There’s strength in being comfortable enough with yourself to admit your weaknesses. After all, we all have areas in which we excel, and others in which we need work. Commit to personal growth so that you can correct your “fixable” weaknesses. That being said, focusing on your weaknesses can sometimes cause a “fixing yourself” cycle that can lead to lost focus on what you’re actually good at. It’s important to focus on your strengths while making progress on your weaknesses. Become a more well-rounded individual slowly, and keep your focus on the attributes you excel at.
To be clear, working on strengthening your weaknesses doesn’t mean you’re pursuing perfection, nor does it require undue self-criticism. Rather, it’s a challenge that entrepreneurs can embrace as a productive self-improvement project that will help them overcome bad habits or tendencies that could be holding them back from reaching their full potential.
Identify Your Strengths
Before you consider your weaknesses, take some time to evaluate your strengths. Not only is it a positive tone to start out on, but by identifying your strong points, you will be able to take advantage of them, strengthen what you’re already good at, and have the self-confidence to get to work on strengthening your weaknesses.
Let’s say one of your strengths is that you’re good at working with others. In this case, once you identify an area in which you’d like to improve, you may find that an accountability partner can help you keep improving. An accountability partner will take advantage of one of your strengths because you’ll be able to work with others, and it will also help you stay accountable in overcoming obstacles.
Identify Where You Could Use Some Improvement
Choose one weakness, or something you’d like to improve about yourself.
For example, you’re constantly running late, which subsequently causes feelings of stress. Or, maybe you’re not a great writer and your emails and presentations never seem as professional as you’d like. Prioritize by identifying the most important of all your weaknesses; if you’re always late, then that’s an important one – you need to learn to be on time out of respect for yourself and others. Circle back to your strengths and consider how you can use what you’re good at to improve your tardiness. Are you good at being organized, but you’re late because you’re always fussing over the last details of everything you need for the day? Try getting organized the night before. Create a habit of always being twenty minutes ahead of schedule, and see how your life begins to flow with more ease. There may even be time for an extra treat, like a cup of coffee once you’re running ahead.
Focus on Your Strengths to Become More Productive
To reach your full potential, you must know and live up to your core values. These are the things that shape how you look at yourself, others, and the world around you. Studies suggest that you will consider your life more important and feel a broader sense of well-being if you live a life that is “congruent with value”, or in line with what is most important to you. To begin, ask yourself a few questions:
- Imagine two people you really admire. What do you admire about them? What do you find inspiring? Why? How do you think these things could manifest in your life?
- Think about a time in your life when you felt very satisfied or fulfilled. When was that? Why did you feel this way?
- If you could change something in your community, what would you change? Why?
- If your house was on fire (and your family and pets were safe), what three things would you try to save? Why?
Examine your answers. Study your responses to see if any topics or patterns appear. For example, you may really admire your mother’s selflessness and empathy, or your brother’s work ethic. You might want to save family photos, a wedding dress, and a cherished family item. This would suggest that one of your core values is relationship, especially with family.
Identify areas that are not in line with your values. If you don’t feel like you’re fulfilling your true potential, it could be because aspects of your life aren’t aligning with what you find most valuable. You may have been raised to be modest and not take credit for your accomplishments, but a core value for you is recognition; this causes an internal “tug-o-war”.
Think about areas where your life does not match your values and see if these are areas where you would like to change.
Decide what your real potential looks like. Once you get a good idea of your core values and which areas of your life you could develop a little, take some time to imagine your true potential. Is it a personal improvement? More career success (or even a career change)? Do you realize your potential in your relationships? If you recognize areas of your life that are not part of the values, this might be a good place to start.
You may really appreciate family, but your job requires so much of your time that you don’t get quality time with your loved ones. Realizing your full potential in this case could mean finding a less demanding job to become the spouse/parent/friend you really want to be, or finding another hobby or interest you spend time doing that you can borrow relationship time from. How many hours do you spend watching TV, or looking at social media? Can you take time from entertainment to spend more time with the people you love?
If you feel stuck in a mid-level job with no hope of progress, and ambition is your core value, realizing your real potential could mean changing your job, or even career, to something that allows you to challenge yourself and continue to grow.
Think about what it means to you to reach your full potential. Is that a way of being? Achieving a certain level of income? Most people will have different definitions of potential. It is important to have a sense of what your potential means to you. The best possible self-growth exercise is uncovering what is most important to you – this begins to point you in the direction of your right life.
What does the life of the future look like? What are you doing? Who are you with? How are you feeling? Imagine this in as much detail as possible. Think about the strengths you have that can take you to the future you want.
Examine the strength and character skills you used in the future to get to this place. For example, if you own your own bakery, you have business acumen, you are good with people, you are motivated, you have a strong work ethic, you have baking skills, etc.
Before getting started you may think you are a great baker and ready to open, but you have no idea what it takes to start a small business. Decide how you can develop the areas you have identified. In this example, you can read some business books, talk to other small business owners, and visit the U.S. Small Business Administration website for guidance.
It’s okay to change your mind as you learn more about yourself. Take a step back and ask yourself why you are enjoying a certain version of your full potential and whether it is theoretically achievable. If you don’t at least take this into account, you may miss the opportunity to redefine your potential, and all the joy and meaning that can come with that.
Be patient and kind to yourself, it will take time and effort to reach your true potential. More importantly, self-esteem will be needed. Recognize your strengths and skills, as well as the areas in which you need to grow. Recognize the effort you put into realizing your true potential on a daily basis. Have fun planning what your next exciting moves are while daily improving yourself to be the person you want to be.
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