing is off, your strengths aren't gonna play very well. If your strengths aren't playing well, it's a good sign that our wellbeing might be off too.

Jaclynn Robinson, 4:00

We have different roles in life. And it's helpful to think about how our themes might impact others within each of those roles, including ourselves.

Jaclynn Robinson, 22:01

Jim Collison 0:00
I am Jim Collison, and welcome to the CliftonStrengths Podcast. On this podcast, we'll be covering topics such as wellbeing, teamwork, professional development and more. Now enjoy this episode.

Jim Collison 0:10
In this CliftonStrengths Podcast, we'll wrap up the series from looking at Appendix 1 in the Gallup, in the Gallup book Wellbeing at Work. If you're listening live on our live page, so gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/live, there's a link right above me there. That'll take you to YouTube. The chat room is -- up there, up there -- that has, that has the chat room in it, and we'd love to have your questions today. A lot of interaction going on in chat. If you're listening after the fact, we missed you. Wish you would have come out to be a part of that. But if you do have questions, you can always send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. Dr. Jaclynn Robinson is our host today. She works as a Gallup Learning and Development Consultant and was the primary contributor -- I'm sorry to say, this is going to be the last time I get to say this, but -- the primary contributor to Appendix 1 in the Wellbeing at Work book. And Jaclynn, always great to see you and welcome back!

Jaclynn Robinson 1:01
Thank you. Pleasure.

What We've Learned in Season 1

Jim Collison 1:03
Great having you here. We've made it to the end. I told you when we started this, this was your first series like this, where you got to go through all 34. And we did two a week on the recording side of things. We're releasing them one week at a time. So it'll take us a good part of the year to get these out. Do you think -- and I told you in the beginning, it's, it's a haul. Like, to do all 34 of these, even over 17 weeks, it's a haul.

Jaclynn Robinson 1:31
17 weeks! Wow!

Jim Collison 1:32
Well, 18, 19, if you consider the, we did a kickoff in October-November time frame of 2021. And then --

Jaclynn Robinson 1:40
We were noodling before then about what we wanted to do.

Jim Collison 1:43
From a process standpoint, did you learn anything about yourself? Just when we think about the work that we had to do to do this, do you feel like any, any learning opportunities there? Anything you learned about yourself through the process of just cranking out 34 of these?

Jaclynn Robinson 2:02
Between you and I?

Jim Collison 2:03
Yeah, just personally, as you just kind of think --

Jaclynn Robinson 2:06
I observed Discipline in action. Just being able to think about what we wanted to talk about as we had our upcoming shows was really helpful and taking down some notes. So it's funny just to see how that process comes through for me --

Jim Collison 2:24
You probably got better at it, right, through each week, the work required to get ready for this probably got faster or it got better. I remember in the early episodes, you would, we'd dialogue a bunch about, you'd have some questions about, Hey, do we want to say this or do we want to say that? And then by the end, I would, you know, we'd get on and, and I'd be like, "You have any questions?" and you'd be like, "Nope!"

Jaclynn Robinson 2:53
I'm ready!

Jim Collison 2:55
Ready to go. Let me, let me ask you from a personal standpoint, you wrote all the statements that are in Appendix 1. So if you haven't, if you haven't bought the book, one, if you haven't bought Wellbeing at Work yet, you should have it. It, this should be a reference that should be in your library. It's more than just a book; a lot of great information in it. But back in Appendix 1, there's a whole section, a whole big section of each theme and then broken down by the 5 elements of wellbeing, as we talk about them. Anything that you -- as you think back to the time when you were writing those, and then you think about leading up till now -- that, that you kind of, how did that help you understand the themes? Let me just ask it that way.

Jaclynn Robinson 3:38
I think it just really highlighted the correlation between strengths and wellbeing. We talk about it a lot, a lot in higher education especially, because they're really focused on strengths and wellbeing. And we're starting to see that in organizations now, where they go, OK, this is, this is a thing, this is valuable. But actually working on it and mapping those together really show the interconnections between strengths and wellbeing. And if your wellbeing is off, your strengths aren't gonna play very well. If your strengths aren't playing well, it's a good sign that our wellbeing might be off too. And we're either overusing a theme, or it's not having a chance to play at all. And it just might be, you know, hidden away. So that's, that was a big, I wouldn't say, "Aha!" but that was just a Wow! I can see the interconnections. And it's just so top of mind for me at this point.

