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What is the number one thing you would most like to improve about yourself? If you succeeded in improving this one thing, your life would become better, happier, or more satisfying. What would it be?
If you took a moment to think about it, did you choose to improve something you were already really good at doing or being? If you are like many people, did you immediately focus on wanting to fix one of your limitations, personal failings, or fatal flaws?
A lot of people focus first on what they perceive as their negatives at the expense of their potential. Did you?
Any personal self-improvement plan is basically a goal, a realistic understanding of your starting point, and a plan of action steps that build a pathway that leads to the goal. The rest is persistence and perseverance. In short, you choose to just do it.
Certainly, you can choose not to allow a limited capacity in any part of your life to keep you from achieving your goals or purpose. If something is holding someone back, then setting a goal and creating an action plan to reduce the impact of a personal limitation is a wise decision.
Our frustrations often come when we focus our energies on actually trying to dramatically improve a limitation or “weakness” to the point where it becomes a strength. This tends to not work out very often as we have real limited capacities in areas of ourselves that we are unable to significantly improve even with our best of plans, intentions and efforts.
We end up wasting a lot of our time, resources and potential success, when we focus too long and hard on our limits at the expense of our potential. Focusing your energy and power on your weaknesses often results in making you more powerfully weak, as frustration and perceived failure set in. We often give up when we perceive our efforts as being futile.
Recognize, accept, manage, and minimize your limited capacities and then begin planning to empower your potential using your natural strengths. Use your gifts and talents in new ways to realize your full potential, purpose and dreams. Successfully achieving your goal will require persistence and perseverance, but you have been well equipped for the journey and each small improvement in your strength will fuel your next step.
Focusing your personal power on developing stronger strengths is the key to living a fired up life!
If you would like to learn more about how to live Fired Up!, buy a copy of my book, “Life Matches: Fire Up Your Life!” Tom Rath’s “StrengthsFinder 2.0” is also an excellent resource to help you discover your strengths.
The full-potential you that you were born to be is waiting to take center stage of your life’s performance!
Is it time to just do it?
Ready to fire up your work and your life? I’m an executive coach from Indianapolis, and I work one-on-one with executives and managers, in person for local clients or via Zoom. If this post raised a question about your work or your next step, we should talk. The first discovery call is free and confidential. Book your discovery call, or call or text me at 317-643-0058, Monday through Friday, 9 to 5.
