#8
Imagine a job interview.
The candidate is asked a simple question: “Tell me, what are some of your weaknesses?”
The candidate thinks to himself, I better try to impress them.
He responds: “Oh, I don’t know if this counts, but I work longer hours than anyone I know, I sleep with my phone on – always ready to respond, and I try to take as little of my holiday allowance as possible.”
The interviewer smiles and says back to the candidate: “In this case, I don’t think you will be a good match for our team.”
The candidate is shocked.
The interviewer continues: “You see, here we value work life balance. Your answer tells me you like to prioritise everyone else’s needs over your own, and we need people who can practice radical self-care, because we’ve got some seriously big goals to achieve.”
Such is the human nature. We think we know what’s best for us, but we’re usually leading with our ego. What the ego does is try to prevent us from growing beyond a certain point, because leaving the comfort zone threatens its existence (our identity attached to the ego).
Often the abilities we perceive as our strengths end up hurting us or delaying our progress, because we rely on them so heavily that we forget about the big picture. Our weaknesses, on the other hand, the things we try to hide from others, are precisely what makes us so relatable and charming.
This quote by Brené Brown says it all:
“Vulnerability is not about winning or losing. It’s having the courage to show up even when you can’t control the outcome.”
When we focus on our strengths too much, we build our entire identity around them and lose the balance in the process.
When we focus on what we lack instead, we lose our identity altogether, consumed by a black hole of all of our fears, doubts and limiting beliefs.
With that in mind, what’s a perceived human weakness that’s actually a big strength?
Perhaps, the courage to be vulnerable, even when you’re scared about the outcome.
Or, the willingness to try again after each failure, even if others don’t believe in you.
For me, it’s the dedication to look on the bright side, because you choose to remain grounded in the knowing that we each have the ability to change things for the better.
Being a human can be a complicated task, but we’ve got this. 😉