Jaclynn Robinson 4:29
And that in itself, writing them, was a highlight to my wellbeing, because it just gave me some think time in the morning to just get creative and draft them, and I'd spend a couple hours a day just getting them done. I think it took about 10 to 12 days to map all of them. I would just kind of be in a zone, get them through. That was so, so great. That was right in the beginning of the pandemic too, for everyone that's on. So that was, was it the spring? I want to say it was the spring, when you're just looking for something to do around the house. You're getting used to the whole Zoom meetings and delivering by Zoom. So that was my fun time. This was cool. I could just sit here and do this.

Jim Collison 5:17
Isn't that weird that we think about a day when we were, like, Zoom meetings for a lot of people were new. Yeah, they had, they had kind of done them before. Right. They kind of done them before, but it wasn't preferred. And nobody ever turned their cameras on. And, you know, it was a whole different, it was kind of a, it just, it feels, one, it feels like a million years ago now for some reason, right.

Jaclynn Robinson 5:40
I feel like I'm a decade older. I'm sure many of you do.

Wellbeing: Increasingly a Topic of Conversation, Thought

Jim Collison 5:44
Well, and, you know, one of the things I love is wellbeing now comes up as a part of almost every single conversation. Like it's just a part, it's become a part of the vernacular. And I think we're very sensitive to it now in our own, kind of not just how we're doing from a performance standpoint, like, How's my performance? But How is my performance and my wellbeing, and is that sustainable? Like, I think that's what we've learned a lot in this is sustainability really is driven by that balance of those, and that healthy balance -- wherever that lies for the individual. Because we're all, you know, we're all so different in that. And so I think it's really opened some doors to us rethinking, like, and, you know, this, this Great Resignation, the Great Migration, whatever we want to call it, I think in some ways was an attempt for people to refind that, that wellbeing balance of sorts, right, to whatever needs they have. I mean, don't you think, you want to add, what else do you want to add to that, to that thought?

Jaclynn Robinson 6:49
I love that. It's the joy of life. Everyone's looking for that at this point, because they had that inflection point in the last 2 years of what's most important to them. I do love that. And we're seeing that, as you're saying, as people are going back into the workplace, they're more vocal about what their preferences are and what they will and won't do for the workplace. So I'm like, I'm here to work for you. I want to do this, but I'm not willing to give away parts of myself or my personal life or my wellbeing for the sake of a company. We're seeing that purpose-driven, high wellbeing life, and I'm happy about that for folks.

Keeping Wellbeing at the Top of the Agenda

Jim Collison 7:27
My kids talk about it a lot, which is crazy, right? And I just don't, those weren't conversations we were necessarily having pre-pandemic, although we might have been having them and ignoring them. You know, they didn't, right, didn't show as much light on that. So it's just, it's, it's interesting. It comes at a good time. I hope we don't lose this; this is one of those things, you know, we, we can't lose the ground we've made in this topic by going back to the way things were before; we have to continue to push. Much like the social unrest that went on here in the United States in 2020, can't go backwards on that stuff. Like we can't, we have to keep pushing hard to make sure we make, we make efforts and advancements in those areas. With wellbeing, I think it's very, very similar. We can't we can't go backwards, right? We've discovered a lot of things, you know.

Jaclynn Robinson 8:23
And we're seeing that now -- that friction point -- in the workplace, where now HR is going, How do we keep people? Because it's, OK, let's return to work. Things are getting back to normal. And then people are going back from zero to 100 of, I was at home full-time, and now you want me in full-time. And that's, that's a hardship. So it's gonna be interesting to see how organizations manage the friction.

Jim Collison 8:48
Yeah, a couple comments coming in from chat. Joel says, Really great point, Jaclynn! Not giving too much of ourselves to our employer like we used to -- unless you want to. Like, that's the thing. I'm not against, you know, I, listen, I give a lot of time to what I do. But that's all I, this is what I, this is what I love to do. Like I love, I'll get up middle of the night, early in the morning. It's what I love to do, right. And so, I don't want to, I always hate to make too much of a blanket statement, but I think we understand the point.

