“Our greatest strengths can also be our greatest weaknesses.”
Have you heard or read this quote? Copyblogger, a blog I subscribe to, was very curious about this quote, and spent a lot of time searching online for its author. After much hard work and sifting through countless websites Copyblogger finally settled on a surprising answer:
No one said it. The closest thing Copyblogger could find that’s attributed to a single person is the following line from Friedrich Nietzsche:
“At times, our strengths propel us so far forward we can no longer endure our weaknesses and perish from them.”
So why is it that we strive so hard to be perfect, all we can be, at times to the point where we cannot tolerate our imperfections and mistakes, sometimes give up trying, and occasionally fall apart? We feel spent, useless, helpless, inadequate… And the expectations were generally self-imposed. We can be so hard on ourselves, believing that what is good about us isn’t good enough, ultimately undermining our amazing talents and gifts.
In this season of giving thanks might we work on being kind to ourselves and appreciating our strengths while also being accepting and forgiving of our weaknesses?
It is a shame when our flaws win out over our good stuff…