They tether us with a cord of complacency and compliance. Yet, as you might already know, achieving anything worthwhile in life involves overcoming the weaknesses that have once held you back.
It involves taking the reigns of your life and charging forward in the right direction, with the ability to surmount any obstacle.
I know that failure hurts. Believe me. I have failed more times than I’d like to admit. But I also know what it’s like to overcome the weaknesses that once set me back.
We are only as good as the state of being of our minds, and when we see limitations in life, we easily materialize those things into reality. It’s true that what we think, we become, as Buddha once poignantly so put it.
What I’ve come to learn over the years is that, as much as it might hurt at the time, and as painful as our weaknesses might seem, there’s a grand design to it.
There’s a reason for those weaknesses. They’re meant to serve you rather than to limit. Because once you overcome those things, that’s when real progress is made in life. That’s when you really begin to grow and mature as a human being.
The mind is a powerful tool. It can either be used as a platform for growth, or it can be used to hold us back from achieving our dreams. We are only as weak as our minds are fearful. Our experiences shape us into who we are, and oftentimes, we can’t see beyond that.
The values and beliefs systems that we all have are an inherent part of our lives developed over decades and decades. God knows it’s hard to change any of that that doesn't mean it is not possible God often supply us with needed strength to overcome our weaknesses the only tool we need is our mind and willingness to overcome it.
Yet, as much as it hurts to alter our lives or change who we are, if we don’t extricate ourselves from the limiting beliefs, fears and the weaknesses that we often fail to overcome in life, we can’t make any progress.
We can’t move forward by leaps and bounds when we’re stuck living in the past. We can’t see the proverbial forest through the trees when we can’t move the leaves that are covering our eyes away.
It’s hard to overcome something that’s become such an integral part of your life. It’s hard to suddenly wake up one day and not harbor those weaknesses.
Clearly, it’s not easy to overcome a weakness. Nor, is it easy to break a bad habit or achieve a big goal. But people still do it every single day. It’s about mental toughness. It’s about not allowing all the little things that are happening and going on in your life to get you down. It’s about quite literally seeing the forest through the trees.
Our strength grows out of our weakness.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
You must have strong reasons to overcome your weakness.
Now that you know the weakness and where it originated, you need to find a powerful reason to overcome it. Without a powerful reason, you can kiss your chances goodbye. In effect, overcoming your weakness is like accomplishing any goal. Simply put, you can’t do it without a powerful reason.
What are powerful reasons? Clearly, they’re not superficial. Money, cars, fame, houses and so on won’t help you to do it. What’s powerful are things like love, family, freedom, security and so on. That’s what you need to discover on your own. What are your reasons for wanting to do anything in life?
The more powerful the reason, the more likely you’ll be to overcome that weakness. Dig deep and think about it. Maybe your weaknesses have held you back in life, financially speaking. Maybe you’ve been too afraid to start your own business or do something else outside of your comfort zone. And you feel trapped.
The only way to extricate yourself is to discover a reason that’s so powerful that no excuse will get in your way. That’s how winners are made. They don’t make excuses. They overcome weaknesses, fears, limitations and so on. They do it with their mind, first and foremost. So write down your powerful reasons. Be as descriptive as possible.
Stop focusing on your weaknesses.
Focusing on weaknesses will set you on a downward spiral. It will lower your self-esteem, blur your vision, it might even turn your focused in the wrong direction.
The truth is, you will never be perfect. You will always have weaknesses that will accompany you throughout your life.
Understanding your weaknesses helps you to plan ahead on how to overcome it not focusing on it all the time and do nothing about it. Action is needed to accomplish your goals in overcoming your weaknesses leading you to successful path.
Ask yourself how your weakness is serving you (because it is, in some way).
Remember I mentioned that your weakness is a security blanket? It's time to figure out what this weakness has been doing for you. Because it's been developed over time as a way of coping or dealing with the world around you and the people in it.
Ask yourself what purpose your weakness is serving. How is it helping you? When asking yourself this question, consider what you might be hiding from.
I know these are difficult questions — and likely push you back into the realm of vulnerability. But remember: being vulnerable is what will help you make the radical changes you want. And it shows that you're courageous (feel free to remind yourself of this often).
