Living by addition, not subtraction

When we claim ownership over our strengths and develop them and create access to them, our weaknesses remain.

A weakness is a capacity for action and inaction that gets in our way toward fulfillment. As I suggested in “Appreciative Leadership“, many weaknesses are simply poorly timed strengths. Throwing things is skillful when it involves projectiles on fields; unskillful when it involves projectiles in meetings.

We may very well always retain the capacities to forget important things, make poor choices, and be tempted by things not good for us. If we find ourselves acting more skillfully today, it’s simply because we’ve developed and engaged the strengths for doing so.

This is liberating news indeed for those of us who have squandered years trying to better ourselves by getting rid of weaknesses. It is living by addition rather than subtraction.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 13th, 2007 at 2:08pm and is filed under Appreciative living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.