What Sea Glass Can Teach Us About Human Potential
Finding a piece of blue sea glass is a rare, celebrated moment. Whenever I spot one, I’m always so genuinely excited by how unusual and beautiful it is.
Each piece of sea glass is distinct: some are worn and rough, others sharp and pointed. They dazzle with brilliant colors and carry stories of their unknown travels. Whether big and bulky or tiny enough to slip through a hole in my pocket, their uniqueness is their charm.
Most summers, my family spends countless hours hunting for sea glass on the beaches of Prince Edward Island. It’s a meditative adventure requiring only a baggie, time, a hair tie and a keen eye.
People are just as unique as sea glass.
We bring varying backgrounds, traditions, and perspectives to the table. While some thrive on silly comedy, others find it annoying. (I’m all in for the silliest of comedy!)
As an Executive Coach and Facilitator, I help teams unlock these unique talents (explore my workshop offerings here!) People are as unique and varied as the sea glass pieces I gather. Of course, people have commonalities with each other, but no one person is the same as another.
Communicating clearly or adapting to a new plan comes naturally to some but causes significant stress for others. Meeting new people in a roomful of strangers brings on loads of anxiety for many, and for others (me!), this is an opportunity to make new friends and support others to make connections they didn’t even know they needed. No two individuals process life through the same lens.
Time for a nerd moment: the chances of having the same Top 5 CliftonStrengths in the exact same order are 1 in 33 million! With 34 unique talent themes, the takeaway is clear: you are one of a kind. Your specific combination of talents has never existed before and never will again.
When I meet someone with themes like Command, Self-Assurance, or Significance, they learn that their talents are rare—much like that hard-to-find blue sea glass.
Those with Achiever, Learner, Responsibility, or Relator are more common. They find many others who share their talents and learn how familiar these strengths can feel in a group.
I have a strength called Individualization, and this talent looks for uniqueness, what makes us special and unlike others. It helps me build deep relationships and remember the nuances in people.
A good friend and close collaborator has a strength called discipline, and she is a wiz at ordering and structuring everything while creating efficiencies and timelines to get things done. I need her in my life as I have Discipline very low in my natural talents!
How to Turn Unique Talents Into Relationship and Team Success
Think about your own talents in relation to those around you. Whether someone is like a translucent sliver of green glass or a weathered Coke bottle piece, our differences can be celebrated and actually useful. When we stop trying to make everyone "the same," we can build more effective relationships and teams based on complementary, unique strengths.
Here are a few questions to help you out:
Are you celebrating the differences you see in others, or are you often annoyed by them?
What assumptions have you made about others that just might be more about you and your uniqueness, than about them?
What if those differences that you see in others were actually the key to your most successful partnerships?
Just as every piece of sea glass is shaped differently by its journey, every person possesses a unique blend of talents and their own backstory, too.
Understanding our distinct natural talents, our CliftonStrengths, helps us recognize our own specific value and contributions in our relationships, our work, our health, and in our lives.
Rather than criticizing those who operate differently, let’s view these differences as essential ingredients for successful partnerships, move beyond assumptions, and celebrate the nuances in the people around us. Let’s celebrate that rare blue sea glass find!