Making Weakness a Strength

I was working out this week and realized how badly I used to suck at calisthenics.

I was inefficient at any exercise involving primarily bodyweight.

Yesterday I was able to go from a headstand to a handstand with no wall.

This newsletter is about turning weakness into strength.

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Preparing for Battle…

Mental Fortitude is not a switch turned on when you feel like it. It is a collaboration of challenges and discomforts that curates itself over time. In order to obtain a strong mental fortitude, you must attack weakness’s. Weakness is synonymous with vulnerability, a chink in the armor if you will. A knight with busted armor is not ready for war. The war is life. If you want to be the highest version of yourself, make your weakness a strength. Prepare for battle.

Self-Realization

Above is a quote from the well renowned powerlifter, Mark Bell. I like it because it is obvious, but said very eloquently. If we all reminded of ourselves that our weakness is never strength, it would be far easier to realize the weakness in the first place. Many of us let our ego engulf us into thinking everything we do is a strength. It’s natural to use narrative fallacy when assessing our own abilities. We use self bias to make ourselves believe we have more strengths than we actually do. Step one is being aware that this probably is not the case. Everyone has weakness, you just have to realize where the vulnerability lies.

You have heard the saying, there is no progress made in your comfort zone. Sitting on the couch is not a good way to grow. Neither is focusing on things you are already good at. There is a good chance that you once sucked at that certain thing and you built in into a strength. I understand there are some natural outliers (genetic freaks/gifted intelligence). The point is your are comfortable with your strengths and uncomfortable with your weakness, therefore it is the weakness that promotes self-growth.

Hammering Weakness

Say that you are a photographer. You take phenomenal photos. That is your strength. In return, you suck at content creation. This makes it exceptionally hard to get your work out to the public. You already have the photography down to a science, so you devote much of your free time to grinding content creation. You stop grinding that weakness when it becomes a strength. Every strength gained is another piece of armor.

There is absolutely no harm in working on a weakness that you don’t think is relevant to your life. I hear “I will never need to know that or need to know how to do that.” My response is “Well shit, you might. And if you do, you sure as hell won’t be ready.” Regardless, there is no harm. For example, I listen to podcasts on many topics. One, because I enjoy the topic. Two, because it may come up in conversation at some point. You don’t HAVE to learn about economics, but it sure helps you understand a lot of how the world works. You don’t HAVE to do cardio, but it will make you a more well-rounded athlete. You get the idea.

Don’t dwell on what you suck at. Everyone sucks at something. Avoid what you suck at, and you will still suck. Attack what you suck at, and you have a new weapon. Prepare for battle. Turn weakness into strength.

Tweets of the Week:

Weekly Book/Podcast Recommendations:

• The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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