The Weak Link
It has been said that, “We are only as strong as our weakest link”. This is usually said in reference to the weakest person within a group; the slowest runner on the track team, the person who has the lowest batting average, or the weakest defensive lineman.
In personal development we work within ourselves. Therefore, our skills become our personal “links”. When we are working to achieve a goal it is important that we know what our weak links are. This way we compensate for them accordingly.
If you want to own your own business and you are horrible with paperwork, you have a problem. The first step in solving your problem is identifying it. Once you have identified the problem you can decide how to correct it. You could work to improve your skills at handling the paperwork or maybe you want to hire a secretary.
Here are some questions you may want to answer while planning. What are your goals? What are your weak links that may be required to attaining your goal? What will be required of you after attaining your goal? Are you prepared to meet the challenge? What are your options? How are you going to strengthen these links?
How you decide to strengthen your weaker links is totally up to you. The advantage in link strengthening is that you are now more prepared to take on the challenge.
Remember that your goals should be based on what you want, not what you think you can accomplish. Dream big and think big. Do not handicap yourself by shooting too low.
You can accomplish anything you desire!
“If you can conceive it, and believe it, you can achieve it.”
7 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
August 7th, 2007 @ 10:09 pm
I was just telling my Fiance the other day (she wants to lose weight) that her goal was too low. She said, “won’t I just be disappointed that I don’t reach my goal?”
I said, “No. Set the goal higher than you think possible, and you will focus harder on achieving it.”
Dream Big. Then go bigger.
August 7th, 2007 @ 10:10 pm
Sorry, I forgot to mention that I found you through Wild Bill’s Passionate Blogger site.
August 8th, 2007 @ 6:56 am
Fiar,
I’m grateful that you found me and you are enjoying my work. I’ll have to tell Wild Bill thank you.
I agree with you 100% on setting your goals higher, in fact; I wrote a post about that here.
August 9th, 2007 @ 11:48 am
You’re welcome, and thanks for pointing me toward that other post.
August 13th, 2007 @ 2:12 am
Thought I just share a viewpoint in an article I read recently. I cannot recall the writer but he was suggesting that we should be focusing on strengthening our capabilities instead of trying to improve on our weaknesse. The rationale being that most weaknesses will remain weak no matter how hard we try - perhaps we will move one level up but it is still not at a competent level. It’s just different levels of feebleness. Therefore to apply the principle of 80/20, it’s better to work on the strength.
I can’t say I agree with him totally but it’s certainly food for thoughts.
August 13th, 2007 @ 6:50 am
Vivienne- Thank you for sharing this view point. I can agree that we should focus most of our effort on strengthening our talents.
The real point I was trying to emphasize in the article is that when we are striving to achieve a goal our weak links need to become solid strengths. So, if I want to set a goal of writing a book but, my skills lack in punctuation (a true story); I need to focus a bit more on improving my skills in this area.
I don’t believe however that we are ever wasting effort in improving in any area. Even if our weaknesses remain a bit weaker than other area’s every bit of effort improves us. I also think that if we want it bad enough we can become good at what ever we choose to do, even if some of us have to work harder at it than others.
October 29th, 2007 @ 4:23 am
Most people when looking at why something has not gone as planned look outside of themselves for the weakest link. They always end up blaming someone or something else. This leaves them disempowered and out of control of their own destiny.
I love the idea of taking the weakest link concept and making it internal. When things don’t go as planned people should always look to themselves first to see how they can change the situation.
With reference to this focus on strengths versus improving weaknesses argument…
Yes, we should spend most of our time focusing on our strengths. These are our areas of differentiation, our opportunities to excel and our chance to be who we can truly can be.
Conversely, we need to spend some time identifying our weaknesses and improving, removing or delegating them. This should only be a comparatively small period of time though as if we spend too much time focusing on problems, issues and challenges then we will be constantly held back.