Wouldn’t it be great if we lived in a perfect world? Wouldn’t it be great if we never failed? Wouldn’t life be grand if we had no weaknesses, only strengths, and we achieved victory upon victory? Yes it would – but wake up – it isn’t so! We DO have weaknesses, and no matter how much self-improvement we go through, we will have weaknesses until the day we pass from this life.

So what to make of weaknesses? Should we just throw in the towel and give up? NO WAY! We can win the war against weaknesses. We can have weaknesses and still live our lives in such a way that we significantly reduce the effect that our weaknesses have on us and the way they undermine us.

So let’s get busy and take a look at the ways we can win the war on weaknesses:

Recognize your weaknesses.
A weakness that isn’t known is a dangerous thing! Take some time of reflection to know your weaknesses. If you are really gutsy, do what I did recently and invite some of your closest associates to tell you what they are! I sat with four people and gave them one hour wherein I did not respond to what they said. I only wrote what they were saying for my own further reflection. This can be humbling but can be very empowering when you come to know what your weaknesses are and how to overcome them. Those who I asked were blown away that I would invite what they perceived as criticism, but I knew the deeper benefit would be that I would now know my “enemy” – my weaknesses!

Play to your strengths.
Remember playing sports growing up when you would always try to utilize your best move or best shot? Well, the same is true in life. We need to play to our strengths in life. We ought to find careers where we can spend most of our times using our strengths rather than fighting our weaknesses. The more we can perfect our strengths, they more we can downplay our weaknesses.

Hire or delegate to your weaknesses.
If you have this option, by all means take advantage of it! If you can hire someone who is strong in areas where you are weak, then you should certainly do so. This will enable you to avoid the weakness trap, it allows them to experience working from their strengths, and it will move the organization ahead faster than ever.

Realize that your strengths, carried to their extremes, become your weaknesses.
One thing that most people don’t realize it that often the most fatal weakness we have is actually our greatest strength taken to the extreme. For example, if you speak well, chances are that your mouth will sometimes get you into trouble (take it from me – I know!) If you are very detail oriented, then your detail orientation can be a weakness when you get the paralysis of analysis! Think of your great strengths and then think how, when taken to the extreme, they can actually be weaknesses. Then keep them in balance!

Learn from your failures when your weaknesses get the best of you. Ultimately, even if we act on our weaknesses and we do something that causes us to be less than successful, we can still learn from the event and grow for the future. In the long run, learning from our mistakes made in weakness turns our weaknesses into our very own “success school” – and that is a positive thing!

We all have weaknesses. That is a given. But we do not have to lose in life because of them. The above are just a few ways that you can begin to win the war against weaknesses. Take some time to give it some thought and action and you will experience more victories than you even have before!