In the movie Forrest Gump, Mama told Forrest that God works in mysterious ways. I had my own mysterious experience this past week. I’m convinced we’re all connected.
About 6 or 7 years ago, I had a one-time conversation with a woman I met on a dating site. The conversation didn’t go well. I peppered her with questions about what she liked, her background, her back story. She stopped me and asked, “Are you interviewing me for a job?” Ouch!
At about the same time, I was deeply involved in a years worth of personal development work. The concept of strong suits – or a person’s three primary ways of being – was introduced.
In late 2013 I reviewed the Landmark Forum and the strong suit concept became crystal clear. My first strong suit is social. I love to interact with others and for the most part I’m very good at it.
The problem with strong suits is while they work 60-70% of the time, there are specific moments when they don’t work. Moments when they are inappropriate. Some other way of being is required. We can tell when we’re trying to use a strong suit and it’s not working because we’re angry, frustrated, annoyed, or perplexed or any other feeling that isn’t gratitude or love.
When I created my strong suit mindmap three years ago, it included the repeating frustrations I’ve experienced in my life over-and-over. These are the times I try to use one of my strong suits and it doesn’t work. Under social, I listed Intimidating – Come on too strong.
Back to the one-time conversation I had 6+ years ago, It was a perfect example of trying to force social into a situation when social wasn’t necessary. Caring, for example, would have been a much better way to be at that particular moment. I specifically remember writing Intimidating – Come on too strong with the memory of that one-time phone call.
Fast forward to last week, my acquaintance from 6 years ago reached out to me on the business social site. We linked. I responded by telling her I remembered our conversation very well. I acknowledged that it didn’t go well. I apologized. A few days later, we spoke by phone and had a very different conversation.
More than ever I’m convinced we’re all connected. God does work in mysterious ways.