IMPROVE ON YOUR STRENGTHS NOT WEAKNESSES

Well, how many times have you been punished for doing badly in your exams or screwing up some assignments ? How many times have your parents and/or teachers reproached you for your below par performance in a particular subject that you hate to learn, admonishing you of stern steps if you failed to come up with sterling performances in future? How many times have you received a cold stare from your parents after the results were out and you became the victim of that classic "I wish I could die" syndrome? Well at least i have received a lot of them till recent past- that is till the point where my parent lost all hopes of redemption and they literally gave up on me deciding that i am beyond all the hope- another classic example of the "incorrigible fool" - one who knows not, listens not and rectifies not.
Now here is some piece of good news for those unfortunate souls like me. The psychologists have started saying(i don't know the exact time when the people come up with this beautiful notion ) that forget your weaknesses , rather improve on your strengths. As the Chinese saying goes " A diamond with a flaw is better than a common stone that is perfect"(oh i love this one..the Chinese are really good people- no wonder they are doing so well in the world market) . the point here is that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder-its up to them whether they regard you as a dazzling diamond or a petty pebble.

"A person who is not recognized for his or her strengths or good deeds will likely have low self esteem. Either that or he will become a bully or an arrogant boor, though these are in the minority compared to the people with low self esteem.But surely there are few diamonds among us, given that by definition the diamond is rare. Wrong again. Each person is a potential diamond, but only if the observer is looking for diamonds, not common stones.Taken on their own, the strengths that each person has are treasures that most of us don't have. Each person has at least one strength or talent that most people they know would envy if they were aware of it. Of course that wouldn't happen if a person has not worked hard enough to develop that skill or talent.We don't need to consider the weaknesses of a person in order to be able to appreciate that person's strengths or talents. Unless their weaknesses impinge on us badly, we should not consider them of great value (in a negative sense). Consider the strengths and the weaknesses will pale in comparison in most people."

I had a lot of talents you know! From the day i investigated the insides of a radio with the help of a single hammer (though my father insists that i destroyed it completely beyond the point of repair, i like to think of it differently..more along the lines of knowing the intricacies of the circuit world and i was only two and a half then), i knew i was going to be a techie. that being said, it is quite natural to fathom that i will be goofing up in subjects like history,geography and languages. But my parents never realized the potential i had in me! They always scolded me when i failed to deliver during those exams- quite simply because i could not remember the dates when some bloody warmonger decided to attack his neighbour one fine morning or the exact location of the Nilgiri range. but i had other plans in mind. i proved at the tender age of 8 that if a short circuit exists in a circuit all the current will flow through that path- how? simple i inserted both ends of a wire in a socket- i was destined to be a genius!!!

But lets not stray. The point that i want to raise is that we have two options - either we can improve the sides we are weak at to the point of mediocrity and be a jack of all trades guy; or we can improve on our strengths , honing our skills , trying to reach the point of perfection. If you are good at something-maths for example, then if you work on it you have the opportunity to become better and there are chances that in due time you may become the best - but tell me if you don't like English language for example , if you cant tell the difference between a Shakespearean sonnet and a Petrarchan sonnet or between romanticism and rhyme royal, then chances are small that you will be able to write good poetry yourself even if you pursue the language meticulously. you might argue that people should at least have the passing knowledge ion different subjects , what is the point of it? is it necessary for us to be knowledgeable at everything ? Does anybody go up and ask Amartya Sen to pinpoint the location of Doddabeta on a blank map? (although personally i believe that man might just be able to do that too...that man is dangerous you know). Its is lot easier for you to improve on the thing you are already good at than embarking on a quest to cross the insurmountable . its a lot less likely that you will be making the thing you hate to be the means of your earning livelihood(that they will not select you at the interview is another thing) so what is the point of pursuing futility?

Till recently the people appearing for CAT and other management exams got a taste of this futility. God knows what the English section with all its vocabs and passages and things like that tried to prove. the people who write CAT every year aspire to become managers one day not English professors. You want to test English skills ? is it necessary to ask the meaning of jaw breaking English words or set those esoteric passages which i can bet the writer himself doesn't understand? or you mat take the case of GRE - all those hapless souls mugging up Barron's in the middle of the night - all this for what? are you trying to become an english professor?

Why cant we be proud of what we have rather than fretting over what we don't? why cant people judge us on the basis of our strengths and not on the basis of our weaknesses? why cant they respect are for what we are than disparaging for what we are not? what do they want - that we become a prototype like them? those who set the paradigms of mediocrity can go to hell- we are breaking all the rules and setting our own.
" the line it is drawn
the curse it is cast
the slow one now
will later be fast
and the present now
will later be past
the order is
rapidly fadin'
and the first one now
will later be last
for the times they are a changin' "