In Redefining the Strong-Willed Woman, Cynthia Tobias asks readers to participate in a quick inventory in order to determine just how much of a strong will they have. She calls it the Strong-Willed Woman (SWW) Quotient. I wanted to include it in a post, but thought that I might need permission to reprint that much of her book. I filled out a permissions request with her publisher, but I will have to wait four to six weeks for their answer. But Julie (Pragmatic Compendium) was one step ahead of me; she found it online at Family Life Today. I’m pretty sure they have permission to use it!

If you want an idea of just how strong-willed you are, go take the SWW quiz! Tobias recommends that two other people who know you really well take the quiz to see how closely your scores match.

I took the inventory and came out with an SWW Quotient of 6, I use it when I need to, but not on a daily basis. Then last night I asked Karl to take it with me in mind. He was a bit harder on me than I was. According to Hubs, my SWW Quotient is 9, You’ve got a good strong dose of it, but you can back off when you want to.

WHAT?!

Hey, it’s not scientific…no reason to beat myself up.

True confession: I think he was thinking of the SWW me from about 1995. He must have recalled that time we argued about a certain actor in a movie we went to see. He says on the way home from the theater, “Hey, I think that was the guy from Backbeat. You know, the Beatles movie?” And I say, “No, it wasn’t that guy. Didn’t look anything like him.” He says, “Yes, it was.” I say, “No, it wasn’t.” He says, “Yes, it was. What do you want to bet it was the same guy?” I say, “I don’t need to bet anything. It wasn’t him. I’m right, you’re wrong.” He laughs maniacally, “I am going to prove it.” I say, “Fine. Prove it.” All this time, to compound the embarrassment and shamelessness of it all, his sister is in the backseat telling us we are absolutely insane and could we please stop it and just take her home. Both: “NO!” Karl careens into the parking lot of the Blockbuster. We charge inside looking for Backbeat so we can check the credits on the back for the name of the actor. Turns out he’s right. CRAP! He says, “You need to learn to never argue with me.” I say, “Wow, they really changed his appearance for this movie.” He says, “No they didn’t. You’re just wrong.” I say, “I’m not wrong. You took me to see the dumbest movie ever made. This is all your fault.” He says, “What?”

Did you see that? I totally turned things around, jumbled the conversation (if you can call it that), and somehow made it his fault we were arguing.

Funny the things we can remember, isn’t it?

Book review and further discussion coming soon!