Your Strengths Can Hold You Back

There’s a project I’ve been wanting to do for a few years, but I always told myself I didn’t have the time. Then a few weeks ago, I decided that during the pandemic would be the perfect time to knock it out. It’s about a subject that I have no experience with or knowledge about, so I’ve spent most of my time doing research. After a while, with a self-imposed deadline (which I had told other people about) approaching, something occurred to me: I hadn’t made enough progress, and I was going to miss the deadline if I didn’t make a change.

A few months back, I took the StrengthsFinder assessment. I shared my top two strengths in a previous post. My number three strength was that I’m a learner. StrengthsFinder defines “learner” as follows:

You have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. The process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites you.

Today, I realized that this strength was hindering me from completing my project. I was stuck in my comfort zone, learning more about it than actually doing it. In truth, I was unsure about how to move forward. My lack of experience and knowledge affected my confidence and I overcompensated with my “learner” strength.

So, the change I made was to reconnect with an acquaintance who has eight years of experience in this area. In an hour on Zoom, we caught up on life and he filled my knowledge gap. He gave me a high-level overview of the topic and specific recommendations geared to what I’m aiming to accomplish. After our call, I felt encouraged and super confident about how to proceed. I put my head down for three hours and finished the first version of the project. Unbelievably, in four hours today I accomplished more on this project than I’ve been able to do in years.

I have a few important takeaways from this:

  • Self-awareness – My natural strength took over without my realizing it and handicapped me. Once I was aware of it, I had to offset the handicap.
  • Experience sharing – In an hour, I was able to learn exactly what I needed from someone else’s years of experience. This saved me a ton of time and gave me the confidence to move forward.
  • Roadblocks – For years, I thought my roadblock was lack of time. In reality, it was lack of confidence rooted in lack of knowledge and experience. The next time I put something off, I need to ask myself what the true root cause is.
  • Public accountability – Setting a deadline and sharing it with other people made me accountable. Without the looming prospect of explaining my failure to those folks, I probably would have just pushed the deadline out. I’m glad I put myself under the gun.

How have you overcome self-doubt to reach a goal?