Personal Development and Weakness
Success-minded people need to understand that they will
not be good at everything. In many cases, the things you are not good at really
do not matter. This does not mean they are weaknesses in your life, it just means they do not matter. I am not good at sports;
never have been. I am a writer, speaker, mentor and teacher. My lacking in
sports is not a weakness I have, nor do I feel a need to develop in that area.
Sports has little attraction to me and I am fine not to take part. It plays no
role in my life. Therefore, it is not something I need be concerned with.
This is true with many people in all different areas. Look
again at the list you created with your strengths and weaknesses. How many of
the things you listed as a weakness really have little to do with your life or what
you seek to achieve? I am sure you will find several. These are not real
weaknesses; they are just things you do not do well.
Marcus Buckingham is perhaps one of the top researchers in
the areas of strengths and weaknesses. His books, Now, Discover Your Strength, and The One Thing You Need to
Know, along
with many others are excellent tools to help you better understand the
principles of strengths and weaknesses. Buckingham defines weaknesses as those things
that make you weak. You may even be good at them, but doing them makes you feel
weak and dissatisfied. The key thing to remember is that a weakness is not necessarily
something you do not do well; it is something you dislike doing.
We see this many times with college students. They may
have shown an ability in math when they were in high school. A counselor then
tells them, at times insists for them, to take classes to become an accountant.
They take the classes and even make good grades. In four years and after thousands
of dollars in debt, they have a degree as an accountant. Here is the problem:
they hate accounting! What they have always wanted to do was to teach
elementary school kids, and they are good with kids, too. What happened was
they were directed to follow their skills, not their talents. It is an old
story that I am positive many who read this know all too well.
Another great myth that we are taught when it comes to
weaknesses is that they should be our focus. How many times have you been told,
“Work on your weaknesses until they become your strengths?” We think that if we
work hard enough in the areas where we do not excel, we will make them
strengths and therefore remove the weaknesses. The truth is that it never
happens that way.
Personal development and the achievement of your dream will not happen on
its own. It takes action and that action has to happen now. Click on the Free
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© 2016 John Patrick Hickey. No part of
this may be reprinted or published without permission of the author.
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