Theme Insights – Self-Assurance

People with high Self-Assurance are sometimes seen to be risk-takers.   Here is the Theme Description from the Gallup Business Journal:

“Self-Assurance is similar to self-confidence. In the deepest part of you, you have faith in your strengths. You know that you are able — able to take risks, able to meet new challenges, able to stake claims, and, most important, able to deliver. But Self-Assurance is more than just self-confidence. Blessed with the theme of Self-Assurance, you have confidence not only in your abilities but in your judgment. When you look at the world, you know that your perspective is unique and distinct. And because no one sees exactly what you see, you know that no one can make your decisions for you. No one can tell you what to think. They can guide. They can suggest. But you alone have the authority to form conclusions, make decisions, and act. This authority, this final accountability for the living of your life, does not intimidate you. On the contrary, it feels natural to you. No matter what the situation, you seem to know what the right decision is. This theme lends you an aura of certainty. Unlike many, you are not easily swayed by someone else’s arguments, no matter how persuasive they may be. This Self-Assurance may be quiet or loud, depending on your other themes, but it is solid. It is strong. Like the keel of a ship, it withstands many different pressures and keeps you on your course.”

People with high Self-Assurance have a strong inner-compass which guides their decisions.  When it comes to decision making, they often have a much stronger “internal frame of reference” compared to an “external frame of reference.”   They will take in varying degrees of inputs from other people depending on what some of their other Talent Themes are, but ultimately, once they have made up their mind it is often hard to change it.

Because of their strong internal frame of reference, they are often seen as “risk-takers” because they are willing to take action when others are not, and even when they are surrounded by nay-sayers.  Nay-sayers usually have little influence over them once the decision has been made, and the best way to to help change someone with high Self-Assurance change their minds, is to help guide them to a new decision of their own, which can be fairly challenging.

The contributions of people with high Self-Assurance, is that they are also the ones who often prove others wrong and break mental barriers so that others can follow.

For years, experts said (and people believed) that the human body was simply not capable of a 4-minute mile. It wasn’t just dangerous; it was impossible.  That is, until Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute barrier, running the distance in 3:59.4 in 1954.   And many athletes started breaking the 4-min barrier as well after Roger Bannister, in face Bannister’s record only lasted 46 days!  It quickly became apparent that the barrier wasn’t a physical barrier, but a mental one.

Do you know of people with high Self-Assurance?  Do you know them as risk-takers?  Have they broken some mental barrier of yours before by having the courage to redefine what was possible?

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