Managing Your Strengths

Playing to Your Strengths – and Managing Your Weaknesses

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For instance, when you were young you might have observed your parents or peers doing things a certain way. Because you were very young and impressionable at the time, these experiences made a lasting impression on your mind. And even though you never personally took part in these tasks or activities at the time, you gained the necessary awareness you needed as a result of your observations.

Now many years later you find yourself in a similar situation. And with no personal experience, things just happen to come naturally to you. People call you a genius and tell you that you have natural talent and ability in this area, however little do they realize that you are strong in this area because of your interests and the keen observations skills that sparked your curiosity at a younger age.

To begin with, take some time to list your talents, skills, characteristics, behaviors, and areas of greatest knowledge.

Some of your strengths will be easier to identify, while other strengths will be more subtle and difficult to pinpoint. For instance, are you courageous, energetic, focused, helpful, productive, caring, disciplined, flexible, motivated, outgoing, trustworthy, warm, determined, artistic, analytical, adventurous, compassionate, optimistic, patient, curious, inspiring, organized, responsible, precise, team-oriented, etc?

These are all very subtle things that you might overlook when building your list of strengths, however, they are all aspects of your personality that can provide you the strength you need during difficult times. If however you do get stuck compiling this list of strengths, then consider asking a few people you know to help provide you with some insights. These people may very well see things that you might not be aware of. Having compiled your list of strengths, take the time now to ask yourself three additional questions:.

In the end, the entire purpose of this assessment is to help you make the necessary adjustments to your life and career path in order to best utilize your strengths to achieve your goals and help you become the person you desire to be. That is after all what really matters. Well, in that case, the purpose of going through this process will be to gain the necessary clarity you need in order to build your goals or career path on the foundation of your personal strengths.

In other words, you will be using this process to help lay down the path of least resistance moving forward. As you build your future and career path upon your strengths, you naturally begin to make more optimal choices and decisions. You naturally, use your time most effectively, and you get the greatest returns for the time and effort you put into something.

No longer are you struggling to focus on tasks and activities that make you feel frustrated. Those are the things you allow others to do for you. You instead focus on the areas you are best at, most passionate about, and areas where you perform at your highest level. That is in essence how the highest achievers lay down the foundations of their success. Your weaknesses are found in the things that seem difficult to learn and difficult to do.

In other words, your weaknesses are simply areas of your life where you have had very limited experience, given very little attention to, or been misguided in some way. They may include underdeveloped characteristics and skills, poor learned behaviors, limiting beliefs, and inadequate knowledge.

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Above all others, your limited beliefs are probably the biggest culprits. There are three main reasons why you have weaknesses. You have weaknesses because of a lack of experience; because you have been misguided in some way; and because of a set of limiting beliefs which lead to less than optimal habits of thinking.

We are naturally more open to new perspectives and ways of looking at things, and as a result, we focus more and more on these areas until what initially started as a fascination now becomes a hobby or career path. Weaknesses can also manifest from the fact that you were misguided in some way. You might, for instance, have certain traits, characteristics, behaviors and limiting habits that you learned and picked up from observing other people. Alternatively, you might have had certain experiences in your life that brought about these tendencies.

This now brings us back to limiting belief systems. Your weaknesses can for instance often stem from the fact that you think about things in less than optimal ways. This can, of course, revert back to a lack of experience or to the fact that you were misguided in some way in the past. And as a result, you have a set of limiting beliefs in certain areas of your life that negatively influence your behaviors, decisions, thoughts, and actions.

As a result of this lack of knowledge and experience, you do things ineffectively. You might, in fact, be very capable, you just need to change how you think or what you believe about the situation, then, as a result, this will shift what you do within the situation. Alternatively, your weaknesses can also stem from a lack of resources , a lack of support , or a lack of self-discipline.

When you have the necessary resources, the required support, and the discipline needed to see something through to the end, then that is when what initially seemed like a weakness can quickly turn into a strength. However, for this to occur you must be open and willing to accept the fact that you are simply not living up to your full potential. You will always have a natural predisposition for certain things. These are the things that come easiest to you, and as such, these are the things that you must spend the majority of your time focusing on.

This basically comes down to making the best use of your time by focusing on the things that will bring you the highest returns. And that essentially comes down to concentrating on your strengths. You could very well spend a lot of your time trying to overcome your weaknesses, however, is that really the best use of your time, energy and effort? What if you could just focus on your strengths and simply sidestep your weaknesses? You can do this quite effectively by gaining the necessary support you need from others in areas where you are weak.

To begin with, take some time to list limiting characteristics, beliefs, behaviors, and areas where you are lacking the necessary skills and knowledge. As you work through your list of weaknesses, keep in mind in particular to the character flaws that might be letting you down.

