What are your strengths and weaknesses? A rather simple question, yet so hard to answer.
We see these questions come up in interviews, rehabs, conventions, emotional talks, essentially anytime we are expected to feel vulnerable. Times that we are told to look inside ourselves and reveal the light and darkness that makes us who we are. The joyful, energetic, fun, hilarious parts of us, along with the sad, angry, insecure, empty, dry parts of us.
This two-sided question is rarely asked of us and is typically avoided at all costs. We do not want to share these parts about us because it leaves us truly exposed. If you explain what is good about you, then you are saying what you take pride in. Whether it be the interviewer, social worker, friends or family, these people hear what you are proud of and then have the liberty to decide if they agree. They decide whether it be out loud or in their head if what you think is good about yourself is even present.
On the other side of this two-headed dragon of a question, you are asked to reveal what you hate about yourself. You are asked to talk about the thing that you may try every day to minimize and control, but continually fail. Then, as you talk about that thing, these people again have the freedom to decide if this trait is manageable or too much to handle for whatever the situation.
So, what are your strengths and weaknesses? In an unpressured, nonjudgmental manner I encourage you to find the answer to this question. Seeing ourselves for who we really are is one of the single hardest, yet rewarding, things we can do.
It is crucial because once you know the answer to that question you begin to understand yourself from a better perspective. You can begin to understand your actions and emotions when certain situations occur. You then start to see yourself for who you really are and begin accepting both sides of yourself. Once you start to do that, I would bet your weaknesses will start to feel like strengths.
I have found that the more of myself that I accept, the happier I have been. I cannot imagine you are much different.
My strengths include my self-motivation, emotional awareness, and resilience. My weaknesses are my impatience, inability to be vulnerable in front of others, and overthinking. These are the things about myself that I have accepted and will continue to accept because they make me who I am. The good and the bad, the right and the wrong.
And by no means am I ashamed of them. I do not hide these weaknesses and expect them to magically disappear one day. I have accepted them, and I am addressing them in the attempt to never have these weaknesses hold me back in life. And because of this I see myself for how I am, good and bad, wrong and right, happy and sad.
Therefore, I will ask you one last time, what makes you strong and what makes you weak? Find your answer to this question and be aware that it may change as you do. Desires and fears are always changing as you experience life. This is why you must always be refreshing the question. Always battling the two-headed dragon with a different weapon, different strategy, different outlook. The dragon will never change, but how you slay it will define you time and time again. Your body and mind are forever changing until your inevitable death, so never stop questioning who you are. You live with yourself your entire life, you might as well get to know the person.