Remember to Value Your Strengths

One of my biggest struggles is learning to accept the fact that I am not amazing at everything. I am very fast and great at manipulating my bodyweight, but not so hot at moving external objects. Being coordinated and balanced only gets you so far when your strength limits how much you can hold up.

To compensate, I try very hard to improve my weaknesses and get stronger. The problem is that sometimes I try to improve too quickly, to bite off more than I can chew. It is difficult to balance the desire to get stronger with what your body can handle.

In addition, it is important to remember and value your strengths. I love gymnastics, and so I enjoy movements drawn from gymnastics. But sometimes the fact that they come more easily to me means that I don't spend as much time developing them, instead focusing on more movements that give me more trouble. The result is that I spend more time shoring up weaknesses than I do really developing my strengths to superhuman levels. It will take proportionately more effort for me to get really good at weightlifting, simply because I don't take to it as well. That same effort put into gymnastics would see exponential improvements that could compnesate for weaknesses in other areas.

Of course, I would still have to know what I'm doing with weights and have at least some degree of proficiency. And I would have to accept that I will have trouble with weights. But as I work to fix the holes in my athletic performance, I need to remember not to forget or neglect the things I'm good at and which make me an exceptional athlete.

When you are trying to improve yourself, remember to value your strengths and play to them, even as you work to improve your weaknesses.

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