Significance & Skywalker

Recently, my son came home from camp obsessed with lightsabers. Apparently he and his friends fashioned some out of bamboo and he wanted to learn more about Star Wars.

Bad news for him. His parents are the rare 80’s and 90’s kids who weren’t steeped in Star Wars culture. Sure, I saw the movies when I was a kid and had some Star Wars toys – but I left the movies in my childhood and never kept up with the prequels and sequels and dozens of other streaming versions.

I was more of a Spaceballs guy.

But he wanted to understand the characters so he could talk about it with his buddies. It was time to fulfill his destiny. So what did we do? We fired up Disney+ and jumped back in for a series of “Family Movie Nights”.

Just like Disney intended.

We rewatched the original trilogy and then the three more recent sequels. In the 2nd one (The Last Jedi) there’s a scene where Luke Skywalker is visited by his mentor Yoda, and Yoda mentions the word strength.

I perked up from sliding into a nap (it’s a long movie).

It was at that moment, that a Jedi-blog was born.

I’m a Jedi, like my father before me

Watching Luke Skywalker’s journey, I saw the Significance talent play out.

Luke starts out as a restless farm boy staring up at the twin suns, longing for something greater. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s got the juice.

When Obi-Wan introduces him to the Force, it’s like the beginning of a strengths discovery process. He learns that something powerful has been inside him all along.

The Force is his talent. Now he’s got to stand on his head and train with Yoda in order to make it a strength.

That’s how it feels when someone first discovers their talents through CliftonStrengths. It’s exciting and energizing, but also a little intimidating.

Luke fails and doubts himself over and over. But he keeps going. And that’s where he starts to see that the Force, this connection between all things, is not just about himself but about how he can impact others.

That’s the deal with Significance as a talent.

Significance often starts with a desire to stand out and to matter. Gallup’s definition talks about wanting to be recognized and having influence in an organization. And I think Luke achieves that. But when Significance gets Jedi-mastered, it becomes about impact. About making a meaningful difference.

Do or do not. There is no try

And then there’s that scene in The Last Jedi.

Luke is getting a talking-to from Yoda, who returns while Luke wrestles with his failure as a teacher and his fear about a young Jedi (Rey’s) future.

Yoda tells him:

“Pass on what you have learned. Strength, mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is.”

I wrote down the timestamp and went back and watched the scene. Is Yoda talking about strengths? Hard to follow, his syntax can be.

I mean, his syntax can be hard to follow.

Turns out he was, but also about weakness in the form of failure. And how that can strengthen us further.

So often, especially when we focus on strengths, it’s easy to overlook the value of our mistakes. But what Yoda says is true. Think of how often you’ve fallen short or didn’t handle a situation in the best way, even when relying on your natural talents.

I know I’ve screwed up plenty of times, and looking back I can trace many of those missteps to using my talents in a way that hadn’t fully matured. In a way I’ve now learned from.

For someone with the Significance talent, who cares deeply about doing meaningful work and being respected for it, failure can feel even more devastating. Like letting down a galaxy full of people.

Luke had withdrawn from the galaxy not because he stopped caring, but because he cared so much. He made a mistake with Ben Solo, aiding and abetting his turn into Kylo Ren, of team Dark Side.

Luke didn’t want to make another mistake. But in the end, he steps back into the fight. And it wasn’t just to be the hero, but to give hope to others in the Resistance. His final act is one of ultimate significance. He doesn’t seek glory. He simply gives the Resistance a chance to survive.

That’s legacy, which is what Significance is all about.

Significance isn’t just about being known, it’s about being known for doing something that matters. It’s not about shouting the loudest. It’s about leading in a way that leaves a mark.

Luke Skywalker’s journey is more than a hero’s arc. I mean, let’s be real. Almost all of these movies are exactly the same. A long game of hide and seek in outer space, ending with the good guys blowing up another giant ship. But setting that aside, the overall lesson of how to grow a talent into a strength is a persistent theme.

The Force may not be a real thing. But it can serve as a helpful analogy for your own top CliftonStrengths talents.

Best of luck in your journey. And “May The Significance Be With You”