We’ve been spending a lot of time on strengths and how to maximize them and showcase them. Everyone has unique strengths, and they should be celebrated because they make a big impact, but everyone has weaknesses too. There’s no reason to hide them when we all have them. You aren’t alone!
Weaknesses are normal and don’t always matter. Some weaknesses are insignificant in the grand scheme of things while others create vulnerabilities and should be addressed. Either way, hiding them isn’t the answer. Hiding weaknesses can lead to issues like low self-esteem and missed opportunities.
Hiding your Weaknesses can Lower your Self-Esteem
Covering up your weaknesses may prevent others from seeing them, but it can also lower your self-esteem. Hiding is a lot like lying. Pretending as if something isn’t an issue and putting energy into covering it up weighs on you over time. Everyone has weaknesses and having them shouldn’t cause fear, shame, or guilt. These emotions tend to motivate people to hide their thoughts and feelings which can cause trauma.
Many weaknesses are insignificant and hiding them is altogether unnecessary. If you aren’t a great cook, there’s no reason to hide that fact. There’s no shame in being a bad cook, there are plenty of ways to compensate for a lack of cooking skills.
Other weaknesses can be significant, but they shouldn’t be hidden either. Tackle them, improve them, or come to terms with them so you don’t feel the need to hide them. It’s ok to have weaknesses and be a confident person.
Hiding your Weakness can Lead to Missed Opportunities
When we hide, we avoid. Hiding requires orchestration to keep things hidden. Avoiding leads to missed opportunities. Hiding weaknesses can cause you to miss out on activities and experiences that could change your life. The longer you hide, the more entrenched your avoidance becomes and before long, you’ve missed out on a lot of things.
If you feel weak speaking in front of groups, declining opportunities to speak may feel like you’re protecting yourself, but you aren’t. You are denying yourself the opportunity to become comfortable speaking in front of groups. The majority of speakers were once very uncomfortable with public speaking…many still are, but they conquered their fears and overcame their weakness by taking action and speaking. The more often they spoke the more normalized the activity became. What once was a weakness is now a strength.
Hiding your weakness may seem smart, but over time it could create some problems. Don’t allow weaknesses to keep you from being confident and engaging in as many opportunities as possible. Everyone has weaknesses. They are normal and nothing to fear.