Jaclynn Robinson 9:20
Yeah, the caveat is when it comes at the, when it comes at the risk of not being able to fulfill your own personal wellbeing.

Jim Collison 9:27
No, right on; no, right on. And I think this is one of those --

Jaclynn Robinson 9:30
You're finding you're drained and not spending time with your kids or your pets or whatnot.

Jim Collison 9:36
Sabrina says, I really relate to the balance with Responsibility No. 1. What is actually mine? And what can I say "No" to? And I think there's some really good -- we were, you and I were talking on preshow about we, you know, I've kind of wondered, Why is it so different now than maybe it was 20 years ago? And, and the, the culture is just under an enormous amount of stress. And so I think a lot of these things, these systems are showing signs of wear, because they're being stressed so hard. We know from our Gallup numbers that the, the, the, the question we ask about, Do you feel like your employer cares about you as a person? It's not exactly -- that's not phrased exactly right, but -- cares about your wellbeing? That's, that's the question. That number was high during the pandemic, and it is plummeting at the moment. So as we're returning people are going back in and going --

Jaclynn Robinson 10:37
What changed?

Jim Collison 10:38
This is really, it's really true; you don't care about me. So we can't, the, to my point, we can't lose ground on this, right? We're gonna need to push back. These systems a little bit are gonna need to change. That, it's almost like we cared about wellbeing because it fit the remote model well, right. Then as soon as we come back, everybody's like, well, let's go back to the way it was. We lose all that, that wellbeing ground.

Writing Your Own Top 5/Top 10 Strengths Insights/Action Items

Jim Collison 11:07
In Appendix 1, as I'm showing it here on screen, we have each of the themes, and then each one of the wellbeing elements written out -- your, your thoughts, your words. And I think those are helpful. I also think it might be helpful for individuals to go through their Top 5 and rewrite those statements for them. If you were to, Jaclynn, if you were to give them any advice on that, what kind of advice would you give them as far as, you wrote these. What advice would you give them on maybe rewriting it for themselves, based on their Top 5 or Top 10, or whatever.

Jaclynn Robinson 11:40
Ooh, I think that's a good one! And where to start with that, too? I think the same, in terms of the way that I was even mapping it, I would just start with one theme. Write out those 5 elements, and then, kind of within that lens, start to map them. And that might be a really great way for some of you. For others, listing out your Top 5, having the 5 elements right next to each of them, and maybe you just go through career wellbeing for each of those Top 5 themes of yours. And then you knock out social wellbeing for each of those Top 5 themes of yours.

Jaclynn Robinson 12:19
But one of those two practices will probably feel more suitable, just depending on your style, without feeling too overwhelmed. Sometimes you list out all Top 5 of your themes, and then you see the 5 elements and go, Wait, where do I even want to start? What is this going to look like for me? And then just go with that top-of-mind response, I think, as you think about your Responsibility and social wellbeing, what does that tend to look like for you? And jot out a couple of sentences. Make it a free-flowing process too. There might be some where it's blank, until you can really think about, you know, what your Responsibility and physical wellbeing looks like. And that's OK. You can always come back to that the next day or morning. But that's a really good idea, Jim. And they were modified a bit too, as we were just going back, after I got through the first draft with Jim and Jim and Austin and I all going, OK, do we want to tweak this? Do we want to make this a little different? So yeah.

Jim Collison 13:19
By the way, not -- Jim and Jim is not this Jim. There's other Jims at Gallup.

Jaclynn Robinson 13:24
We have a lot of Jims.

Jim Collison 13:25
We got a lot Jims in this, in that space. Yeah, we, we always have to call each other by our last names. Because --

Jaclynn Robinson 13:31
Yeah, Jim H and Jim C and --

Jim Collison 13:33
I think for some, it may, and Catherine, you know, said she's going to be chatting about this wellbeing book over Sunday brunch. I think for some, it may be a great opportunity to have like some of the discussions you and I have been having about this. So get, you know, Arranger is No. 1. So find others in your organization or that are close to you that have Arranger in their Top 5 (for me). Then spend some time saying, "Hey, for you, when we think about this and physical wellbeing, what does, how does that play out? I'm really interested in hearing, what are some suggestions you might have?"

