by ableadership | Jul 20, 2020 | Blog
Dear Leader,
The first time I entered a huge shopping mall, I was excited but also worried about getting lost. I was looking for one particular shop for hours in vain. Finally, I came across a directory.
There was just a small problem; reading maps was a big challenge for me! So how on earth was I going to use this directory? As I was staring at it, I saw the spot that read “you are here”. When I saw that, everything else fell into place. I was immediately able to find the shop that had eluded me for hours. This experience uncovers a deep truth that this mental note will explore.
“You are here” in this case simply means locating yourself in terms of knowing who you really are, what you are good at, what brings you to life, what ignites you, what your strengths, weaknesses and blind spots are in this life.
This is key in designing your vision for success. You will agree that it would be hard to live a successful life while operating at low level of self-awareness.
I love what physiologist Dr. Carl G Jung said on this topic “Every advance, every conceptual achievement of mankind has been connected with an advance in self awareness”. I strongly believe that self-awareness is the source of our success.
Lately I have been thinking and asking myself, if self-awareness is fundamental, how come we don’t invest much time and resources in it.
Why should we go through life blindly? I came up with a simple answer – we don’t know how. Let me share two key lessons I have learned thus far.
- Know your strength: The starting point should be discovering, investing and intentionally living from your strength zone. Author Bob Buford calls it “your one thing” John Maxwell refers to it as finding your “sweet spot”, Psychology Don Clifton developed a strength finder. Being able to articulate your strength is major.
- Don’t focus so much on your weaknesses. In my coaching career, I have observed how people can easily articulate their weaknesses as opposed to their strength.
I believe that this is largely due to the environment in which we grew up. Just recall when you were in school, your parents and teachers gave attention to those areas where you were weak.
They got you a tutor for math or biology – your weak spot. While this effort is appreciated; improves your general performance and neutralizes your weak areas, it is of a greater advantage to highlight and invest in your strength and what you are good at.
The truth is, the source of your success will stem from your strength not your weaknesses.
Can you now locate your “you are here” at this point in your life?
I honestly and truly believe that this world would be a better place if; people were busy discovering and living life from their strength zone, took their time to identify their niche and focused their efforts to grow in those areas.
