WHAT IS ALREADY THERE...

June 22, 2012

Presently I am reading a book by the title: ‘Strengths Finder’. The book has a simple message to offer: “To be successful in any field, any area of life, we should work on our strengths, rather than our weaknesses."

Some weeks ago, in one of our PD sessions, I was helping the young ones to choose their fields. I was helping them to recognize their talents, skills and strengths. Along with that, I was helping them to get in touch with their fears, self-doubts and their weaknesses. Yes, it was a kind of ‘SWOT’ analysis you can say. It was during this session, Nandkishore, one of our senior participants, came up to the stage to share how in their medical sales field, training emphasis had shifted from working on one’s weaknesses to working on one’s strengths. He spoke at length about the effectiveness of this approach, which our young ones really found useful. On the very next day, he gifted me the book – ‘Strengths Finder’.

Yes, I really liked the message conveyed in this book. In fact, it looks absolutely sensible that we should find out our predominant strengths… and, try to work on them, encash them… Conversely, it looks absolutely stupid and wasteful when most of us spend our time and energies working on our weaknesses…

“You cannot be anything you want to be,”

the author, Tom Rath, reminds us,

“But, you can be a lot more

of who you already are!”

Like most of the kids his age, the author too had started off all propelled by the old maxim; “You can be anything you want to be… if you just try hard enough!”

The author tried to become a Michael Jordan! Yes, desperately working on his weaknesses… working very, very hard… Till it dawned upon him this: “If I find out what I am good at, my strengths, and go about improving on them, I can be a lot better person who I am already!”

Today, I when I was reading this book, it made a fresh sense to me. “How true it is in all areas of our lives,” I wondered, “How amazing it could be for all of us, if we left alone what is not there… and, recognized what is already there… And, yes, if we went about working on them… encashing them.