Jim Collison 14:05
And there just might be some creative ways to open up the dialogue about this and to use Jaclynn's work as the example, so to speak, but to have the discussions, to continue to flush this out for individuals. I'd love to see people who had, who would have their Top 5 and each of the elements written out like you do in their own appendix. We'll call it Appendix 5, because there's 4, 4 appendices, or appendixes. I've, I learned through this series, you can say it both ways, which I always, I always thought it was "appendici." No, that's not true either. So, but there's 5 there's 5 -- well, there's 4. You can put a 5th one in there, which is your, you know, the appendix for you that has your own personal Top 5 in there. I don't think we left a lot of room for notes.

Jaclynn Robinson 14:58
Your own Strengths Journal; your mapping Strengths Journal.

Jim Collison 15:02
I don't think we did, which is unfortunate. But, but --

Jaclynn Robinson 15:05
You know what, Jim? That's just an excuse to go to Target or one of your craft stores and find a really pretty book that you want to write in and use that to map your strengths and wellbeing.

Your CliftonStrengths and Your Impact at Work

Jim Collison 15:16
Yeah. Ralph asks a really good question: Will there be an online tool to work with these? You know, I don't know. I know there's been some talk of something for that. And certainly, if we do come up with something public-facing, we'll be sure to let you guys know, as that comes out. We, we kind of had a format that we went through. Each one of these is laid out in a particular format. I want to get a little meta on the, on the, on each one of these. We spent a little bit of time -- you defined the theme, and then we really talked about how it relates to you and how it relates to others, really stemming from this idea of the "me" versus "we," right? The growth and development of the theme as it goes from just my understanding of it as how does it relate to others, as well? How important that, Jaclynn, in the work that you do, especially you see it in team blends and some of the things that you're doing, how important is that to the team, when people start to realize, Can you see that? When they start to realize, Oh, I can have an effect on the team with this. Can you see that happening? Or how important that, is that to the team?

Jaclynn Robinson 16:22
That's one of my favorite moments in team sessions is when the light bulb goes off of how valuable they can be to the team with the themes that they hold, especially if they feel like they're an outlier, because they're the only one with that theme. And they're going, "Oh, does this make me weird?" But then they recognize the value that they bring, because they're seeing through a different perspective and can bring fresh ideas to the table. So I love this, this piece of "me" versus "we" and the way we talked about, How does this relate to you? How does it relate to others? Because I think that could be helpful in even considering the maturity of your themes. Typically, we'll say when, you know, we're first learning about our talent themes, we think about it through our lens: How has it helped me? But then once you really start to have that self-awareness and can regulate it, then it becomes not only powerful to you, but to those that, that you're around, that you interact with. And you can lend your theme to other people.

Jim Collison 17:20
Yeah, "lend your theme to other people." I love that, you know, I love that. We were in a, we were in a meeting the other day talking about this, and that I just had this, this thought, you know, How can, I wanted to ask this person the question like, Hey, how do you think you could take what you, what you're doing so well there and multiply it across the organization or multiply it across the teams that you're working with, right, to get that "we," to get that "we" thought out? I think, you know, understanding our own themes and how that works for us is a one-time, you know, a 1X investment, right? It's very, very valuable. I think it's a 5x or a 10x investment when we drop that thing into a team. Like I think it just, we know it from the Power of 2, we know from strengths-based teams and strengths-based organizations. And I have no data, by the way; I'm just totally making that up. And I know I shouldn't do that, because I'm a Gallup employee, and we never make up data.

Jaclynn Robinson 18:20
You're hypothesizing.

Jim Collison 18:21
I am, I am. Just super valuable on a team.

Understanding Whether You're Thriving or Struggling

Jim Collison 18:27
And I think, Jaclynn, why, you know, the next section we talked about was thriving versus struggling. And I think this is this multidimensional element. So we understand what these themes are and how they relate to both us and to us on a team. And then we superimpose how we're doing from a wellbeing perspective. It's a multidimensional data point to say, OK, we're, we're, Are we thriving? Or are we struggling? And we spent a little time looking at that. Why is, why do you think that's so important that we understand the difference between those two and call it out as such?

