I recently took a Clifton Strengths evaluation to better discern what my strengths are. I’ve made lists of what I enjoy to do, what I’m drawn to, what people complement me on, all in a quest to figure out my purpose on this Earth. Everything I came up with seemed ambiguous (i.e. I like conversing with people) rather then specific (i.e. I like playing the ukulele.) I figured the questionnaire could bring things into finer focus. After you take the Clifton Strengths Survey you receive a Theme Report of your Five Top Strengths. One of my mine was “Input.” At first, I had no idea what that meant. When I read the description of this skill/trait, it said I was a “collector.” That’s certainly true– when I was little I collected Troll Dolls and markers and Lisa Frank notebooks. Today I’m still collecting Lisa Frank notebooks, along with books, DVDs, and costumes/clothes. I felt deflated initially. How could this possibly be a strength? I’m a huge fan of Marie Kondo, and recently read her book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I gathered that my tendency to accumulate things needed to be altered. That book, and so many other articles and self-help books talk about trimming the fat, cutting down on the clutter, shedding what is non-essential. How could I make use of a tendency to collect things in 2021?
Demoralized, my mind began to wander. Isabella Stewart Gardner had been in my thoughts due to a recent documentary series on Netflix (This is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist) about the theft that occurred at her museum in 1990. I grew up outside of Boston and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum remains one of my all-time favorite museums. I located a book on her museum published in 2017 and decided to virtually spend some time with Isabella and her art work, and what I discovered reinvigorated me. Isabella was an archivist and collector, and these talents left an incredible, inspiring legacy: her museum. She was in awe of the natural world (thus the garden courtyard that is the centerpiece of the museum), art, music, and life in general, and she wanted to share her travels, her artwork, her books, her correspondence, and her trinkets with everyone. I felt I had found a kindred spirit in Isabella– needless to say I don’t have anything that approaches the kind of value of her collections, but I do have the same impulse to share those things that bring me joy and knowledge. I still don’t know how to exactly leverage my “Input” strength, but I at least feel reassured that I’m in good company with a fellow Bostonian.