Once you identify how your weakness has been serving you, ask yourself whether you need this service any longer. And question the assumptions you've been making that have allowed you to lean into your weakness.
There's usually a deeper meaning behind why you've allowed your weakness to hang around — so get clarity on what that is and find a new way to deal with it.
You need a strong viable plan and reachable.
You need a plan to overcome your weaknesses. Don’t just stop now. What are you going to do to follow through? Consider this. Habits, which are very much an intimate part of our lives, similar to the limbs that are attached to our bodies, take anywhere from 18 to 254 days to form, with an average formation of 66 days.
However, the truth is that the habits we have, have been a part of our lives for years and decades. Any mental or emotional weakness that developed in our lives, has influenced the habits that we have. We procrastinate because we don’t want to be honest or deal with the simple truths that have formed the very foundation and bedrock of our weaknesses, for example.
If you want to overcome something that’s become a viable part of who you are, you need a plan. How will you tackle your weaknesses now that you know what they are? How will your powerful reasons allow you to see things through this time around and not sugarcoat or ignore things one moment longer?
Without a plan, you’re wasting away, flapping in the wings of a torrential storm that will continue to brew in your life. Make a rock solid plan and move past that. Do a little bit every single day to move you closer and closer to your goal of overcoming something that’s held you back for too long.
Assess yourself regularly.
If you never check the oil in your car, don't be surprised when your engine melts one day because the oil level is too low. If you ignore that lump or fever or other symptom in your body, don't be surprised if one day you get bad news from your doctor. If you keep opening app after app, don't be surprised when you eventually get that "insufficient memory" message.
To make progress, you need to monitor yourself against those objectives you set. If you are proceeding according to plan, congratulate yourself. Otherwise, you need to assess what factors are hindering you and make adjustments.
Seek for help and support without carrying your ego along.
There are people out there willing to listen and lend a helping hand whenever we reach out. They’re there to help you walk through the pain and overcome that which has held you back for much of your life. There are people out there who’ve been through similar situations and learned how to overcome their fears and weaknesses.
Seek their help. Ask for their support. We’re often too afraid to reach out. We’re too afraid to reveal the truth to others. But don’t be. Don’t allow your ego to shroud the truth one moment longer. If your reasons for wanting to overcome those limiting things in your life are strong enough, you’ll reach out right now.
It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to be afraid. But it’s not okay to continue to suffer the mental or emotional torment for one moment longer. No, you have to seek the help and support of others. Personally or professionally. There’s simply nothing wrong with it. You’re human. You’re fallible. No one is perfect. No one.
Although it’s hard to look past what other people think, you shouldn’t be as concerned about other people as much as you are with your self. That’s what’s important. There are a lot of people out there that will talk about you behind your back no matter what you do. And to your face they’ll be nice. Ignore those people.
Ignore everyone else. Worry about handling your own issues. Keep your side of the street clean. Don’t worry about what’s happening on the other side. Just worry about you and push through all the pain and the hurt and the weaknesses until you figure it out. Just don’t give up on your self because things didn’t go according to plan the first time around. You’ll figure it out and overcome even the most debilitating weaknesses as long as you don’t give up.
Realize that progress might take time.
Rome was not built in a single day. Neither will you overcome your weakness in one day or perhaps even in one week.
Habits and traits take time to become ingrained and can take time to be undone. Be aggressive in your goals but be realistic as well.
Keep in mind that you are not the only one in the world that have such weaknesses.
Being thoughtful that you are not the only one who have such weaknesses will give you a sense of direction to overcome it. So We're not the only ones with such a weakness or an area that we haven't won in our lives yet.
Although it's a fact that we have various weaknesses, our weaknesses are specific to each of us, yet common among many.
Holding such mental attitude will fuel our desire and willingness to overcome it knowing fully well we are not a lone since others with similar weaknesses triumphed over it so shall we too.
However, dwelling in self pity of the past how our weaknesses as lead us to several issues that embarrassed us and the costly lost that occurred during and after the incident will not give us the strength and chance to overcome it if we continue to visit the past often time.
