10 litas gold coin, issued as an item of the international programme “The Smallest Gold Coins of the World. History of Gold” Gold Au 925 Quality proof Diameter 13.92 mm Weight 1.244 g Edge reeded The designer of the coin is Giedrius Paulauskis Issued 1999 Minted 5,500 pcs Distributed 5,500 pcs The coin was minted at the state enterprise Lithuanian Mint. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
On how many occasions in the recent past, did you brood on what skills you did not have, and why you could not make it big? ‘Big’ – not by your own standards, but by the standards of what you perceive as ‘the world’!
This piece is to emphasize the fact that there can be nothing more suicidal to your personality and life; there is no bigger waste of time than just thinking of all the weaknesses in you, and wonder what has gone right or wrong in life’s journey!
Most of us are trained and taught to work on our weaknesses, day in and day out, and overcome them come what may!
Today, I would want to leave a contrarian thought in you – and I can assure you that it will work well for you.
Ignore and belittle your inherent weaknesses, and spend all the time and resources in honing your inherent strengths… you will do a lot of good to you, your life, and work…
Many contemporary life & leadership lessons speak of the need to do what you are good at… Decisively identify your strengths and do something which is pretty close to your core competence. What else can be core competence other than you natural strengths? The strengths which sort of flow with you in life, and with which you don’t have to undergo the so called drudgery of ‘work’.
Visualize this – spend a few minutes and do this – You have a handful of a mix of shining gold coins, and some rusted old copper coins… Would it be good to just ignore the rusty dusty copper coins and just put all your time and energy into how well you can exploit and make good of the shining gold coins on hand…. Or would it be good to waste your time and energy on cleaning/making the rusty copper coins into Gold coins?
You will be wasting that much time because whatever you do, the Copper can never ever turn to Gold…. On the other hand, you can make the best use of the Gold coins…hone and polish them, and take them to the market place and show your worth and mettle to the world.
This, is the cardinal rule in managing time – put time to its best use here and now…. So, your time is not going to be best used by cleaning the rust and dust of the copper in you…… Just do not give any importance to the copper in you (weaknesses) and hone your gold (strengths) now and always…
We all have heard enough of why and how we should somehow work on converting our weaknesses into strengths. Believe me, if you have ever worked on any of your weaknesses for some considerable time, you will testify to the fact that it takes a lot of time…. with disproportionately small or miniscule result. Just look back in life and see how many weaknesses you have managed to convert into strengths and you will get what I mean here!
It is wishful thinking that we can completely overcome our weaknesses and even convert that into strengths. With that, we expend so much energy… almost make you feel that you are losing it and making you frustrated with yourself, and the the so called weakness in you. The only end result is that you have lost precious time and energy….
Precious resources that should have been used in focusing on the positives with us and getting to the point of perfection….
Your goal and intent must be – only focus more and more on the positives.. Make the best out of the inherent strengths you possess and shine your ware in the market-place of the world.
Many business leaders have opined that working on weaknesses is not a great personal growth strategy….More can be achieved by getting more time and focus into what you are good at….
Mediocre to Good is a journey of high improbability. Gold to Diamond, if you can see is a more successful endeavor.
So, pick up three to five things you are good at and work hard and toil to make them great personal offerings! See the difference it makes in your life…. And you will enjoy the journey of life more…..
Happiness, life.. all about the journey! 