Admitting a Weakness
I know that I am an imperfect human
That does not diminish my pride. I am so confident of myself in so many areas that sometimes I may get excessively confident — that’s a weakness.
A few weaknesses I’ve identified within myself are as follows:
- I say yes and yes and say yes again. People often tend to ask me how I do all the things that I do. I always tell the person that when they figure out what it is that I am doing that I am not really sure how I do everything.
- I do not always acknowledge my emotions, I sometimes “reason” myself out of them through the use of my analytical/strategic mind.
- I only like winning. Winning is all that matters, no matter what it is, I care most about winning in the long term. Hopefully, when I win, everyone wins.
- I like everything perfect.
- Hmmmmm what else could be the fifth one?
What I seek to do in this article is talk about some of my own weaknesses. I want primarily to share how I became comfortable with them as weaknesses and also, I want to focus on how I accepted and then addressed them.
I wanted to focus on what needs to happen to admit weakness. Thinking about the things that people do, or the pride we need to figuratively swallow to admit that we might not be that great at certain things.
The first weakness I’m highlighting within myself is that of overcommitting.
I love what Grant Cardone says.
“Commit first, figure the rest out later” — Grant Cardone
However, being the person that I am, I tend to stretch myself too thin at times. This happened recently. I committed to helping out with a research project over the past couple of weeks. Well, after graduation, various interviews, and moving into a new condo, I did not spend much time at all on the research project.
Had I planned better, I could have done both things or committed a different level initially.
For this weakness, I will continue to prioritize my finite energy and willpower and become more efficient in the future.
The second weakness I would like to admit having is disregarding emotions at times. I know that I do this. I have a tendency to “reason” myself out of certain emotional experiences.
I tell myself things like I shouldn’t feel sad because I should be grateful for the opportunities that I have and take on a different perspective. However, this takes a lot of energy out of me.
There are people in my life who are much more emotionally expressive and because of who I am, I always seek to “solve” their emotions for them. I don’t like seeing the people I care about experiencing negative emotions. But, it of course, happens… and I need to accept that.
For this weakness, I am going to spend continued time in prayer and communicating with God. Also, I will display more patience for others, and practice a method I learned from the book “The Solomon Seduction” that I read during 2018. The method involves first acknowledging the negative emotion or thought and then, addressing it. I often still skip the first step.
A third weakness I’ve identified is my competitive drive. I love winning. I am here to win.
So, hopefully, you don’t get in my way. We can’t both win if I have to run you over.
But, we could collaborate and work together. I want everyone to win, however that is defined as for them.
I don’t often express my competitive drive, I know that it can be intimidating, received as conceited, and undeniably cocky. I know I’m cocky. I don’t think I can lose. Period.
Is that a weakness? It could be. Of the weaknesses I am publicly identifying and admitting to, I think this is the weakness that is closest to a strength.
I know that there have been companies and leaders that were too confident and then either went bankrupt, broke the law, or did something else that caused a negative consequence.
For this weakness, I cannot foresee the above becoming an issue for me as long as I maintain my relationships with my people who can and will hold me accountable and as long as I rely on God and His direction I should be on the right path.
Fourth, I like everything perfect. My definition of perfect…. that is why this piece has 5 weaknesses, not 4, not 6, but 5.
If a picture is crooked, I fix it.
If a word is misspelt, I’ll fix that too.
I have a tendency to believe that the best way is the one I’m most familiar with. Because, if it’s the best and I’m not doing it, then I’m not doing my best, right?
For this weakness, I have been actively working on seeing the world as containing more gray, but I still see a lot of black and white and not much else. I’m working on this daily and continuously becoming better and more open-minded to other perspectives.
Fifth and finally, I couldn’t think of another. But, I wanted 5 so I have 5. I’m very rigid.
Once I set in on something, I don’t often change my mind unless there’s a very good reason to. And usually, there isn’t.
I’m kind of inquisitive but, more than that, I validate most everything. Trust but validate? That’s how I live. I’ll listen to what you have to say but really seek out the deeper level before any sort of action. Is that a weakness? Could be in certain occasions and my intent is to acknowledge that it is.
For this weakness, I will be more trusting in what others have to say, understanding that even though a decision may have been made in my eyes, that doesn’t mean that a better option or decision isn’t out there.
Overall, I know there are areas for me to grow, as an individual.
Oftentimes, I don’t see people always admit or even acknowledge weakness in some areas, I know that I do not do that much. But, I wanted to change that and take ownership of areas where I might not be as strong as I’d like to be.
“A person who is happy is not because everything is right in his life, he is happy because his attitude towards everything in his life is right” — Sundar Pinchai