Is it better to improve strengths or weaknesses?

[snaggletooth]

I have been stuck in the middle of these two for a while. I can't find firm ground and I'm to hear your opinion on this issue:


Is it better to work on your natural strengths & gifts

OR

Is it better to work on strengthening that which you are weak in, to bring you toward balance/wholeness of personality/character.


Thanks,

Nick

[magi13]

It's best to balance things. There is always a possibility that you'll be forced to deal with your weakness. if you just concentrate on your strengths, leaving that opening will be fatal.

[RT Wolf]

You have an infinite number of weaknesses so trying to fix all of them will fail. Instead, work on the weaknesses that matter. For example, if you can't play the guitar, you'll be fine. But if you're lazy, you'll fail. Balance is overrated. You have a small number of strengths. Working on your strengths will be a lot more fun and benefitcial in teh long run.

[pjhaggerty]

It is better to work on your strengths, all things being equal. You will be able to make a greater contribution by focusing on your strengths, because you are already strong at them. let's say you're at level 7 in one skill, and at level 2 in another skill. If you could increase either skill by five, you should increase the level 7 skill, because that will put you way above everybody else who's still at level 5, naturally. If you fix the level 2 skill, you'll be barely above everybody else, still not excellent. Better to be excellent at a few things.

[bbdream8]

Originally Posted by snaggletooth

I have been stuck in the middle of these two for a while. I can't find firm ground and I'm to hear your opinion on this issue:


Is it better to work on your natural strengths & gifts

OR

Is it better to work on strengthening that which you are weak in, to bring you toward balance/wholeness of personality/character.


Thanks,

Nick

Hi Nick,

This is a hard question. There are experts that recommend that we work on our strength rather than weakness because no matter how hard we work on our weakness, it will only turn out to be mediocre but working on our strength will ensure that it can turn out to be excellent.

However I still find working on our weakness is a must if it is seriously affecting us. Such weakness are character flaws. Hope this help.

Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger

[Bud921]

Strengths.. No doubt.

[jaydeschizo]

Work on your stenghts! Weaknesses can be covered by the strengths of other people.

Do you want to be really good at something, or mediocre at most things?

[gerber]

Probably on your strengths, but that depends on what your strenghts and weaknesses are and what you want to do with it.

If you are a great talker and a bad listener, that might be a problem if you want to coach other people.

And if you work on your weaknesses, that doesn't have to mean you have to go from a 2 to a 9 for every weakness. But sometimes one critical weakness can hold you back, despite all your strengths.

So work on your strengths, especially if that is where your passion lies. And be aware of your weaknesses. Then figure out which weakness you can accept and which weakness you can work on to improve.

[Eric Roosevelt]

The answer to this question depends entirely on what your goals are. If you can state your specific goals in life, then you can start thinking about what you need to bring to the table. It's hard to know how to be if you don't have a direction.

Originally Posted by jaydeschizo

Work on your stenghts! Weaknesses can be covered by the strengths of other people.

I partially agree. I think it depends on how self-reliant you want to be in different areas of your life. Sometimes in life you'll be alone and you'll want to have a pretty good all-round character for those times.

[magi13]

So far I'm the only one here who gave advice to strengthen his weakness. ^^,

Can you guys criticize my view? Tell me the advantage of strengthening your strong points instead of weaknesses.

[Eric Roosevelt]

Originally Posted by magi13

So far I'm the only one here who gave advice to strengthen his weakness. ^^,

Can you guys criticize my view? Tell me the advantage of strengthening your strong points instead of weaknesses.

No, I basically agree with you. A high degree of self-reliance requires you to work hard on your weaknesses until they become your strengths.

On the other hand, strengthening your strong points also has big advantages. It's using your strong points that you'll be able to contribute the most to the world, so at least some of your attention needs to go in this area. Improving on your strong areas is a bit like highlighting some part of your body that you're particularly proud of.

[magi13]

I see. I guess that's why I'm a jack of all trades. I really should work more on my strengths. ^^, I'll give it a go.

[Brutha]

Can you guys criticize my view? Tell me the advantage of strengthening your strong points instead of weaknesses.

You will simply end medicore.

You aren't forced to do anything if you don't let yourself be forced. That's a question of character.
You can choose to do things that you aren't good in but you should never let someone force you to.

It's best to balance things.

Do you understand why there a black circle in the white side of the ying and yang symbol and vice versa?

You have an infinite number of weaknesses so trying to fix all of them will fail. Instead, work on the weaknesses that matter. For example, if you can't play the guitar, you'll be fine. But if you're lazy, you'll fail.

You don't tackle lazyness by working on your lazyness.
You overcome lazyness by doing activities that give yourself energy. If happen to be be definition those activities that are your strengths.

There are also a lot arguments from cognitive psychology. If you want to know more about the topic of working on your strengths check out a lot of Bruce's posts or read Markus Buckingham.

[RT Wolf]

Magi, I appreciate your honest request for feedback. I disagree with your view because there's an infinite number of weaknesses, so you have to pick and choose which ones to develop. You could spend the rest of your life trying to become Arnold because you're physically weak, but you may very well fail at that. The human body is wrought with weakness. We're small, weak, unprotected creatures. You can't eliminate all of that. So, pick which ones matter. Like I said, if you're lazy, that'll hurt you every where, if you're generaly fearful, then that'll hurt you everywhere, so fix those enough so that they help you or stop getting in your way.

You have a few strengths that, if you apply the same amount of effort as making a weakness bad to mediocre, you can take good to amazingly outstanding. And it's a lot more fun to work on your strengths.

Edit: Brutha summarized it all: you'll end up mediocre if you just spend your time trying to fix your weaknesses.

[magi13]

^^, i see. so far it has worked wonders for me. like i said i'll try your suggestions and compare. i'll update this when i have results. ^^

[Michael Chui]

Eric Roosevelt had it right early on. It's about goals.

If a weakness is holding you back from achieving a goal, work on it.

If a strength isn't enough for you to achieve your goal, work on it.

If you don't have goals, get some.

If your goal is to become a well-rounded person, then it's usually a weakness that's holding you back. If your goal is narrow and focused, then it's usually a lack of strength that's holding you back.

Alternately, you can think about what a strength is and what a weakness is, and why there's a need to think of them as different.

[Parthon]

Doh, Michael beat me to it.

Yeah, there's no real differences between strengths and weaknesses, just your level of aptitude in an area and your ability to improve it.

Given that, you will want to focus on what will ahve the most impact. The idea is that you work from where are most strongest, or better yet: work from where you will have the most impact on what you really care about.

If something is holding you back because you aren't strong in that area, work on it. If you are strong in that area, but working on it will make you more effective, then work on that area too. Some areas of your life, like health, persistance, social aptitude and intelligence affect everything. Other areas like playing a clarinet or plumbing, don't affect your life as much, but they could. It's all about working out what will have the most impact and improving that.

That's why Steve suggests most people work on their physical body first, because it's a very impactful area, and few people have it as a greatly positive influence in their life.

Strength vs Weakness is really the wrong question to ask, it's really "What area of my life should I improve that will have the most impact to what I care about?"

[YoungBuck]

When we work on our strengths, alot of our weaknesses tend to improve as well, or disappear.