For instance, are you moody, lazy, greedy, fearful, bossy, arrogant, controlling, shy, sloppy, naive, ignorant, impatient, aggressive, reckless, pessimistic, irresponsible, impulsive, insensitive, etc? These are all potential weaknesses in your character, however, they do not necessarily translate into weaknesses in all situations.

You might, for instance, be impulsive and impatient. This might not work well in some situations. However, in other situations, your impulsiveness and impatience can actually work to your advantage. You must, therefore, be very careful how you label your weaknesses.

Maximize your strengths and manage your weaknesses with LIFO | CoreCode

What might seem like a weakness might, in fact, turn into a strength. It will just depend on how you use it and in what specific situations this characteristic is called upon.

At times though a weakness is simply a weakness in almost every situation — at least in every situation that matters. In such instances, just focusing on your strengths might not be enough to get you the results you are after. You might, therefore, need to work on overcoming your weaknesses in certain situations in order to provide yourself with the competitive edge you need to move forward with your challenges. In order to turn weaknesses into strengths, you either need to gain more experience, resources, knowledge, or support in a specific area of your life.

At times all that might be required is a little guidance that will enable you to think about your life and circumstances in more optimal ways. Have a think about your current situation, career path, and the goals that you would like to achieve, and consider how you might be able to work through your weaknesses in order to get the results you desire to have in your life.

However, you must be open to the possibilities. As such, it might be worthwhile asking yourself three additional questions:. The answers to these questions will provide you with the solutions you need to gain the most value from your choices and decisions moving forward. The strengths you identified throughout this process will provide you with unique insights into the areas you should be focusing on to help move your career and life forward.

The key here is to begin restructuring your life, priorities, and goals in ways that will enable you to take full advantage of your strengths while at the same time minimizing any weaknesses. However, it is important to keep in mind that some of your weaknesses can in actuality translate into strengths in the right context. In order to move forward in life, you must use your strengths to develop key skills that will help you to best achieve your goals and objectives. To do this, ask yourself:.

What kinds of skills would I need to learn in order to achieve my professional and personal goals? How will I go about transferring my strengths of character to each of these important skill areas? At the top of this hierarchy, you would have the number one most important skill you need to develop in order to achieve your goals. If this particular skill is aligned with your personal strengths then it will be easy to develop in the coming days, weeks and months.

You are actually a very talented musician, however in order to succeed you need the ability to be able to promote yourself.

Maximize your strengths and manage your weaknesses with LIFO

But this is a problem because you are naturally an introvert. In such instances, unless you quickly develop your abilities as a promoter, you will struggle to get the word out about your music. As such, your only other option is to work off the strengths of other people who can help you in this area. You can therefore either hire a promoter, or you can do the promotional work yourself. Leveraging your time in the right way is after all one of the fastest ways to get ahead in this world.

Now getting back to our hierarchy, continue listing all the most important skill areas according to their level of importance. Once this is done, tick off the skill areas that are aligned with your natural strengths and abilities and develop a plan of action that will help you spend the majority of your time focusing on these important things.

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In fact, the less you have on your plate the better because it means that you will be able to focus all your attention on the most important areas that will provide you with the highest return for your time and efforts. What about my weaknesses? Does this career path or goal allow me to navigate safely through my weaknesses? That is after all how you will live up to your fullest potential on any career path you choose to pursue.

However, please do keep in mind that this entire process rests on your ability to prioritize accordingly. You will only maximize your results when you focus on the right things, at the right time, and in the right way. And that, of course, all comes down to utilizing your strengths and the accompanying skills you identified throughout this process to the fullest of your ability. Did you gain value from this article?

Is it important that you know and understand this topic? Would you like to optimize how you think about this topic? Would you like a method for applying these ideas to your life? Get a little better at it. In some cases, your weakness is only moderately impeding your peak performance in other areas. If so, then maybe damage control is the right solution.

Develop a support system. This is the proverbial string tied around the finger to remind you of something. Whether it is time management systems for those with a talent for adaptability but not discipline, or a scheduled walk in the park for disciplined folks who neglect self-care, you can often blunt the effects of your weaknesses through such structured inputs. If your skills tend toward the analytical and away from such talents as wooing clients or dealing directly with confrontation, then you may not want to spend a lot of time in sales.

But when you do need to sell something—such as one of your ideas—approach the problem analytically. Go into partnership discussions with a clear-eyed understanding of the strengths you bring, and the strengths you need from your partner. And be open-minded about what a partnership looks like.

For some solo practitioners, an administrative or virtual assistant, a marketing consultant, or a bookkeeper could be all the partnering you need. In a corporate setting you might get away with this, particularly if you are a high-performer in the areas of your strengths. But keep it as a goal and continue to work toward the day when you can contribute to your business exclusively from the place of your highest strengths.

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