If you have ever done a CliftonStrengths profiling test in school, you might be familiar with the term “talent themes” mentioned during your follow-up workshops. However, it is understandable if the meaning of its 34 talent themes is still foreign vocabulary to you, given that they differ from their contemporary meaning. For example, the #achiever talent theme refers to an internal motivation to complete as many tasks as possible, which deviates from its dictionary meaning of attaining a high level of success. In this series, we will be dissecting some popular fictional characters to help you recognise how the various talent themes show up in the way they think, feel, and behave.
To start off, we have selected a rather popular young adult book series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians (PJO), to delve into. This young adult fiction aims to introduce you to the exciting world of Greek Mythology through a masterful integration of the mythological characters with modern United States of America. Experience the hidden world full of monsters and quests through the eyes of a demigod named Percy Jackson.
Avid readers would know that author Rick Riordan wrote the book to change the public’s opinion on ADHD (which his son has), by making it a strength of the demigods to help them survive in the series. The reason for Percy Jackson’s popularity largely stems from its ability to inspire children with ADHD to view life positively and treat their uniqueness as their strength. Similarly, we hope that by proxy of our analysis, you would be able to understand, relate, and appreciate your talent themes a little bit more! Since each talent theme is defined as the natural way of how we think, feel, and behave, we tend to exhibit the same thoughts, feelings, and behaviours well into adulthood. Therefore, we encourage you to try and identify the talent themes picked out in this article across all 5 books in the PJO series and the Heroes of Olympus series if you can! (Spoiler alert for those who have yet to read the series!)
Click on the different characters below to read about our analysis of Percy, Annabeth and Grover's possible talent themes!
With that, we have dissected some of the possible CliftonStrengths talent themes of the three main protagonists in the series. If you share the same talent themes as these characters, we hope that the way we have examined their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours serves as a positive analogy to your own. Just like how their talent themes have provided them with a unique edge in different circumstances, we want you to know the same can be applied to you. Some of our talent themes are more prominent in our studies, whilst others are more practical for our CCAs and even within our friendship groups. There is no one “best” talent theme, rather, it is in the way we utilise and capitalise it that makes it our finest contribution. As a youth, your life journey has just begun. Invest in your future by investing in your talent themes and polish them into your strengths. All the best!
