Finding Your Strengths

We all have more inner resources than we realize. If they lie dormant, they are like diamonds buried deep in one’s backyard.

The potential for wealth is there but it won’t be utilized. So look for people’s potential strengths and point them out in a way that is acceptable to them. These are strengths of memory and intelligence. These are talents and skills that can be developed into expertise. These are insights and creativity.

Once you express a strength in any area even once, you have the ability to upgrade that strength in more areas of your life many more times and in many more contexts. This means that if you have the courage to speak up even once you can speak up many more times when it is appropriate. If you can learn one word of a language, you can learn an entire language when you are determined and patient. If you can be patient in one situation, you can be patient in many different situations. If you can concentrate while reading anything, you can learn to concentrate in many more contexts. Amazing, isn’t it!

Once you believe that you personally can upgrade your strengths in all contexts, you can teach this to others. Theoretically you could teach this to others even if you don’t apply it yourself. But if you don’t exemplify what you expound, your message is not likely to be very effective. So applying your strengths in all contexts is a prerequisite for helping others do so. This is one of the greatest gifts you can give your family and friends.

When someone tells you that they can’t do something, ask them if they have ever done this even once. "If you can do it once, it means your brain knows how to do it," you can tell them.

"Yes, but I have done this only in a limited way in another area," they might protest.

"Since you have already done this, if you do the exact same thing again, you are likely to get the same results, aren’t you?" is your response.

And if you have helped even one person get in touch with one strength, you can get that person in touch with additional strengths. And if you have done this for one person, you can do this for many people.

One of my students told me this story:

I used to view myself as being uncreative. I remember the day a prominent neighbor told me that I was creative.

"Yes, I did a couple of things that might seem creative," I argued against my own best interests. "But I’m not really creative. And what I did wasn’t totally original."

"Look at it objectively," I was told. "You have to admit there were elements of creativity in what you did."

He was correct. There were creative aspects in what I had done. And from then on, I have viewed myself as creative. This has made a major impact on my entire life. I now feel an obligation to help other people discover their strengths the way someone helped me find mine.

By Zelig Pliskin, author - courtesy of: partnersinkindness.org - "Kindness is like music, art, sports or any other discipline -- it can only be mastered with practice, training, and lots and lots of encouragement.