How important it is to focus on your weaknesses ?(collected)

The sermons to be “better” start from an early age, and continue at school, college and job. You are expected to understand your weaknesses and overcome the same to become better of whatever you are! While it should act as an encouragement to do better, compete with others and achieve our goals; many a times, it turns out to be a tiring and self-doubting exercise.

.

You are seldom advised to make use of your strengths to the fullest. In fact, utilizing your strengths can get better results out of you. Howsoever important it may be to improve upon your weaknesses, the efforts in this direction are surely a drain on your energy. It certainly does not mean that improvement is not desired. Rather, it is an issue of having a balanced approach to get the best of both the worlds. Therefore, it may be worthwhile to move in a step-by-step logical manner:

1. Make use of your strengths
2. It is very important to understand your strengths and make fullest use of them. Focus on strengths puts you in a positive, creative and exciting mode. In fact, it would also give you more energy to tackle your weaknesses as well. Just harping on the weaknesses and ignoring strengths not only demotivates you; it is a clear case of “talent wasted.”
3. 
   
4. Sharpen your strengths further
5. Strengths are strengths, sharpening them further will move you towards unique expertise and help you rise above the crowd. You establish yourself as an expert in the field and emerge as a sought-after entity.
6. 
   
7. Before moving any further, attempt this simple exercise –
8. a. Identify your three strengths.
9. b. Explore what opportunities are out there for you that make use of these strengths.
10. c. Analyze how you can make use of your strengths in your personal or professional life.
11. d. Think about all the ideas that excite you; but you have been putting them off.
12. e. What are the opportunities available, you could make use of.
13. 
    
14. Make a plan of action to work on your strengths
15. Based on the above exercise, make just one action point for each of your three strengths that you will be working on during next one week. (An action point may cover more than one strength!)
16. 
    
17. Analyze your weaknesses that are blocking your progress
18. Don’t worry about what people say. Find out your weaker areas that are hampering your growth, that are getting in the way of your goals. This way, you will be able to understand your critical weaknesses and their negative impact. It will motivate you to work on them. To start with, pick up one and an unambiguous activity to address it. Again, commit to take it up within next one week.
19. 
    
20. Get going!
21. Having reached this stage, now what is left? A week’s time to start your journey? Certainly not! There cannot be any relaxation in this journey. So, dear Shahir Ahmed, start moving. Look into the commitments, you just made for the next week, and right now decide on one specific action that you will be undertaking in next 24 hours.