Learn from your shortcomings

If we talk about progress and personal development, learning to know ourselves is one of the most important tasks for every person. Our shortcomings can be a source of information of great value, since they mark the points on which we must focus our attention if we want to perfect our skills and aptitudes to build a better version of ourselves.

Accepting who we are and striving to overcome our shortcomings are not contradictory ideas. When we accept ourselves as we are we also learn to identify our weaknesses, thus accepting their existence, which does not mean that we cannot work to improve them in order to better ourselves day by day. During the development of this guide, we will be addressing some of the most important elements that revolve around this topic, so that you can begin to learn from your shortcomings to use this knowledge in favor of your interests.

Identifying our shortcomings

When we decide to focus our efforts on accelerating our personal development by working intensively on overcoming our shortcomings, the first step is to learn to identify each shortcoming from a critical point of view and detached from emotional elements that may bias the vision we have about our person. Identifying our shortcomings can be more complex than we think, this is because we usually find it very difficult to criticize ourselves and accept that we have weaknesses that we can work on.

To carry out this process effectively, the most essential thing is that we understand that this exercise is aimed at improving the weakest aspects of our personality, so the initial task will be precisely to make a table in which we list what are the strong and weak elements that define us. This table or list is intended to distinguish between our strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses are listed in order of interest, with those that impact us most negatively in first order.

Work on your weaknesses

Once we have been able to identify our weaknesses we will proceed to work on overcoming them. Normally the weaknesses identified are usually distinguished between those that come from training elements and those that originate in aspects that are intrinsic to our personality.

The weaknesses coming from training elements are the easiest to eradicate, since these are due to the lack of knowledge in a certain subject, which causes us to be unable to excel in these matters or to show insecurities when dealing with them. By identifying these weaknesses, the only thing left to do is to supplement the information we need through personal preparation. Once we manage to fill in the missing knowledge, these weaknesses will disappear completely.

The second group of weaknesses, those related to elements intrinsic to our personality, are much more complex to overcome, if we take into account that it is not easy to mold patterns that have been established in our consciousness over the years. Working on these weaknesses is a daily task, although it is complex, it is possible to improve our personality traits if we are able to identify the sources that are causing these behaviors in us.

Enhance your strengths

Part of the benefit of identifying our weaknesses also lies in recognizing our strengths. If we are able to play to our strengths, we can highlight the aspects of ourselves that help us stand out and portray a positive image. You should not be ashamed of showing your strengths, just as you are not ashamed of having weaknesses, both are part of your personality and therefore shape the image you project as a social being.