Mr. David Rendall and his truly simple minded approach to overcoming weaknesses, involves wisely brushing them under the rug and forgetting they exist. This approach may work to certain degree, but will keep you from revealing to yourself your ultimate potential. I didn’t like any of his ideas, so I focused on three I particularly disagreed with the most. He just doesn’t seem to capture what I personally believe helps you become the best version of you.
For starters, let’s address number three; “Flawless: There’s Nothing Wrong With You.” Rendall states that personal “strengths,” and “weaknesses” are joined, in that each “strength” is accompanied by characteristics of a “weakness.” He creates a chart to explain these pairings. He goes on further to say that these pairs “cannot be separated;” lets take a look at a few of these “inseparable pairs.”
1. Strength: Enthusiastic – Weakness: Obnoxious
Not quite. So anyone who has a passion for whatever his or her present endeavor is, and shows enthusiasm towards that specific goal is obnoxious? False.
2. Strength: Calm – Weakness: Emotionless
Preposterous, I know plenty of people of who are incredibly calm, and are more full of emotion than a kid opening their first present on Christmas morning.
3. Strength: Positive – Weakness: Unrealistic
Okay, so Rendall doesn’t believe that nothing’s impossible. Maybe he should refer to the quote he decided to put under his first point; “It’s never too late to be who you might have been.” – George Eliot.
Next is point number four; “Forget It: Don’t Try To Fix Your Weaknesses.” How’s that for inspiration. I understand that this is his entire philosophy regarding success, but this point sums up the whole reason why I disagree with Rendall. He thinks that it’s just takes too much time to attempt to fix your weaknesses, it’s too painful to try, it’s distracting from other more important areas of focus, and finally, that it simply doesn’t work. He states, “Even if we remediate a weakness, it still doesn’t become a valuable strength,” right on Dave. When has suppressing personal weakness ever resulted in growth; embrace these weaknesses and harness them, put your self in control. I just don’t think that ignoring personal weakness, and hoping that developing your strengths will mask your weakness is a healthy approach to personal growth. It’s like burning bridges, if you cut yourself off from someone, you’ll never know what adventures you could have had together.
To conclude, we shall address point number six; “Focus: You Can’t Do Both.” Rendall doesn’t believe people have the time or energy to simultaneously address weakness and build upon our strengths. Folly, I think Rendall doesn’t believe in the human ability. Anyone has the ability to work on his or her personal weaknesses, and they can also build themselves up using their talents as well. It seems like he says the same thing over and over again in his points, just simply changing the words he’s using. He uses another wonderful quote that at first seemed to contradict himself again, but then revealed itself to be an actual part of his recipe for success; “ When you choose anything, you reject everything else…so when you take one course of action you give up all other courses.” – G.K. Chesterton. I call folly again; DO NOT LIMIT YOURSELF. Believe you can do anything, don’t just stick to one path, keep your options open.
David Rendall’s philosophy may seem tasty to weak-hearted, weak-minded, and the straight up lazy; but for all you dreamers, don’t bother following the link I was required to attach to this.
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