Strengths in a New Light (GWTW678)

Over the past ten years, I’ve read and heard a lot about the value of knowing your strengths. From understanding how they show up in your life and work to ensuring that you are operating from a position of power if you want to be at your best, it’s better to build upon a foundation of strength, not weakness. But recently, I read a quote from Bono’s book, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story that got me thinking differently about strengths. Could it be possible that what was once a strength would become a weakness? What if, at some point in our lives, weaknesses become strengths? That is the premise that I’ll be exploring in today’s episode of Getting Work To Work.

From Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono:

“Carl Jung observed that the very things that made you successful in the first half of your life not only no longer work for you in the second half; they positively work against you. The Franciscan friar Richard Rohr put it to me like this: ‘It’s our strengths rather than our weaknesses that often hold us back'” (p. 542).

Five ways to prepare for the moment when strengths shift:

  1. Take an assessment.
  2. Journal and explore who you are in conversation with others.
  3. Surround yourself with people who will be honest with you.
  4. Know when it’s time to let your strength go.
  5. Don’t feel guilty if your weaknesses become more interesting than your strengths.

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