This may shock those of you who know me, but I have decided to stop working on my weaknesses.   Okay, maybe not totally, but I have been thinking about how I leverage my strengths instead of always focusing on how to improve my weaknesses.  Don’t misunderstand me; I am not advocating a “that’s-just-how-I-am” approach to flaws in our character or spiritual lives on which we truly need to work.  I believe that we can and should always try to improve in these areas.

What I am talking about is recognizing the way that our personalities are “hard wired” and embracing the things we are good at, while outsourcing or partnering with someone else in those areas where we are not as strong.

Timothy Ferriss, in his book, The 4-Hour Work Week, explains this concept well.  “It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor.  The choice is between multiplication of results using strengths or incremental improvement fixing weaknesses that will, at best, become mediocre. Focus on better use of your best weapons instead of constant repair.”

To give you a personal example, I do not consider myself to be a highly creative person.  Oh, I have my moments.  But I cannot escape the fact that I am most often the one who executes the idea, not the one who comes up with it.  Now, I can spend multiple hours reading books about creative thinking; do creative thinking exercises; and even spend lots of money going to retreats and seminars to help me be more creative.  These are not necessarily bad things.  But would I better leverage my time and resources by partnering with a creative person to complement me?  Undoubtedly.

What about you?  Maybe you ARE the creative type, and you’d rather not be bothered with the pesky details.  Maybe you are the salesperson, the relationship-builder, the visionary.  But somehow you still have to make sure that all of the details related to running a business or organization get done.  Might I suggest you partner with someone who loves the details and can help you execute?  You’ll find great satisfaction and, yes, relief, from doing so, freeing you to take your business to the next level.

Lately I’ve been listening to an audio book (a little old school, I know; but I can listen and be inspired while doing housework!).  The book is Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.  As I was listening this weekend, a quote of Mr. Carnegie really jumped out at me.  He said, “Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.”  Wow! Think about that.

We’ve all heard the old adage that “knowledge is power,” and most of us would agree with that statement.  But we can know a lot of stuff and never use it.  If we don’t apply our knowledge, we will continue to have problems that go unresolved or goals that go unmet.  For example, most of us probably know the basics of eating healthy.  But do we do it?  Maybe not so much.  We know that we need to exercise and get more sleep.  How is our application of that knowledge?   I don’t know about you, but I can think of many other examples in my own life where I know plenty, but I apply far less than I know.

It can be the same way in your business.   You probably know there are plenty of things you should be doing, and you may even know what to do… so, why is it so hard to do?  It could be because we all naturally gravitate toward the things we are good at and things we enjoy, but most of us avoid things that lie outside our areas of strength because we don’t enjoy them.  So, what is the answer?

I’d like to suggest you team up with someone who can help you apply all that knowledge.  You know your business or organization, and you know what it takes to succeed.  Choose someone whose strengths complement yours and offload those things that you don’t enjoy as much and that end up sapping your creativity and productivity, the things that can sidetrack you from the primary mission of your organization.

The reason that New Life Management Services exists is to come alongside organizations like yours and help you realize your dreams through better application of knowledge.  Let's take that knowledge and turn it into power... the power to move your business forward!