While focusing on your strengths is a great way to get ahead in life, the truth is, analyzing your weaknesses, and then working on them by either improving your skill in that area or finding a way around the issue, can make you a much stronger person. Let’s look at all the ways you can become stronger by analyzing your weaknesses.

I. IDEAS FROM ME

More Doors Will Open
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When you reach out to learn more about the areas that you’re weak in, it’s amazing the doors that will start opening as you stretch yourself. For example, if you tend to be late for meetings, this is a weakness that if you acknowledge to yourself and others, you can fix or manipulate in a way that won’t cause as many problems, thus opening more doors for you that you might have missed out on otherwise.

Overcome Your Fears

Sometimes when you think you’re not good at something, it’s really about a fear that you have. You may be fearful of success and afraid to take the next steps instead of really being unskilled in that area. For example, someone might use a fear of math to prevent them from going to college to become a teacher. The truth is, taking a step back and learning from the beginning can help you overcome that fear and bust through many blocks.

Be Happier with Yourself

When you’re not afraid of saying, “I can improve this,” it makes life a lot easier because you’ll be a lot happier with yourself. Instead of always saying “I can’t” do something you’ll be saying things like “how can” I do it even if I have a skill gap or a knowledge gap? That will make you feel a lot happier with yourself because it really is a big mindset change to accept a weakness so you can overcome it in some way than to avoid it.

Eliminate Imposter Syndrome

Many people suffer from imposter syndrome due to valid gaps in their skills and knowledge that cause them to struggle. If you ever feel like you’re missing something, it will help to reeducate yourself to eliminate that type of thinking.

Get More Done

If you allow something to fester because you don’t want to learn how to do it, or you really think you cannot do it, it will only get worse. It helps to realize that even if you identify a weakness that you really can’t learn on your own, you can find someone who can do it. You don’t learn brain surgery if you need to remove a tumor unless you’re a brain surgeon so accepting that you don’t have to do or know everything also helps you get more done because it opens up the possibility of outsourcing to bring in more skill and knowledge to your life.

Build Deeper Relationships

When you can be yourself, the good, the bad, and the ugly without apology, you simply are able to build deeper relationships. When you ask for help, provide help, and build each other up it makes everything better.

The truth is, by analyzing and acknowledging your weaknesses, you can make yourself a much stronger person because you know you’re not perfect, and it will enable you to be much more authentic. You will be less afraid of asking for help, and because of knowing that there are things you just don’t do well or don’t know enough about, you will surround yourself with people and technology that helps fill in the gaps thus making you even stronger.

II. QUOTES FROM OTHERS

4 time All American Champion Lacrosse player for Philadelphia Barrage of Major League Lacrosse, Michael Springer on analyzing weakness:

“Sometimes the biggest strength can be found in how you understand and confront your greatest weaknesses.”

Austrian-American actor, businessman, former politician and professional body builder, Arnold Schwarzenegger on strength and weakness:

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”

III. QUESTION FOR YOU

How do I make my weaknesses my strengths?

Until next week,

Ruth and
The team at Life in Balance Careers

Do you know anyone who wants to make a difference in the lives of others?
Ask me about my other programs and coaching services.
www.lifeinbalancecareers.com

P.S.
You are amazing!

One of the best ways to take control of your life, get more done, and be happier is to know what you want and how to get it. Setting boundaries in life is one of the ways that you can experience more success because you’re stopping things from getting in your way by claiming what you want.

I. IDEAS FROM ME

Know Yourself – Before you can make decisions about anything in life, you need to know who you are, what your morals, principles, and ideals are about life. Plus, you need to have an idea of how to achieve what you want.

Write a Life Mission Statement – To help you learn more about yourself, it can help to write a life mission statement. This statement can then be used to inform yourself about your values, morals, and principles

Define Your Feelings – One way that people start pressuring themselves to do things they don’t want to do that defy their boundaries is allowing feelings like resentment and discomfort to get in the way. Try to get comfortable with feeling these emotions for a short time because they really will vanish as you do the right thing for yourself.

Use Direct Language – When you do get asked to do something, or someone is somehow overstepping your boundaries, it’s okay to use direct language to claim your space again. Tell them why and don’t be shy about it. You can be kind in the telling even while being direct.

Learn from Your Experiences – The best thing about being human is that you can learn from every experience you have. Note how you feel when you stand up for yourself. Not how others treat you when you act with kindness yet set healthy boundaries. You’ll soon realize that what you’re doing is right for you and them.

