26th November 2010
Success is achieved by development of our strengths, not by elimination of our weakness.
In my NLP workshops, I teach how to overcome limiting beliefs. People come to me with some specific weaknesses such as `I am lazy, I lack self confidence, I am poor, my parents are not rich, etc. It is ok to be aware of our weaknesses, but the problem is when we rationalize and justify our failure as a consequence of our weakness. This is what I call as a limiting belief.
No one is perfect and no one is born without any weakness. If you read the life history of successful people, you will come to know that all of them succeeded not because they did not have any weakness, but because they had some strengths to neutralize their weakness. Einstein had the weakness of dyslexia. But he overcame the same by working hard. Consider the multiple handicaps Helen Keller had. She overcame the same through sheer determination and will power to succeed.
In my time management seminars I used to notice a peculiar situation. Whenever ask the participants to list all their weaknesses, they will be very fast to list almost all their weaknesses. But if I ask them to list their strengths they will be very slow. I have even found some people struggling to understand what it means! The reason is the fact we are very comfortable to list our weaknesses, and may be we are aware of the same. But we do not introspect on our hidden potential and strengths.
You would also have noticed that people are more ready to point out our weaknesses than they are willing to spot our strengths!
Over this weekend, you can do an exercise. List down your strengths and have a strategy on how you are going to use the same. For example, if you are strong in writing, have a strategy how and where you are going to use the same and the outcome you want to have in your life through writing. This exercise will give you the self confidence required to think proactively. On the other hand if you are going to be thinking about your weaknesses only, you will end up with lack of self confidence and poor image.
N C Sridharan
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