Jaclynn Robinson 18:59
To bring it to our awareness. I lovingly joke -- but I really mean it -- self-awareness is the first step. So once we start to identify when we're thriving and when we're struggling, and what that might be connected to from a theme standpoint, then we go, we have that Aha! moment of, Ah, this is why I feel like I'm dragging or this is why I'm frustrated or this is why I'm, I feel like I'm firing on all cylinders, and I'm high on life and happy to be here. But sometimes we're so immersed in it, and we're in the weeds, that we don't know where it's coming from. So it's always great to just think about what each theme potentially looks like when it's thriving and struggling.

Jim Collison 19:39
I'm not making this part up; Jim Harter, our chief scientist -- engagement and wellbeing scientist -- says, When any one of these elements is, is struggling, actively struggling, it's affecting the others greatly, and it's tough to be thriving in any one of these if any of them is also struggling. So they have an impact on others, right? If your physical wellbeing, if you're in pain, it's really hard to have some of the other elements -- community and social and, you know, and financial -- when you're, when you're in active pain. I mean, talk to anybody who's doing active pain management. It affects everything. Right? So I think that differentiation is, is good to know, like, Hey, if I'm, if I am really struggling in an area, I've got to give this thing some attention. The house is on fire; I need to put that fire out. I can't just say, "Well, my bedroom's not on fire. It's in the garage. It'll be fine." No, no, no, no. The whole house is together as one, and you got it, you got to address the fire that's happening, the grease fire in the garage, right, because that will affect the rest of the house.

Using Your Talent Themes to Support Others

Jim Collison 21:01
We, we spent, we also spent some time thinking through this matrix of, How can it be used to support others? Because I think we, you and I both recognize that this is really, these, these gifts, these themes are really to be for others -- not just for us, but for others. Thinking of managing or leading a team, if you're on a team, and if you have this as an individual, I would, I wish we would have added -- we didn't -- but I wish we would have added some family elements to this, in a sense. So superimpose, as you go back and listen to the series, just superimpose those on what we're talking about. But Jaclynn, I really felt like that was a really, really important part of each one of these elements that we talked about. Because it broke, I would always listen for something you'd say in there. Any other, as you look at those three, any thoughts that was beneficial, helpful to you, or things that you would hope listeners would take away?

Jaclynn Robinson 21:59
I think the key takeaway was we have different roles in life. And it's helpful to think about how our themes might impact others within each of those roles, including ourselves. So that was a really fun process, just to think about if you're a manager or leading a team. And it would be interesting to kind of superimpose family in there. If you're a parent, or a sibling, you're leading the pack of your siblings. You know, what might that theme look like? And if you're a team member, how can you contribute? And I know that's, as we think about powerful partnerships and wanting everyone to feel like they're a part of a team, being able to highlight what that could look like, hopefully, is uplifting to many folks. But then I also liked the individual piece -- How this might work for you -- because I almost saw that as being your "accountabilibuddy," as I'll say. So there's those notes of, "You already do this well, but hey, think about this." Or "Make sure you're considering x." And so that was, that, for me was just a friendly reminder of how you can support yourself.

Jim Collison 23:03
Yeah, good, good, good reminders there. I was thinking, you know, I knew we had to do this session today. And it's so different than everything we've ever done. And the weather just worked out perfectly. This morning, we're kind of in between storms. And so I got a walk in outside, and I kind of used, kind of used it 2 for 1: It was physical wellbeing, but it also allowed me to both walk and walk through this interview and give me some -- you know, we had Arthur Brooks on the other day, and he was talking a little bit about meditation and some of those kinds of things in a helpful sense, you know, a spiritual -- whatever that means to you, right -- exercise in some way. And it was just, for me, it was super helpful to get that wellbeing walk to use that, to use that time and turn the Arranger on full blast. And like, OK, we got 100 things we could do today; what's the right 5 or 7 things we could do? And then maximize that as I walk. It was just a, I came back in really energized this morning. Like, OK, let's do this thing. I'm excited about getting to it.