Take Care of Yourself in All Ways – It’s a lot easier to make good decisions if you are also taking care of yourself, mind, body, and spirit. Self-care goes behind getting a massage or a facial. It’s all about how you take care of yourself in every single way.

Practice – Like any new skill, setting and claiming boundaries requires you to do it. The more you practice doing it, the easier it’ll become, and the more it’ll feel like you.

Get the Right Type of Help – If you are having issues setting boundaries and claiming them in a way that is working for you, a life coach might be able to help you.

Once you learn to set boundaries, it may take a little practice getting used to doing it, but once you do this one thing, you’re going to start getting more done and succeeding faster than you ever thought possible. Nothing will be able to stop you.

II. QUOTES FROM OTHERS

“Setting boundaries is a way of caring for myself. It doesn’t make me mean, selfish or uncaring (just) because I don’t do things your way. I care about me, too.“

• Christine Morgan - CEO of the National Mental Health Commission and National Suicide Prevention Adviser to Prime Minister, Scott Morrison (Australia)

“Your personal boundaries protect the inner core of your identity and your right to choices”.

• Gerard Manly Hopkins - was an English poet and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame established him among the leading Victorian poets.

III. QUESTIONS FOR YOU

• Can I identify my physical boundary needs?
• Can I accept my changing physical boundary needs without judgement?
• Do I feel comfortable communicating my physical boundary needs?

Until next week,

Ruth and
The team at Life in Balance Careers

Do you know anyone who wants to make a difference in the lives of others?
Ask me about my other programs and coaching services.
www.lifeinbalancecareers.com

P.S.
You are amazing!

If you want to not only be successful but know that you can repeat that success whenever you want, it’s important that you understand how to develop a success-oriented mindset. It doesn’t happen by accident.


I. IDEAS FROM ME

Plan for Success

If you want to be successful in anything in any part of your life, whether socially, personally, or career-wise the only way to do it is to be able to identify what success is and the steps required to get there and then taking the steps and following through. That’s really the only way.

Be Open to Opportunities

When you are success-oriented, you are always open to new opportunities in life. You know how to analyze the opportunities so you don’t necessarily jump on each one, but you are ready for the ones that appear, and you know that they will.

Mind Your Finances

The only way to be successful is to be able to pay for your needs and some of your wants without a struggle. This doesn’t mean you have to be rich to be successful. It just means that you need to be satisfied with what you can afford to do and not stressed out about bills or unable to provide for your needs. Learn everything you can about personal finance so that you are in control.

Nurture Your Relationships

When people are on their deathbeds, they never wish they made more money, they always wish they had more time with their friends and family. Knowing this right now, it means that you should always take the time to nurture your relationships so that you have no regrets.

Ask Questions and Keep Learning

We all have areas of life or the world that we simply know nothing about. There are gaps in our knowledge that we don’t have the know-how to identify. Because of this, don’t stop learning and always ask important questions. Learn about people, places, things, science and history every single day.

Know Your Core Values

It may be a learning process for you depending on how far you’ve gone on your life journey, but it’s imperative that you know what your core values are. The only possible way to make good choices in life is to know your values, morals, and principles. Being strong in that knowledge will inoculate you from the undue influence of persuasive marketers and those who would want to trick or harm you.

Know Your Unconscious Biases

Everyone has a perspective in which they grew up in the world. You were born into a family, and you grew up with certain cultures and values being demonstrated if not taught outright. Open your mind to understanding that some of the things you were taught were not only inaccurate but wrong, and some of them were perfect and wonderful. It can take time to find facts, but always be open to them.

Seek Balance

While you may not ever be able to truly balance your life, because of course, kids get sick, you may get sick, nature is nature and all that – use your goals as a guide to the schedule you make. Use a real calendar and put down the schedule in writing so that you know you have enough time devoted to everything but do understand that sometimes things happen.

Practice Gratitude

Scientific studies show that people who focus their thoughts on gratitude more often tend to be happier and more successful. Often, they are not just positive. They are optimists, and gratitude is what makes them this way. Even if you aren’t those things, by focusing some time each day being grateful for something in your life, you’ll start to feel more satisfied and successful.

If you live an intentional life, you will naturally become successful. That’s because when you live intentionally, you not only know what you want but you realize that it doesn’t happen by accident. Be open-minded and plan what you want to happen with the knowledge you gain by asking questions and going for what you really want from life.


