Every guru on the planet has something to say about having strengths and weaknesses. You’ll hear plenty of information and maybe even misinformation when it comes to these things, but what really counts?
What are your strengths and weaknesses? How do you identify them? How do you use your strengths and manage your weaknesses?
Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is the key to a very important door you must open in life: the door of personal growth.
We all go through hard times, good times, and everything in between, but without personal growth, we never learn to truly thrive during the hard times. That’s when new growth takes place.
The first step to solving any problem is recognizing there is one. A lot of people get hung up on what they’re good at and forget where they’re falling short.
You can’t leave your weaknesses on the back burner for long before they come back to bite you. So in this piece, we’re going to talk about the importance of knowing our personal strengths and weaknesses in order to succeed in life and in business.
Let’s start with identifying your strengths and mindset, and why this is vital to your entire process.
Your Strengths and Your Mindset
What do you think of when we talk about having strengths?
Do you start by considering the things you’re good at? Or possibly you know you possess a natural talent for something like managing money, people, or time.
Or maybe, you’re stuck and don’t know where to begin and are wondering how you figure out WHAT you’re good at.
Let’s start off by taking a closer look at what you do on a daily basis. Here are some quick questions to get you started:
- What activities do you spend most of your time doing?
- What level of effort do you put forth in those activities?
- Are you the top performer in your category/job/career?
- What skills are you known for?
Some people find it easier to write their answers down in list form, but in order for these questions to truly help us, we’ve got to put in a bit more effort than that! I suggest digging deeper when you ask yourself these questions…
What activities do you spend most of your time doing?
Alright, so this one is easy. What do you do all day? What responsibilities do you have?
You’ll find that whatever you’re putting your time into is most likely something you’re good at, or at least improving on.
What level of effort do you put in?
Do you give 100% in everything you do, or are you kind of a willy-nilly “it’ll get done eventually” kind of person?
If you’re not willing to put in the effort, don’t expect any growth in return!
Are you the top performer?
This doesn’t mean you’re the best person in what you do, but it does mean that when people think of an attribute, you’re the one that comes to mind.
Maybe you’re always punctual, or your work is always top-notch, you always deliver, or you think outside the box. If there was an anonymous survey sent out to those you interact with on a daily basis, what would they say about you?
What skills are you known for?
What skills do you bring to the table in your work or business and personal relationships?
Things like patience and empathy might not seem like skills — but trust me, they’re pretty darn important ones.
Other examples of skills: are strategic thinking, good communication skills, the ability to take (and give) constructive criticism, people management skills, or time management abilities.
Your Values
Our values play a crucial role in defining our strengths.
Ask yourself…
What are your values? What do you stand for? How about the people you admire? What do you admire about them? Your mentors, coaches, bosses, or even your favorite entertainer all have values that you look up to.
What we value tends to shine through in our personalities. If you value punctuality, you’re going to be on time. If you value honesty, you’re going to tell the truth.
As Roy Disney said: “When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.”
Your Mindset
I talk about mindset all the time, and that’s because it’s the key to unlocking your potential.
If you want to get anywhere in life, you’ve gotta be able to visualize yourself already there and make it happen. How you look at yourself and your surroundings shapes how your world turns, and that’s a fact. As John Assaraf says, “Mindset is what separates the best from the rest.”
The number one block for most people to achieve their goals is their mindset.
How you view things shapes your reality, and once you’ve bottlenecked yourself into fear, you’ll stay there until you change the way you think. That kind of self-sabotage only serves to hinder your progress and keep you stagnant. Change the way you think, and you’ll change your situation.
If you want to harness that millionaire mindset, take a realistic look at your strengths by reading over what you just wrote out from the questions above. Once you know what you’re actually good at, you can leverage those strengths to pursue your dreams. Putting positive energy into the right things can take you places you only dreamed of before.
Committing to that strength requires some heavy lifting, but that’s the whole point of pursuing a goal. The growth you experience from your journey adds further value to what you’re passionate about.
Take me, for instance. I wasn’t happy with doing just one thing. I was bouncing from business to business until I found my passion.
Once I did, and I focused on it, I made a commitment to myself and to what I was passionate about, and it made all the difference. Within just two years, I was a millionaire. I took the chance, focused on what I loved and what I was good at, and made the dream a reality.
What Are Your Weaknesses?
So now that you’ve started writing down what you value, what you’re good at, and what kind of mindset you need to get where you want to go, you’re probably asking, “Now what?” Well, you’ve got to take a look at your weaknesses.
First, let me clarify something. Looking at your weaknesses involves being aware of them, but you can’t get stuck on them. When you start looking for things that are wrong, you bet you’ll find them; and you’ll keep finding them.
