Are Weaknesses Actually Weak or an Untapped Power in Disguise?

Think of them as wasted strengths

Have you noticed the amount of power carried by a weakness?

• They can guide your actions very firmly.
• They can make you do things unconsciously.
• They can determine your whole life if you let them.

They are some tough sons of bitches!

I don’t even know why they’re called weaknesses. They’re not weak, faint, frail, hollow, or any other of the synonyms they’re linked to.

Instead, they’re powerful, robust, consistent, energetic, and sometimes overwhelming.

Weaknesses kick in like clockwork. They appear whenever you “need” them. You’ve built a pathway, like it or not, that activates marvelously well when the time comes (when you least want them to).

If you think about it, it has all the features of strength without the outcome we expect.

But you could change that radically.

A wasted source of energy for growth

Let’s think of the sun for a moment. We’ve always had it as an energy source, but we didn’t realize it until recently in our history.

Every day of our lives we would get sunlight unaware of its true power:

“In one hour, the Earth receives enough energy from the sun to meet all of mankind’s energy needs for one year.” (Renee Cho)

What if we had an inner sun that could provide us with the energy we needed for our growth?

Think of this inner sun as your weaknesses for a moment.

A weakness provides us with energy to:

• Give us that initial spark to guide our behavior (triggering effect).
• Act upon a situation even when we’re unaware of it (auto pilot mode)
• Keep it going over time (consistency)

Do you see how much “weak” light we receive daily that we’re not redirecting to improving ourselves?

The art of redirecting your weaknesses

When you learn to sail you see that it relies on using the wind to your advantage.

This force of nature can be overwhelming if you approach it from the wrong angle and it can easily overpower even the largest of boats.

Now, you can choose to treat it as an enemy. You’ll be battling against it indefinitely. Always feeling a tiresome resistance throughout your journey, and you’ll end up drained of energy by the time to get to the other side.

It will feel like an obstacle until you learn how to bend it to your needs.

The more you understand how the wind works, the more it can work in your favor. You can become an expert at redirecting its amazing power and move forward with ease.

It now becomes an amazing companion that will get you far beyond your wildest dreams. You’ve earned a friend for life.

Think of your weakness as the wind’s brute force that has not yet been redirected effectively.

Weaknesses can blow hard, I know, and you might feel you can’t get a hold of them.

In sailing, it’s all about the angle of attack. It’s the same wind, but if you approach it correctly t it can do wonders for you. It’s time to find the right angle for your weaknesses.

Weaknesses have a lot of power, that’s how they can stay in us for so long. They have already created pathways in your body that easily activate each time they’re triggered.

The building blocks are there, you just have to find the right angle to sail with them.

There’s also another impressive phenomenon: the ability to sail into the wind.

You can move forward even if you’re heading into it. With a 45-degree angle, you find that optimal sailing pace, and no matter what type of wind you have (towards or against you) you’ll continue your journey ahead.

If you’re able to find that 45-degree angle on your weaknesses, no matter how they blow, you’ll be able to take advantage of their outputs and meet your true needs.

How to redirect a weakness into a strength

Let’s look at the following traits that serve as an example of how to turn them into strengths.

The first one is attention to detail.

Imagine you have the capacity to see all the defects of a situation or object. You focus on even the smallest of flaws of people. You can easily spot a person and list all his bad manners:

• He picks his nose in public.
• He constantly interrupts others when they talk.
• He learns things about people that he then use to make fun of them.

And so on.

You have a strong driving force that helps focus your aim on spotting these things. The motivation, energy, and persistence are there, but they’re misled towards a goal that doesn’t help anyone.

People feel judged by you. They can’t feel relaxed around you. Nobody can enjoy their time in your presence.

What if you used that same attention to detail, that same strong attentiveness, to look at all the good traits?

Be as fierce with your judgment as before, but this time towards the positive features. It might take time to adjust your parameter, but you’ve already got the skill.

Imagine another trait now, the ability to create worse-case scenarios.

Your imagination is highly creative. You can add so much detail to your fantasies that they will affect you deeply. You’re like a software engineer that has coded the best game inside your personal operating system. Whatever you create, you feel it deeply.

• You can describe the situation in great detail.
• You can pinpoint the possible outcomes.
• You find counterarguments that can help you create a more realistic environment.

The pieces of the puzzle end up so well together after all the effort you’ve put into your creation. If you worked as a risk manager, you’d certainly be among the best. That’s how good you are for these doom scenarios.

Now take that creative mind of yours and build something completely different. You already know how to create the storyline. Your characters are well defined and your plot is exciting. It’s time to redirect that energy!

But this time, create a game that you’ll enjoy.

For instance, if you’re in a relationship, try writing a story that includes your partner in it. Or make a game in the park with different cute quests and let your imagination run wild.

This way, you’ll be using your creative mind to improve both your and your significant other’s mood and create some fun memories together.

It’s time to place this energy in growth mode.

The Takeaway

Just like the wind and sun’s energy, you have a strong force within that when redirected properly can create an amazing source of growth.

Weaknesses are not weak.

They’re strong as hell.

And if you think about it, you’re wasting it when you aren’t able to mold it towards your development. The basic tools are there, you just have to rearrange them.

What was once your enemy can become your fiercest ally.

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