II. QUOTE FROM OTHERS

British Author of highly successful best sellers, J.K. Rowling about failures and success:

“Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. But it is the ability to resist or use failure that often leads to greater success.”

American inventor and businessman who has been described as America’s greatest inventor, Thomas Edison on trying one more time to succeed:

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.“


III. QUESTION FOR YOU

How do I change my mindset for success?

Until next week,

Ruth and
The team at Life in Balance Careers

Do you know anyone who wants to make a difference in the lives of others?
Ask me about my other programs and coaching services.
https://lifeinbalanceonline.com/enterprise/ruthstuettgen

P.S.
You are amazing!

The old saying that you should “forgive and forget” is probably one of the most damaging statements that have been made in terms of how it has affected a person’s ability to forgive. The main reason is that forgetting is not part of forgiving. Forgiving is done despite the wrong done, the results from it, and the memory that remains. So, how can you forgive without forgetting?


I. IDEAS FROM ME

Forgiveness is About You Not Them

This is probably the hardest concept to understand. Many people wrongly think that forgiving means to let someone off the hook. This is not true. Forgiveness is something you do so that you can stop thinking about the situation and move past it after learning whatever you can. It’s about getting to a point where you can live a happy, successful life without being taken down by your feelings for the person (or even the universe) that has wronged you.

Let Go of The Past and Focus on The Future

To forgive one of the things you must do is let go of the past and focus on the future. You do that by learning what you can from each thing but not placing judgment on the choices made back then. You can only focus on how the situation now impacts the choices you are going to make in the future.

Accept Your Feelings Related to The Wrong

When you forgive something, it doesn’t mean that your feelings are wiped out. Your feelings will remain. It’s how you experience them that will change slightly. For example, if your spouse cheated on you and you got a divorce, the hurt and harm from that are never going away. But you can acknowledge that you feel shattered without acting shattered.

Focus on The Impact of Forgiveness Versus Not

Take some time to imagine a scenario for both sides of the situation. What happens if you do forgive, versus what happens if you do not forgive? How will each choice impact your life? Don’t think about how your choice impacts the person who wronged you, this is not important, only how it impacts your life negatively or positively is what matters here.

Acknowledge It Happened

Don’t try to hide the fact that the painful thing happened. One thing about forgiveness is that the only way to do it is to be open that something happened, and someone has wronged you. It doesn’t mean you’re a victim. It doesn’t mean you’re stupid. In fact, being wronged has absolutely nothing to do with you but with the person who did it to you. Saying that it happened is no judgment on you at all, only the perpetrator.

Allow Time for The Process of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is not going to happen overnight. Even if you decide to let the person know you forgive them, which you don’t have to do in order to forgive, it will take time for your feelings to really match your actions. You’ll have moments that you remember, and it will hit you like it’s new. You’ll need to develop tactics to help you deal with these feelings and act with forgiveness instead of continuing the old painful behaviors.

Let Go of Expectations You Have of Other People or The Universe

While you do want to have big goals in life, it’s best not to place expectations on other people or even the universe because these are things you have no control over and due to how wonderful our minds are, it’s easy to have too high of expectations in any given case. You can only control your own behavior, and that’s it.

Live a Life of Intention

To live an intentional life means that you have accepted that you are the manager of your own life. You realize that you cannot control what other people do, and knowing this, you design your life with yourself in control of it. You need to determine where you want to go and put yourself on the path to get there by setting goals and objectives and implementing your plans to realize them.

When you accept that forgiveness is not something you are doing for the person who has wronged you, but something you have to do for yourself so that you can move past it and live a good life, it gets a lot easier to do it. It’s important to practice forgiveness not only of others but yourself every single day because life is short. While you don’t forget the experiences you have, and who would want to, you earned those lessons, you can move forward happily by practicing forgiveness anyway.


II. QUOTE FROM OTHERS

“We recall our terrible past so that we can deal with it, to forgive where forgiveness is necessary, without forgetting, to ensure that never again will such inhumanity tear us apart, and to move ourselves to eradicate a legacy that lurks dangerously as a threat to our democracy.”

Nelson Mandela


III. QUESTION FOR YOU

Can you really forgive if you can’t forget?

Until next week,

Ruth and
The team at Life in Balance Careers

Do you know anyone who wants to make a difference in the lives of others?
Ask me about my other programs and coaching services.
https://lifeinbalanceonline.com/enterprise/ruthstuettgen

P.S.
You are amazing!