In David Rendall's article, "The Freak Factor", he discusses how he used his weaknesses as clues to find out his true strengths and offers several different suggestions for overcoming weakness in order to achieve success. His arguments are very compelling and I believe that his suggestions are valid and would truly help anybody deal with their weaknesses and view them in a completely different way. Rendall explains that everybody has weaknesses that they can learn from and it is not a bad thing because every weakness has a corresponding strength.
One of the first suggestions the author offers is to not try fixing your weaknesses. At first, this would seem like a rather bad suggestion, but Rendall explains why there are a number of different problems with trying to fix all of your weaknesses. The first is that it is a slow painful process and it is very hard to make progress in our areas of weakness. The second reason, which I believe is the most important, is that trying to fix your weaknesses actually results in being distracted from the things that you are good at and find enjoyable. If you focus all of your attention on trying to fix bad things and never spend time enjoying the things that you like, then you will develop a very negative attitude. His final reason for not trying to fix your weaknesses is that it does not truly work in reality; no matter how hard we try to reverse a weakness, it will never become a valuable strength. The author makes very solid points and for those reasons, I believe this is a valid suggestion and one that I can take into consideration in my own life. Instead of spending time trying to fix my areas of weakness, I can use that time to improve on my strengths instead. As Rendall mentioned, for every weakness there is a strength that corresponds. Rather than waste any time focusing my attention on the negative side of this relationship, I can spend my time in a much more productive manner focusing on areas I am strong in that lead to more positive and beneficial behavior. Another suggestion that Rendall offers to deal with weakness is to find the right spot. To help explain the importance of this suggestion, the author uses the classic story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as an example. Rudolph had obvious weaknesses, just like all the rest of us do, that prevented him from fitting in. Because of his glowing red nose, Rudolph tried to do what many other people do with their flaws and hide them from everyone so that he had a better chance of being accepted and fitting in. However, his plan to cover up his nose was unsuccessful because it still glowed bright. It was not until Rudolph accepted his weakness and began to use it as a strength by guiding Santa's sleigh that he found acceptance. He had to realize that his unique qualities that first made him un-popular and rejected were actually strengths in disguise. "He didn't succeed in spite of his weakness, he succeeded because of it" (Rendall). The lesson here is that we need to seek out situations that fit to our natural strengths, and I can apply this to my own life when seeking out the right spot. Rather than focusing on situations that I should avoid due to weaknesses I might have, it is more important to look for opportunities where I can utilize the unique characteristics that I have. I believe this is a valid suggestion and the author uses a very good example to help make it more clear.
As part of one of the author's suggestions, he identifies a list of core strengths and weaknesses that are grouped together in inseparable pairs. I found these groupings to be very true and agree that each of the strengths has a weakness associated with it's same characteristics that make them go together. I can personally identify with some of these strengths/weaknesses in regards to my creative process, which I have learned a lot more about this quarter. One of the first pairs that I could relate to the most was dedication vs. stubbornness. When I am working on something creative such as a song or a drawing I become very dedicated to it and put one-hundred percent of my effort into it. I am somewhat of a perfectionist and I like to have total control over every aspect of my creative work so that it is exactly the way I want it. While this dedication can be viewed as a strength because it results in very hard work, it can also be looked at as a weakness because I have a hard time letting others put their input into things that we might have to work on as a group. Another one of my weaknesses is that I tend to be negative in my thinking. However, that same negative thinking can also be looked at as simply being realistic, which I have found often plays to my advantage. I do a pretty good job of planning my time because I am always very realistic in thinking about how long it will take me to complete something, even if it is a very long time and may seem negative to think about.
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