Jim Collison 24:12
So I love that, you know, I'm thinking about, I lead the community. I'm on the, I'm on a team of Certified Coaches, and I have an individual responsibility for the webcasting here, and it just kind of helps me think through each one of those responsibilities, right? In Appendix 2, the last thing we did is we talked through this framework from Appendix 2, which really is each of the 5 wellbeing elements and then broken down by some questions you can Ask Yourself. And we modified that a little bit for the, to go kind of by theme. In the book, it's really just broken down by the wellbeing element. But it's got some great opportunities. I think that's another area, Jaclynn, where I, what I'd love to see in Appendix 2 is people coming up with their own theme dynamic statements. So in other words, for my community wellbeing, and the things that I do in my community, How can I specifically use my Top 5 for -- ask myself, How can I use my Top 5 to influence my community? Right? How can I use it for the people around me? And then how can I Take Action? And make those statements like a Theme Insight Report. How cool would that be, right, to have -- ?

Jaclynn Robinson 25:25
That would be really cool!

Jim Collison 25:27
Have this kind of personalized Top 5, because it's, only you can write this. Right?

Jaclynn Robinson 25:35
Yes.

Jim Collison 25:36
I mean --

Jaclynn Robinson 25:36
Yes.

An Impromptu Insight Statement

Jim Collison 25:37
So let's, let's try, really quick, as you think about your Top 5, if you think about, let's, let's think about your community wellbeing. You've just moved to a new community, to a new place. And as you're thinking about your own Top 5 and some things you could do to improve that community, or already have done, what do you think? Write an insight statement for me -- and I put you on the spot. So we're not going to expect perfectness. But write an insight statement for me on what you've done or what you, you, what you think you could be doing to improve your community wellbeing.

Jaclynn Robinson 26:09
It would check the box for physical wellbeing too, because we have a half-marathon this weekend. And so the Achiever in me wanted to run it. It's a nice physical wellbeing thing to do. But it's also within my community; it's specific to the neighborhood. So we're running around our whole kind of housing area. So I'd get to explore the community from my feet versus being in a car. So it checks the box on community and physical. But when I travel for work, career wellbeing, I, anytime I have an opportunity, I like to run around that area too. So it does check my, my career and my physical. And I'm exploring a new community. So it actually checks community, too. And that's probably some of my Strategic theme that's coming out to go, How can I, you know, tackle a lot of these all at once? So that's, that's automatically what comes to mind.

Jim Collison 27:07
Yeah. We're getting some good feedback in the chat room. Jess says, I organized our block party. It did everything for my Communication, Woo, Connectedness and Arranger. Yes!

Jaclynn Robinson 27:19
Yes! Snaps!

Jim Collison 27:22
Justin says, Community wellbeing fed my, my Communication; exercise that, that to enhance the community connections. Sorry, I'm still having trouble reading, apparently. Yeah, well, I'd love, I'd love for this to be an exercise just for our chat room. And then if you're listening to the podcast, I'd love you to take this -- if you need the examples, make sure you have the book. There's a lot of good examples back there. Use it like a textbook from that standpoint. But, and --

Jaclynn Robinson 27:48
Good point. That's a good point. That's kind of what I was doing, too, is we were going through that process of Ask Yourself, Ask Your Team, Take Action. You know, you'd see that question on there. And I'd, I'd give you what the question was, and then just kind of add a caveat as to why I wanted to use that specific to the theme, because it felt like it fit it. So love that idea, Jim, of people doing that for them, theirselves.

Jim Collison 28:14
Yeah, one more data element. And I think for those of us, we may even want to think about -- and this is a bonus for you guys -- we may even want to think about adding in our own job responsibilities to this as well. So thinking about, How am I doing at home? How do I fit in the roles of what I'm doing at work? And then How do I make, How do I balance that with my own wellbeing, where I'm at today? And start thinking across all of those, maybe even bring your family in. And then write your own personalized insights statement for that. That, it's not concrete the second you, you write it; it's not in stone, it's going to, it can change. But man, it'd be great to see some Top 5 insight statements that you've written about yourself, and then how those are going to translate to action items. Because the last thing is to Take Action. Like you can't just say it; you got to actually do it. I'm sorry; sorry to be the bearer of bad news. But you actually got to do it. So I --

Jaclynn Robinson 29:15
And it's usually fun. Right? I say, Investing in your talent should feel fun, because you're feeding your theme. You're doing something that you enjoy.

