"You're so good at that!"
It's the compliment that can accidentally derail a career.
For generations, we've been taught that if we're good at something - if it's a Strength - we should do more of it. We lean in. We optimize. We build our lives around our talents.
So why do so many high-performers get the Sunday Scaries week after week?
It's a Trap - Skill is Not the Same as Energy
Tools like CliftonStrengths are brilliant at helping us identify our talents. And that is incredibly valuable! It's great to know you're an Achiever or a Strategist.
But there's a nuance that often gets missed: Just because you can do something well, doesn't mean you should do it all day every day.
Competence vs. Coherence
We see this often. Let's imagine Jo. Jo is amazing at organizing teams. She creates clarity, she builds structures, she gets things done. Her boss loves her. If she took a strengths test, she'd score high on discipline and structure.
But here's the secret Jo is hiding: She hates it.
Every time she has to organize a spreadsheet or manage a schedule, it drains her battery. Her actual drive - her internal fire - is Exploration. She wants to discover, to learn, to solve novel problems.
Jo is suffering from Internal Divergence. Her external world (the role and environment she's in) is totally disconnected from her internal world (what energizes her).
Burnout isn't a lack of grit. It's a physics problem.
When you work against your own grain, you create friction. That friction turns into heat, and eventually, that heat turns into burnout. It doesn't matter how strong you are at the task. If it costs you $10 of energy to make $1 of impact, you are going to go bankrupt emotionally and mentally.
The Comparison
Here is the difference between measuring your talents and measuring your energy:
| CliftonStrengths (Gallup) | RVEAL Framework | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Metric | Talent: What you are naturally good at doing. | Coherence: How aligned your work is with your internal drive. |
| Blind Spot | Competence Trap: Can encourage you to do things that drain you, just because you excel at them. | Energy Tax: Specifically measures the cost of working in your non-dominant zones. |
| Goal | Optimization: Doing more of your strengths to increase output. | Sustainability: Aligning your role to prevent burnout and ensure longevity. |
| Ideal For | Team placement and recognizing skills. | Diagnosing burnout and figuring out where you'll thrive long-term. |
It helps to look beyond what you are good at and find what makes you feel alive, by measuring Coherence - the alignment between your inner drive and your outer reality.
- High Coherence? You work hard, but you finish the day energized. This path leads to a thriving career.
- Low Coherence? You work hard, and you finish the day depleted. This path leads to burnout.
You don't need another list of your talents. You need permission to stop doing the things that drain you - even if you're good at them.