“Every man has his strengths. The best know how to use them. The worst don’t know what they are.”
– L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Imager’s Battalion
–
I think the most important thing in life is to find my strengths and use them to change the world in a positive way. The second most important thing is to have fun doing what you do. The list goes on but at some point we get to the point that we need to reflect on our weaknesses and work on them. Most people get stuck on thinking about their weaknesses, which won’t get you anywhere. You will become really really good at what you do if you spend most of the time improving your strengths. Working on your weaknesses is about fine-tuning yourself.
One thing to reflect on is our unconscious thoughts and feelings about ourselves and others. A few years ago I did a few of the tests by Project Implicit. It is such a simple concept where they measure how fast you can associate good and bad words with different social groups, sexuality, and so on. From this they can measure if you have any bias. I went back to their web page today and they hade extended their tests to also cover things like alcohol and self-esteem. I directly took the self-esteem test, and apparently I more strongly associate myself with good words than bad words.
I don’t think one should read too much into these results but it can be a way to get perspective on our thoughts, feelings and actions.
Do Books Read? 