Jim Collison 29:22
Yeah, yeah. I was, I was having a bad image moment, self-image moment, a couple of weeks ago, about myself. And I just, it just drove me out, like I gotta get back to some healthy eating patterns. I had just -- I see it; it was "see" food, right? I see it, I eat it. And I'm like, OK, slow down there, big guy. Like, you've gotta, you know, and it was tough to get back. I, you know, I had done some intermittent fasting back in the fall, and that had been really, really successful, and I really felt good. It gave me confidence, like, but man, make it, switchin' those gears to get back to it the first couple days, it's like grinding the gear to get that thing back in there. So I think that really, really -- now I, you know, this last 2 weeks have been really, really good. And I'm kind of, it's not every day, but it's a couple days and then off, and a couple days. And that, it's been super helpful to me. And the crazy thing is it changes the way I feel about myself, which is good. Like it brings some like, Oh, yeah, I feel good when I do this. I forget about that. You know, when I'm eating something at 11:30 at night, right before I go to bed, it's not the best, you know, the ice cream that I'm just crushing --

Jaclynn Robinson 30:36
Sleeping with ice cream in your belly.

Lessons Learned: When Wellbeing Is Tanking

Jim Collison 30:38
Not good for my sleep, not good for my brain. So I think, in some cases, we need to take action. What -- last question, and then we'll kind of wrap it and take some stuff from the chat room in the postshow from you guys -- How have you changed since we started doing this? I mean, think about November 2021. We're just starting to put this together. Any final thoughts on, just for you, personally, Jaclynn, how kind of going through this series has changed you in any ways or any learning?

Jaclynn Robinson 31:09
I'm a lot more cognizant of when my wellbeing is starting to tank. And instead of just chugging through, I really hit the pause button and start thinking about, How do I need to change it? I'm vocal if I need to be to whomever is around me, to let them know. And I'm, I'm remembering that saying, "Yes" to something is a "No" to something else. And that's really helpful when it comes to personal, just personal wellbeing overall is, what am I saying "Yes" to that's taking away from where I could be spending my time? That's a big Aha! We know that, but having Post-It^® notes that will even say that -- some of you that might have Achiever or Responsibility or just inherently like to do things for people for whatever reason or value system, that can be a harder thing to remember. It's like, Oh, yeah. Saying, "Yes" to this is saying, "No" to something else.

Jim Collison 32:08
I like that. And sometimes, saying, "Yes" can -- it's a hard decision in the beginning, but it gets better as it goes. You have to have, you have to kind of trust it sometimes. I was thinking about my own, you know, this intermittent fasting. I gotta trust that, I gotta trust it for the first couple days. Like, OK, you don't really have to do that. You're actually going to survive. You'll be alive at lunchtime. It'll be OK.

Jaclynn Robinson 32:37
Yes, yes. And you'll be set for Survivor, if you ever need to go on like Survivor or you want to do a reality show where you can't eat. You have to hunt for your food.

Jim Collison 32:47
I can do this! I did a full 24 hour, which I'd never been able to do before; back in the fall, I did 24 hours. It's a little confidence building, you know, like, OK, you know what? Given the right situation and the right balance, this is something that I can do that's good for me and makes me feel good. I think, when we take those things, and then we plug our themes into them, you know, in Season 6, we had this hashtag, #jimuseyourthemes. Whole thing going on during that season of Theme Thursday. I think when we use our themes powerfully in that way, mix them with our own wellbeing goals, and then trust the system, that -- because it's hard. Like those first, like when you start working out, and the first couple days are just brutal. And it's not the second day that's bad. It's Day 3 that's really bad, right? You work out Day 1, it feels great. Day 2 is kind of questionable, but you do it anyways. Day 3, you're absolutely, you can't even move. Right? So it's, it's good.

