There is this really great assessment I like to use with clients – The Strengths Finder.  The test tells you what your top five strengths are.  Things like Focus, Positivity, and Harmony.  For most of us, when we take the test, our response is something like “Yeah, I know that.  That makes sense; those are my strengths.”  But I once had a client who said “I always thought those were my weaknesses!”

You know, I think there is a lot of truth in that.  Truth for most of us.  Our strengths are the seat of our weaknesses.  They both serve and hinder us.

It’s a wondrous thing to relax into your strengths.  To own them and to lean on them in times of trouble.  It’s much more effective than to try to do what we are not good at.  They are the things that are easy and natural for us, and of course we want to use them.

Oddly, at least to me, many of us have been trained to avoid that which is easy and instead go for the hard stuff.  Not so clever is it?  Harder isn’t better, it’s just harder.

While they are wonderful,  our strengths can yet provide us with challenges. They can sometimes be in conflict with others.  Someone else, for example, may not appreciate your ability to be more adaptable than they are.   Your talents may limit your perspectives; you may have trouble seeing other options.    And frequently, in life, I find that something that was supposed to be awful, turns out to be quite good. Or often vice versa.

So who knows what is good and what is bad?  All we can do is our best.  And using our strengths as a natural resource is doing our best!

Do just that, use what is easy for you, what you do naturally.  You were given your particular strengths to use in your own unique way.  Go for it!