Weaknesses are worthy

The most thought-provoking blueprint experience for me was participating in the strength-finding test. However; more memorable than the test was the ideas the speaker focused on, "Americans focus too much on improving their weaknesses, not their strengths. Some people, take Tiger Woods or Shaq for example, are made to play certain sports. No matter how much heart someone puts into a sport at practice and games, they will never be as good as the person who was born with that talent. " Sure, it makes logical sense. And the world tells you you need to be the best at something.

I disagree. So what if your not the best player on the team? Rather, your the one who everyone comes to for encouragement. You keep up the motivation on the team and keep the spirits light when practice gets hard.

I agree with the speaker that everyone has strengths and that it requires a strong leader to find those strengths in people. Utilize your strengths-but not to be the best. Use them to do what you like and like what you do.

Final Post

My favorite part of the Blueprint experience was when Prof. Pentz came to speak to us about communication and how to more than effectively, but engagingly speak to others and be able to convey our ideas, hopes, and visions. Not only did I learn a lot and have a very enjoyable session, but I've found after this event I really enjoying speaking to other people and have been able to utilize what she taught us. I've become a more effective communicator and am now more often able to engage and motivate people for clubs and other organizations in which I lead.

Define Yourself

Time goes really fast, tonight comes our sixth session, also the last one.

Looking back on the Blueprint program, I have learned a lot from it. There are various speakers along the time, focusing on different areas about leadership. But there's one important aspect they all mention, that is courage to face failures. No matter doing scientific research or giving public speech, there are always obstacles and even failures. A leader is not the person who never fail, instead, the greatest leader has often faced the most severe difficulty. But the point is, don't let failure define you, but let it teach you. And you define yourself. I think this is the most important inspiration I've ever had from Blueprint.

Failures

I can't recall which student leader mentioned it, but the topic of failures really got me thinking of just how valuable those experiences are. She briefly commented about the importance of acknowledging your failures and being able to talk about them to others proudly--not to be shameful of them.

Up until now, I didn't see it that way. I never saw it as a negative experience, even though I may have been upset about it, but there's no way it would've ever crossed my mind that failures are beneficial.

Just as I've found that testing the waters and doing things out of your comfort zone help you to grow, failures do so in a similar way. Not only do you gain your experience of going through the process of "trying out" for whatever it might be so that you can look back and learn from it (what could I have done differently? What will I change next time?), but you personally have to deal with failure. A friendly reminder that we're human. But at least for me, I know that getting over it isn't that simple, especially when you put a lot of time into something, give it your all.

It's about not being afraid of rejection, not feeling vulnerable. Putting yourself out there and giving it your all takes guts. Not being ashamed of rejection takes even more.

I have a funny feeling that we'll be experiencing more rejections that victories in life (assuming you push yourself and put yourself out there). The sooner we learn how to deal with it and turn it positively, the better.

Live for the Present or the Future (only partly)?

Okay, so I was in bed but I had a sudden urge to write something on the blog so I got up. (It's not true.)

So anyway, we talked about how present is the only "real" thing out of past, present and future and therefore we should all live in the present.

I generally agree with the point: We should all be living in the present. In the end, you don't really know when you're going to die and you don't want to leave any regrets. (Let's just get the past out of the way. I don't think we should really dwell on the past at all, apart from learning from it, although it's pretty hard sometimes and I do it all the time.)

But a part of me wants to say sometimes you have to endure whatever you don't like in the present for the future. I think people have a tendency to do what's pleasant, quick and easy for the present. That's certainly the case for me which have caused me much trouble in life. (Or maybe I shouldn't be attending UVa with this kind of mindset?)

If living in the present means only doing what's enjoyable in the present, I don't feel like this is the best way to tackle life at all because yes it is pleasant for now, but it's pretty obvious you'll suffer in the end like I did and do.

But what fascinates me is that in the today's talk as well as in life in general, there are "successful" people who say: "Yeah, the door opened up to me as I went along." I guess that's the ideal case of living in the present working out for the future.

So I guess my question is:

How should you live your present so that you don't have any regrets behind, but things work out for the future in the end?

Or more broadly:

Do you agree/disagree (at least partly) about living for the present alone?

Any comments are welcome.

Cheers,

Yongjin

I do not consider myself a controversial person in the least, so this post is going to be a challenge for me.

Sometimes I swear. Sometimes I swear a lot. Sometimes I don't think that there's a word better than "damn" to express what I'm feeling. Sometimes "crap" doesn't cut it. Yeah, there's a time and place for everything, and when cursing isn't appropriate, I would not recommend doing so [out loud] -- BUT, under appropriate circumstances, I sometimes find myself at a loss for better word than "shit".

I don't know how else to disclaim my post other than: I'm sorry if I offend any one...I don't condone swearing?

On what is probably a more controversial note: I need to leave Newcomb early tonight...and I apologize for my lack of a blog post last meeting -- I totally blanked.

Acknowledging Your Weaknesses

The example in the book about Rudy, to me somewhat leaves out an important factor. There is no question he is not the best football player in the world, and that perhaps his time can be better spent elsewhere. However, maximizing productivity using the talents we naturally have ignores the idea that we do not enjoy doing what we can do well. There are certainly numerous statistics showing that employees enjoy their jobs better when they are doing something they are good at, but in the case of Rudy he followed his passion. We may not all be the best at what we want to be, but if we acknowledge that there is no reason we cannot follow that path despite that. True, it may not be the most efficient use of our time, but efficiency should not take precedence over that which we want to do.

This reminds me of another example I heard along these lines from one of my professors. A student of hers wanted to be an artist, but she was not very talented in this area. Instead of giving up, she worked hard to cultivate some kind of artistic talent. She now waits tables in New York and only occasionally has her pieces displayed in small galleries. There is no doubt she would be more successful doing something else, but she is happy.