Which do you work on – your strengths? or your weaknesses?
There are several schools of thought about personal strengths and weaknesses.
One reckons on “working to eliminate your weaknesses so that you’ll become better in those areas” - to become so accomplished that you’ll be virtually ‘unstoppable’.
The other reckons on the opposite view, “work on your strengths and have someone else do all the other things” – things that you either don’t enjoy doing or the things you’re simply not very good at.
Which camp are you in – making yourself more accomplished, or getting someone else to do it for you?
Stop reading for a moment – just pause a while and think about what you do.
Then let me tell you where I’m going with this one.
I used to be in the first camp - I loved the challenge of learning and improving on those things I wasn’t too good at – and I still do. But, increasingly I’ve switched camps now - because I realise that working on your weaknesses is probably one of the most imprudent things you can waste time on. It is not only unproductive, but it costs you time and money – and time is one of those most precious and irreplaceable resources that once spent, can never be replaced.
Here, let’s take a closer look.
When you focus on your weaknesses, unless it is something you really want to do, not only is it taking your time, you’re probably always going to be in a state of conflict and dissatisfaction with yourself until you reach ‘perfection’. And nothing is more damaging or crushing to your own self-esteem and feelings of accomplishment than continually feeling dissatisfied with yourself and your performance.
I’m not saying to ‘stick your head in the sand’ and ignore your weaknesses – no – clearly you, must continually strive to learn and improve yourself – to stay in command of your life. But what I am saying is that to set your whole focus on improving your weaknesses, to the detriment of getting on, is seldom going to get you anywhere effectively or fast.
The amount of time you spend trying to get better at something you’re simply not good at is, in all probability, time wasted – it uses up valuable time that could have been used more effectively working on something you’re extremely good at.
Would you rather spend 10 hours laying bricks, for example, something you’re not particularly good at and may regret doing, or would you rather spend those 10 hours writing a piece of software you can sell, or 10 hours doing something else you thrive on?
Which of these activities makes you feel better and allows you to achieve more in your life and your business?
The derivative of what we are discussing basically comes down to the relative opportunity costs. How much will it cost you to hire someone to do your bricklaying, or whatever - versus how much you could earn applying your energies and time to the things you are good at? Or even spending precious time with family and friends?
At the end of the day, it boils down to common sense and a willingness and open-mindedness to do things differently. And doing things differently is the ONLY way to shift your earnings, and your mindset, upwards
And, life’s too short to do the things you don’t like. And since, in theory, you’re in control of your own life, why would you want to do things any other way?
Get out there and run your life the SMART way
Richard C
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August 14th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Morning Richard
Strengths, ah, one of my favourite topics since February last year - Now Discover your strengths by the Gallop Org is responsible for that. And it ‘pops-up’ frequently in my own posts - like only this weekend.
Working from, on, with your strengths is imho even an obligation. You owe it to yourself, to humanity even to use your given talents (by nature, genes or by which ‘book’ you believe in) any which way you can to improve yourself, your circumstances, your surroundings, your world.
Because, as happens so often in ’structured’ organisations where we can find many promoted managers in the wrong place - all fighting their weaknesses instead of strengths - if we all turn into “well-rounded” persons, progress is halted. We need ‘out-of-the-box’ thinkers, creative-inventive talented people. And that only happens when we are allowed - we demand to be able to work from our talents/strengths.
And combining strengths in an organistation will propel it in success - even when this organisation is only a two-man/woman-band. Find and work other talented persons/businesses will save time, aggravation, disappointment. Because the result of profiting from combining strength will outweigh the costs (of hiring others) many times over. Like we did last year with one of our marketing projects: the Acorn - I’m sure you remember that success
of team-work.
OK, enough now, back to work and the tasks I’ve come to prefer because they strengthen my (re)found strengths.
Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)