Jim Collison 33:48
Well, Jaclynn, thank you, you and I are still spending some time thinking about what a next series could be. We don't have, we don't have that nailed down or figured out kind of yet, but kind of thinking through all the, all the possibilities that are there. But thank you for taking, like you gave me a ton of your time over the last 6 months to kind of think about this and to all the work that you've put into it. So thank you for, and the community I know has loved, you know, a lot of the, of the advice that you wrote in the book. Every time I would say that, you know, you were a contributor to the appendix, Lisa Feldman would say, "I love it when he says that!" It's, you know, because it's so important your contribution. So thank you. Thanks, Jaclynn, for, for, for being my partner in this. It's been fun. For me, it's been --

Jaclynn Robinson 34:40
So fun!

Jim Collison 34:41
Fun to get to know you. Like, I never got the access to you that I get now.

Jaclynn Robinson 34:47
I know. It's great! And we always, you know, we'd see each other at the Summit and be like, "Hey!" and we'd hang out. But now, having a work project, so to speak, where we can connect has been so engaging.

Jim Collison 35:00
It's been very good. I'm gonna, I'm Jonesin', so to speak, for another series on this, because I just don't -- listen, the same was true with Maika or Mike or any, Austin or Dean, that the preshow for me is the, is the gold. Like, I mean, I love doing these, and they're great for the community. But the one-on-one time I get with you guys in the preshow is just gold. So thank you for giving me that time. I appreciate it.

Jaclynn Robinson 35:28
We couldn't do this without you, and your production, and Roy. So thank you, sir. Just seeing your themes come alive in the show is fantastic, too. I just feel like I see Ideation come up. And you're always giving me actually tons of ideas, even though you're giving them to the community. I'm like, "That is a good one!" "That's a good one too!" And the way you just use Arranger to help people think about different ways, different ideas, it's just fabulous. So thanks for doing this so we can all be a part of the show. Without you, we wouldn't have a show.

Jim Collison 36:01
I appreciate that. Big thanks to Mark too, who does all the transcriptions and editing and has become a big partner of mine on all these. If you see a transcript or a post, chances are --

Jaclynn Robinson 36:12
It's a lot of work.

Jim Collison 36:13
Mark did the work to get it done. So Mark, thanks for your, thanks for your time and your talent in all of this. We've got everybody lined up properly. And I think with that, we'll remind everyone to take full advantage of all the resources we do have available, including this. We post these into Gallup Access. Go to gallup.com/cliftonstrengths. Sign in and hit the Resources tab; lots of resources available for you for these themes. If you haven't picked up the book yet, Wellbeing at Work, still available globally, just about at every bookstore, I think you can find it there. You don't have to have it shipped from the U.S. in a lot of cases; you can probably find it local. Track that down; make sure you have it. This is one of those that I think is good to have just a physical copy of. Have that available for you, take it with you. It's a good one to reference from time to time. So pick it up -- Wellbeing at Work. It's not too late. And I think it'd be a great resource, make a great gift as well for your friends. Everybody's going back to work, I think there -- nah, I shouldn't say it that way. There are some who are going back in to the office in a new, in a new setting. And so there's a great opportunity there for them to speak wellbeing into their existence as they do this. If you have any questions around coaching, master coaching, or you want to become a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. We'll help you get some info out to you as well. If you're not following us on Eventbrite, you should be: gallup.eventbrite.com. Just follow us; you'll get a notification whenever we post something new. And anything that's coming up is out there as well. And then find us on any social platform just by Clift, by searching "CliftonStrengths." Want to, and if you found this helpful, we'd ask that you'd share it. Many of you have been sharing it inside your organizations or to those that you coach or those that you work with or friends on Facebook or in LinkedIn or on Instagram or even TikTok would be OK, if you want to make a TikTok video and share it. I don't know how you do that. But if you want to get it done, get it done. We'll be, Jaclynn and I want to thank you for being a part of this series. If you've just caught this as your first video, we have a whole, guess what? We have 34 of these for you, available as a podcast, and we're hope, hopefully you'll use those as well.

Jim Collison 38:19
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of the CliftonStrengths Podcast. Make sure you like and subscribe wherever you listen, so you never miss an episode. And if you're really enjoying this podcast, please leave a review. This helps us promote strengths globally.

Jaclynn Robinson's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Achiever, Strategic, Maximizer, Positivity and Relator.

Gallup^®, CliftonStrengths^® and each of the 34 CliftonStrengths theme names are trademarks of Gallup. Copyright © 2000 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.