How To Learn What Your Weaknesses Are
I think a lot of us have dove into the world of trying to improve where we might not be that strong, but I’ve worked to systematize it a bit so that I can apply it to any weakness or skill that I want to improve.
It first started with learning what my weaknesses were which I thought would be pretty easy. Well it wasn’t an overnight wonder by any means and, even more of a struggle was that I didn’t act on working on them willingly, it was a tug-a-war type of journey.
Let’s just say I haven’t always been the most flexible and adaptable person. I was in that camp of “let’s just double down on strengths and ignore the rest”.
Do I think that strategy can work? At times but if you want better results over a longer period of time then those weaknesses will need to improve as well. No matter what you do. That doesn’t mean you need to hit every weakness or work so hard to turn them into strengths but can you at least have some proficiency in them?
How I’ve Learned What My Weaknesses Are
First and foremost, I started to ask others what they saw or thought I needed to improve on.
This one can get a bit dicey in two ways.
If the person you’re asking doesn’t really know you very well, they might just throw out any answer.
If the person doesn’t feel that you’re either ready to hear it or they don’t feel comfortable sharing what they actually think.
I’ve found that it’s important to build a great relationship with someone who you respect and who has done what you’re looking to, whether that’s improving finances, health, or whatever and build a great relationship with them.
Call it a mentor if you like, even though that word gets thrown around a ton, but having someone who you can trust and be open with helps a ton.
After time and consistent work on that relationship, they’ll likely know you enough to see what your weaknesses are, but also be willing to actually share what they are with you.
(Side Note): The people you look to for help or guidance normally (and likely shouldn’t be) just one person. Not everyone has every area of life covered. If you’re just blindly following how one person handles every area of life, there are likely some blindspots not being touched on.
Be Honest With Yourself
Often times we know what some of our weaker points are, but are either too afraid to do anything about it or unwilling to actually admit them. I’ve 100% been in both boats and have at times struggled to jump out of either (or both) of those boats since it’s much easier to just coast along.
Either way, you have to start to be honest with what you can control and what you can’t. If you want to actually see improvements, you’re going to have to push through that ego or fear that you have a bit to do so.
I struggled with this on how I come across at times. I often lack energy or just come across as robotic and early on, I just chalked this up as I’m serious about what I do (and that my comedic side was something that I needed to hide because it was unprofessional).
Turns out, serious people can have some fun too and if they want to have influence (not in a bad way but in leadership), that energy piece is pretty non-negotiable.
Maybe one of your weaknesses is just finding the ability to be consistent at all. I’ve been here at times with certain things as well and you might just struggle to do something long enough to see any result.
Instead of trying to patch the whole hole in the boat, start with one small board and start nailing. (Are these boat jokes getting to be a bit too much yet…?)
An example of this might be learning how to be more consistent with your workout routine for a period of time. Once you start to have that on lock, then building other healthy (or whatever habits you want) off of that becomes a tad easier since you can feel the positive impact that working out has brought into your daily life.
The great thing about this is that things compound. Work on one area with a lot of focus and you’ll start to see improvements in others.
Look At The Numbers
A lot of what we do can be tracked. Either by a simple check mark or a complex tracking sheet that you spend way too much time on, you can easily start to see where you’re lacking a bit.
This sort of goes back to the last point of being honest with yourself though because if you look at the numbers and tell yourself a different picture than what those numbers are showing, then there’s no point to it.
An easy example from my experience was my grades in school.
It’s pretty easy to get the picture of how well you’re doing in your classes when they literally send you a report card, but to me, that piece of paper was lying.
I’d say things like, “well you don’t know how much I’ve actually learned” or “I’m just not a great test taker”.
Two sayings I believe can have some truth to the situation, but if I’m being honest, since I was getting D’s there wasn’t a lot of truth behind them, I was just being lazy. I didn’t want to see the picture for what it truly was and, even though it was being tracked, I didn’t want to change it.
Now this whole process can take a bit of time when it comes to learning what your weaknesses are and even longer to overcome them. If you actually want to improve them, you can, you just have to be willing to drop that front that is easily put up and put your nose in the sand.
But don’t forget to have some fun along the way. Not everything will be enjoyable but if there are no smiles or laughs cracked, then what’s the point?
