It Is Incredibly Easy For Our Greatest Strengths To Become Our Greatest Weakness

Identifying your strengths is one of the most important things you can do in your life. I believe everyone has certain skills or abilities they are truly great at. There is a level of humility we have to maintain with our strengths though, or they can very quickly become a weakness for us.

Someone that is bigger and stronger than everyone else can easily become a bully.

Someone that is very knowledgeable about a given subject can easily talk condescendingly to others.

Someone that is very helpful to others can easily be taken advantage of and asked to "help" with things others can do for themselves.

Someone that is good at driving to get things done can easily become a bull in a china shop.

Someone that is generous with their money can put themselves into troubling financial situations.

We have to be honest about our strengths and what limits should be put on them. You can be one of the strongest people but if you try to lift too much weight you can injure yourself. Limits and thresholds are a good thing to put in place. If left unchecked I guarantee that your greatest strengths will quickly become your greatest weaknesses.

There are two key ways to ensure you aren't heading down the wrong path. The first is to have someone that you have a good, open relationship with that will give you good feedback. The second is to ask for feedback from a variety of people. That often involves making yourself vulnerable and sharing what your strengths and weaknesses are.  

I hope every person is able to identify their strengths and use them, but making sure that they never also become a weakness for them.