Imagine there is a severe drought and you only have one bucket of water. You look out onto your lawn and notice that most of it is doing ok but for one small brown patch. Will you water the green flourishing grass or will you try and save the struggling brown patch?
In this example, water represents your time and energy. And you are the grass. The point is this: We all have limited time and energy in a day. The question is, how do we use those two precious resources? Most of us will use them doing things that we are already good at, (i.e. watering the green patch) and ignore improving our weaknesses, our brown patch, because it takes time and effort.
The key to making progress in life however is to work on our weaknesses.
- If you are good talker chances are you are poor listener. Learn to consciously listen and practice it daily.
- If you lose concentration and make silly errors, remind yourself to ignore external distraction and cross-check your work thoroughly.
- If you go to the gym, don’t just workout your chest, work harder on your leg and back exercises. Also, don’t just lift weights. Work hard on your cardio and flexibility.
When you work on your weaknesses, you become a well-rounded person with many talents and strengths. A full and complete beautiful patch of green grass.
More importantly, when you work on your weaknesses, you will feel like you are growing and developing to be the best you can be. And research shows that the key to happiness in life is to keep making progress. Every time you achieve a new goal (no matter how small), your body releases the feel good hormone called dopamine, which is very powerful at keeping you happy for longer. It’s the “Joy of the Journey”.
Most positive psychology experts focus on being grateful to make you happy. Which means appreciating your strengths. But most ignore the other more powerful way to be constantly happy. And that is to push yourself and work hard on your weaknesses, daily!