If you are human, and I’m thinking you probably are, you have weaknesses. You also probably know about them.
You also probably worry about what to do about them, and even worse you most likely spend a lot of time working on them. What you really need to be doing though is managing those weaknesses.
You also need to be careful not to spend too much of your time, energy, and resources thinking about them. While everyone has weaknesses, the successful in life do not spend a lot of time worrying about them.
The people who become successful are not those who have no weaknesses. They are also not the ones who just ignore them either.
It doesn’t really matter what awards you may have won or what you and everyone else sees as your personal or professional strengths. It is inherent human nature to instead focus on our weaknesses. “I’m not good at organizing” or I’m poor at keeping a schedule” or whatever your personal weakness may be.
We also tend to live in a sort of anticipatory fear of that weakness creeping out from under the bed and dragging us into the abyss despite our known strengths.
The tendency for many then is to focus on bringing our weakness, perceived or real, up to an acceptable level. Or worse, completely ignoring our strengths while trying to bring a weakness – that may just be something we are never going to truly overcome – up to the same level as our strengths.
The end result of this all too common approach is that our strengths are unused, and we become exhausted and discouraged by focusing on our weakness. You should never sacrifice a strength to improve a weakness. Never.
Since it is not in our nature to actually be able to ignore our weaknesses, what should we do then?
Think of it in terms of a professional athlete or even better as a professional team. All teams have strengths and weaknesses. These teams that reach their successful goals are the ones who first clearly define both sets of skills as either strengths or weaknesses. The coaches then game plan to enable an approach to the game that allows them to use their strengths and limit the effects of their weaknesses.
Notice though they may try to eliminate the weaknesses they have by replacing members of the team, once the roster is set, they are no longer trying to eliminate them but are instead simply using their strengths to manage the exposure of and to their weaknesses.
You have to be able to do the same in a sense. Defining your strengths and weaknesses first, and then choosing and approaching goals and tasks based on implementing your strengths leads to your best chance for success. It also gives you’re your best chance for satisfaction rather than disappointment due to another failure chalked up to your weakness.
Everyone has their weaknesses. The successful are simply those who focus on their strengths and manage around their weaknesses.
Copyright 2011 Allen Williams
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