As Erin Andrews says, “Admitting your weaknesses does not diminish your strengths: it shows your courage.” So find those weaknesses, and make sure to keep moving forward.
For some reason, a lot of “experts” and “gurus” think you should focus on what’s holding you back, but I say you need to focus on what you’re great at.
Remember, whatever you focus on expands. So focus on your strengths and manage your weaknesses.
Alright, so what are your weaknesses and how can you figure out what yours are?
Let’s first make sure we’re heading into this with a positive mindset.
You’re human. You make mistakes. You’re not perfect, and you never will be. It’s ok to make mistakes or fall short sometimes.
Where do you tend to fall short? Are you late a lot? Do you have a short temper? Maybe you’re just not great at managing money. Let’s be honest; you just can’t be good at everything!
The sooner we accept the fact we’ll never excel in every single area of life, the quicker we can move on to focusing on our strengths instead.
Now, that’s not to say you shouldn’t put some effort into a serious weakness, like not being on time. Ignoring your weaknesses can definitely end up negatively affecting your ability to earn money or run a business. So while I strongly advocate for you to focus on your strengths, keep your weaknesses in the background.
As you grow, your weaknesses will fade, or they won’t, and that’s fine, too. As long as you’re aware of them, you’ve got the advantage.
Remember that how you view your weaknesses has a direct effect on you. This goes back to mindset. (I told you it was one of my favorite subjects!) If you look at your weaknesses as inhibitors, they’re gonna hold you back. Weakness is nothing more than an opportunity for growth. Period.
When it comes to weaknesses, there are only three things that truly matter: admit them, learn from them, and then? Don’t repeat them.
Pay Attention To Those Around You
Sometimes, we get stuck in our heads, right? You might not even know you’ve got a certain weakness, and this is why feedback is your best friend. Pay close attention to the negative feedback you’re getting from friends, family, and work associates.
Negative feedback can be a gold mine of information, but it takes a strong mindset to take it in stride. Obviously, our first instinct is to get angry. “How could they say that about me?” Well, because you’re doing it! You should be thanking that person instead of getting angry with them! Why? Because they just gave you an incredibly valuable piece of information!
It takes a brave person to give someone honest feedback. When someone is brave enough to give you this feedback, try to remember it’s coming from a place of love or respect, not malice. Your mom is not telling you you’re always late to put you down, and your business partner isn’t telling you that you can’t manage money to make you feel bad.
These people care enough to be honest with you, and that’s worth so much more than we realize. Appreciate and value feedback. Take it, examine it, use it to your advantage. You might even find that what you thought was a strength or a weakness isn’t the case in the eyes of your peers.
Remember, manage your weaknesses, but don’t become hyper-focused on them. Poor self-image doesn’t serve you in any way and will trap you in a cycle of self-deprecation. You’re not your weaknesses, and they don’t own you.
Focus On Your Strengths For A More Enjoyable And Successful Life
If you’re anything like the rest of us, you probably get hung up on questions like “What if I’m not good at this?” or “What if I fail?”
These questions are perfectly normal, but when you let them consume and overcome your mindset, you’ve got a problem. Your mind is just trying to protect you; it’s instinctual for it to do so. The good news is that you can circumvent that protection and focus on your strengths to overcome doubt.
The first step is to learn to trust yourself.
How can you trust anyone else if you don’t trust your own judgment? Focus on your strengths. What you’re good at will be your compass and your safety net when you inevitably fall.
And guess what? You’re going to fall a few times. Maybe even lots of times. What’s important is that you focus on those strengths, harness that positive mindset, and get back up and running.
Don’t let the fear of the unknown hold you back from greatness.
Leveraging Strength In Your Personal Life
Well, you’ve made it this far, so let’s push further into these strengths of yours and really use them to your advantage. Let’s start with your personal life. I know, I know, it’s personal, right? Well, yes and no.
Your personal life might not be anyone else’s business, but it’s certainly your business and the way you handle it reflects elsewhere. You see, the things you value in your personal life tend to spill over into business and work, and that can either be a good or a bad thing, depending on your values.
Say you’re always trying to get out of things in personal relationships (I don’t mean just spouses/significant others). You don’t want to take responsibility for the things that go wrong, or you tend to shy away from a challenge.
That weakness will show up at work, too. You’ll start dodging responsibility and blaming others, and next thing you know? You’re the person that no one trusts.
On the flip side of that coin, let’s say you’re honest all the time. Your personal relationships probably benefit quite a bit from that honesty, and that’s something you’ll bring to the table when you start a business or a new position. Honesty is a value we can all appreciate. It’s one of those universal things that everyone understands.
Focus on what you’re good at in your personal life and nourish it.
Are you honest? Focus on maintaining your integrity.
