Play to Your Strengths

What are you good at? Take a few moments to make a list of five statements of things that you know you are good at. Start each statement with, ’I know I am good at ....’ And complete the blank. It probably is not quite as difficult as it sounds because the things you may be good at do not necessarily have to be defined as big or complex. We are often good at cooking or gardening, punctuation (not always my strongest aspect), painting pebbles, flying a kite or making up silly rhymes.

We can often get caught up in the things that we are not very good at and neglect and ignore those things we are good at. Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves to do the things we can not do well rather than the things we can? There is a tendency for us to diminish and negate those tasks or activities we find come easily to us. Something drives and compels us to make life difficult by trying to do the very tasks we are often the least equipped for. By focusing on what we are good at, playing to our strengths, our confidence and self esteem can grow.

When we are in the work place, colleagues can often fill the gaps where we are not as strong and you fill the gaps for colleagues. In our friendships and other relationships we are often complimented by the strengths of those we socialise with, ‘the party organiser’, ‘the mechanic’ or ‘financial guru’, adding our own strengths to these relationships.

Action for the Month

Focus on your strengths, notice where you are making life difficult for yourself.

Notice the strengths of those around you and how you often compliment and enable each other.

Be happy about those things you find easy to do.