What is strength? A plethora of definition exists for strength and each one fits aptly to the different genres of activities. If we pick one definition which encompasses the soul of all these activities, it would be that "Strength is a near consistent perfect performance in an activity". A person's accurate decision making and the ability to mobilize people to work for him/her is a strength. A doctor's love for diagnosing and treating diseases is a strength. An editor's ability to generate and refine ideas into articles that fits his/her magazines identity is a strength.
What are your strengths? How do you capitalize on them? Let us take each question a piece. It is a fact that each person's talents are enduring and unique. Everyone is special. Everyone has a repertoire of talent in them that is waiting to be unleashed. It all depends on how best you have identified your strengths and how best you have developed it. Warren Buffett , world's greatest investor , once told to a bunch of school students that he is not different from any one of them. Money doesn't make the difference. The only difference is that he gets up everyday and has a chance to do what he loves to do, everyday. Buffett genuinely believes that his reputation as the world's greatest investor is due to his ability to carve out a role that plays to his particular strengths like being patient, practical and trusting. The present mantra of success is therefore "how fast you discover your strength and how good you build on it".
There are three factors which are important to strength building. They are Talents - which are your naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior, Knowledge - which consists of the facts and the lessons learned and Skills - which are the steps of an activity. These three combine to create your strengths. Talents are innate, whereas skills and knowledge can be acquired through learning and practice. For example a salesperson can learn how to describe the products features (Knowledge). He can also learn how to ask the right questions to elicit the prospects needs (Skills). But he will never learn how to push that prospect to commit exactly at the right moment and in exactly the right way (Talent - which is innate).
So the key to building a bona fide strength is to identify your dominant talents and then refine them with knowledge and skills.
Tao Te Ching , a great Zen Buddhist Monk and a preacher quotes that "Knowing others is intelligence, Knowing yourself is true wisdom . Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power".
Therefore discover your strengths, believe in it, develop it and use it to the fullest to take you to the higher echelons of excellence
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