Are you there for your people when they need you? Focus on your dependability.
It’s your strengths, not your weaknesses that make you who you are.
Leverage Your Fears
Fear. Ah yes, the four-letter word that holds so many of us back from our true potential.
Fear inspires people to do great things, but it can also inhibit them from doing anything at all. People who are afraid to change often find themselves in a perpetual cycle of the same issues, miserable and disappointed in themselves.
Fear is nothing more than False Evidence Appearing Real.
Once you apply this acronym, you’ll find that the things you’re most afraid of aren’t tangible and don’t even have teeth to bite you with!
What’s your biggest fear? Maybe you’re one of the millions of people who share the same fear: failure. Failure is simply an opportunity for growth. Or possibly it’s that you’ll let yourself down? The reason we fall is so we can learn to get back up.
Fear is a tool, not a weapon to keep you chained to the past.
Try to remember: fear kills more dreams than failure ever will!
Inner strength and confidence are the keys to overcoming that fear. You have to be confident in your abilities and your mindset. You’ve come this far for a reason, and you need to keep pushing for that same reason. You can learn to quiet that inner voice and unconditional action by focusing on what you’re good at.
Leverage your strengths against your fear by being honest with yourself. Because of the work you’ve already done answering the questions to identify your strengths, you know what you’re good at, so how can you use that to break your fear of failure? What do you bring to the table that can help banish fear and push you forward?
If we think of life as a business, we can streamline our values to be reflected in both business and personal affairs. Once you’ve achieved this level of synchronicity, you’ll find things fall into place.
Leveraging Your Strengths In Business
Through the work you’ve done, you’re working towards the millionaire mindset and you know your strengths, so now it’s time to take the leap.
You want to start a business, but you don’t know where to start.
Well, the best place to start is with what you’re good at. When you focus on and improve your strengths, you can turn them into money makers with the right mindset and a little determination.
One of the first things to do is realize you can’t do everything for your business. Even if you’re a great manager, you might not be good at bookkeeping. If you’re an awesome marketer, you might not be the best leader.
It’s important to understand even your strengths have limitations. That is called self-awareness, and it is a strength as well.
Once you know your strengths, ask yourself these questions before you start your business:
- What parts of my business can I manage with my strengths?
- What parts will I need to outsource? (You should always hire your weaknesses, it’s just good business.)
- What is my passion, and how do my strengths apply to it?
- What kind of business culture do I want to propagate?
- How will my personal values reflect in my business?
It’s also important to identify what kind of experience you bring to the table. If you’ve got zero experience in an industry, this doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t start a business in that industry; it just means you’ll need to get familiar with it first. Think of this as one of those opportunities for growth we talked about earlier.
While passion is certainly good to have, it can only take you so far. Starting a million-dollar business takes more than its fair share of effort, and that effort will be much easier to manage when you already know what you’re good at.
Remember to polish your mindset. Visualize where you want your business to be, how you want it to run, and how you’re going to get it there. You don’t have to “wear all the hats”, so to speak. It’s okay to trust certain tasks to other people that you might not excel at. Focus on what you’re good at, and your business will flourish, because what you focus on expands.
Sticking To Your Strengths
The hardest part of all this is sticking to your strengths and applying them day in and day out. It’s easy to fall off the bandwagon when things get tough. You’ll want to look at your weaknesses and blame them for your setbacks, yet they might not even be what’s holding you back.
The millionaire mindset isn’t something that just pops in your head one day. You have to nourish it every day by focusing on the positive and visualizing where you want to be. When things get tough, remember what your strengths are. Focus on them. Align yourself with your values and push forward. Only you can take you where you want to go, but not without the right mindset.
Focus on your strengths and manage your weaknesses. Once you’ve mastered this simple ideology, you’ll find things are much more clear. You’ll find your thoughts aren’t overtaken by your weaknesses; they exist in the background and aren’t a ball and chain around your ankles.
The Bottom Line
As we move through life, challenges arise and opportunities come and go. We all experience adversity, but what truly separates the successful from the non-successful people in the world is mindset. How you view your strengths, weaknesses, the world around you, and your own fear shapes your reality. If you’re stuck in self-loathing, that’s where you’ll be until you change your mindset.
Remember that your business and personal life are intertwined.
Synchronicity between your business and personal life is essential in order to align with your values, and to move forward. Treat your life like a business. Apply the same values and goals to both ends of the spectrum, and you’ll find yourself in the middle, where the “sweet spot” exists.
Last, but certainly not least, don’t forget to listen to the people around you. Feedback is one of the most important tools you’ll ever have access to. Don’t take it personally. Change how you view feedback; harness it, analyze it, and use it to do better.
For your freedom,
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