Parent your weakness

When I was a little young, like a lot of young people, I was confused (Disclaimer: I am still young and still confused, but a little less now). I was working in a services industry and had experience of manual testing, performance testing, business flow designing, some bit of development and I wanted to become a full-time developer. I went to an interview for a developer and after the interview, the interviewer was ready to offer me a position of ‘Automation Java Tester’, but not a developer. I was disappointed. The interviewer sensed my disappointment and asked what is wrong. He discussed what is going on in my life and gave me an invaluable lesson, which has probably been the most important, the most crucial lesson I have learnt in my life; I still live by this lesson.

                The lesson is a single sentence, just a harmless single sentence, but so powerful if you can understand what it means - “You are CEO of your own life”. Some of the principles I used to live by are - “Either you are a Newton or you are nobody”, “Aim to fly or fall flat”, “Think and do big”, etc. and I realized just being a young, confused person is not going to take me anywhere. Believe me, running your life is quite similar to running a company. Becoming the “CEO” of your life will help you live your life better. It is a full-time, full-life job that nobody can stop you from doing.

                Running your life has a lot of standard components – difficulties, challenges, opportunities, success, failure, strengths, weaknesses, friends, opponents, disappointments, happiness, etc. One of the technique in personal/organizational planning is SWOT analysis. I want to touch the ‘weakness’ aspect of this SWOT technique that is integral part of all life cycles. I believe personal and professional life should be lived in different manner and on the same lines, I believe running a life has to be different from running a business.

                A ‘weakness’ is a characteristic which pulls you down. Going by pure instinct, it is a problem area, which needs to be addressed. If you are highly positive, you might look at the ‘weakness – the problem area’ as an opportunity. How you name it – a problem, an opportunity, a weakness – probably does not matter as much as overcoming the obstacle. I am proposing another technique, in addressing a ‘weakness’ in our lives.

                A problem area usually frustrates you, irritates you, drains up your energy, pulls you down – same is the case with ‘weakness’. And in any case you are not able to ignore it, you are not able to disown it. It’s glaring you in your face. I find renaming a ‘weakness’ as an ‘opportunity’ quite difficult because it continues to frustrate and irritate me. Can I just turn around these feelings of irritation and frustration in dealing with the weakness?

If I can treat weakness as a baby, which is just born, doesn’t know how to talk, how to walk, how to do things, it might change the perspective. I need to be patient with my baby, I need to devote time, I need to give him attention, I need to play with him, I need to give encouragement to him – and above all, above everything, I enjoy spending time with him – he gives me joy, he give me smiles, he gives me happiness. Same is the case with a weakness. If I devote time to it, I play with it, I work on it, it will give me benefits in long term. I need to be patient with it and above all, above everything, I should enjoy it, I should love seeing it grow.

Treat weakness as your child - give it time, give it attention, give it nourishment, and you will enjoy and love to see it grow as your strength.