Do you know your strengths? Find out here

‘I just cannot wake up early in the morning. I want to accomplish so much but I cannot be a morning lark or put in the necessary effort into being one’, someone once confessed this to me.

I looked at the person and said, ‘Winston Churchill, The English Prime Minister preferred to manage the first part of his workday from bed. He would wake up at 7:30 am but not actually get out of bed until 11 a.m.’

Another guy complained, ‘I find it difficult to sustain my attention. Every time I start a new project I lose interest and want to head on to a different one. I have the attention span of a gold fish’.

‘So what? Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin had ADHD. Did it stop him from owning an airline?’ I countered.

This is exactly the kind of excuses we make to convince ourselves that we cannot be good enough.

Dwelling on your weaknesses is an easy excuse for not being your best.

Everyone has weaknesses and everyone has strengths. But when you know your strengths and build upon them, the weaknesses will take care of themselves.

Once I was in a taxi and we drove through a road flanked by big, opulent bungalows. The driver looked at them and then at me though the rearview, ‘The owners of these bungalows are the frauds and cheats of Bangalore who have made money by scamming people’, he said cynically.

I was speechless. This attitude is not uncommon. I’m sure every one of us have witnessed it. The heck! Even thought about it the same way. Well, I confess, I have.

Anything we consider unachievable is somehow tainted or bad isn’t it? But what we don’t know is that nothing is unachievable if we put our mind to it.

Also read: What is the most intimidating thing about life?

So stop friggin’ complaining, and just focus on your strengths, will you? But in order to build on your strengths you need to know what they are first.

Here is a strength test that will help you gauge your mettle. Try it.

https://www.cpp.com/en-US/Products-and-Services/Myers-Briggs

Below are my results. You can check yours too

While you are at it you can even check MBTI self assessment test as well.

Here’s what Chris Dixon, co-founder, and former CEO, of the website Hunch had to say about personalities:

“Before you can select a partner, you have to understand your weaknesses. I, for instance, am an “INTP” (stands for introversion, intuition, thinking, perception) on the Myers Briggs test. I’m an introvert; I’m bad at making lists and getting things done on time in general. Therefore, it was important for me to find somebody who compensates for those weaknesses, like Hunch’s cofounder Tom Pinckney. If we were both Js or both Ps, we wouldn’t be as effective.”

Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses– Marilyn vos Savant