Strength

Apr.29, 2006 in Accelerated Learning, Deep Thought, General

One of the books I’ve read that has an interesting twist to the story about personal developments is “Now Discover Your Strengths” - and it basically says you need to focus on your strengths to become more effective. They say that as long as your weaknesses do not hinder you, you will be far more productive doing things within the zone of your strengths.

I’ve read the book, and I’m sure that their research at Gallup is impressive. However, I think that just focusing on strengths alone is a tad misleading. Firstly, just because it’s a strengths doesn’t mean someone likes doing it. I’ve found many people pursing what they do best, but they dislike it. For instance, just because I’m pretty good at training children does not mean I always like it! Secondly, a strength is a weakness in another context. Just because you can concentrate and focus does not mean that you have the ability to pull yourself away from concentrating on that task, thereby neglecting the people around you. I know many successful people who are just like that, and end up having poor relationships and failed marriages.

Strengths can be developed too, at the expense of time (or money). The real question is not about how strong you are, but how much time you can afford. If you stopped and considered what you needed for the next 10 years, you could develop your strengths along the way and become really really good at it! I’d rather look at talents as skills, and strengths as processes applied appropriately.

So I’m suggesting you look at the convergence between strength and passion. You may be lacking in strength what you have in passion. Use that to develop your passion into a strength. Tthis requires the skill called learning. To learn rapidly I feel is one of the most important strength building skills that anyone can have. In fact, it appears to be one of the most powerful jumpstarting mechanisms that I have used, tested and found to be the best means to achieve personal excellence anywhere in one’s life.