“Tell us about your weakness.” glancing over the frame of reading glasses, Chairman of the interview board asked Abhay. Nowadays, there is an adddd emphasis on examining candidates by questions about psychology and aptitude.
‘Sir, my biggest weakness is that I forget food and sleep until I get the job done perfectly. I have over dedication to my work.’ Abhay parroted typical answer taught by a coaching institute. Chairman and four other board members smirked. Chairman asked another question to Abhay and continued with the interview.
In coaching, Abhay was told that even when you are asked about your weakness, mention your strength in such a way that the interviewer will be impressed. It is ridiculous to expect experienced officers sitting in interview board to get misguided by such answers. Still some candidates try to narrate their strength as weakness. As Abhay did.
Similarly, if people are asked about their shortcomings, they would fumble. As if they have only strength, and no shortcomings. They feel difficulties in counting their weaknesses. One reason is that rarely anyone sees own faults. Certainly, standing in front of a mirror, one cannot see own back. In the same manner, when we face ourselves, we are so impressed by our own abilities that we ignore our weaknesses. The first step of enlightenment is to start knowing what we do not know. When we realize what we do not know, we get better understandingof ourselves.
We should also sometimes ask ourselves this question. What are our weaknesses? What are the biggest five out of them? And when looking for weakness, find out the real ones. You can hide weakness from others, but cannot hide them from yourself. We must try to correct them, overcome them. Therefore, as an exercise, write down five shortcomings on a paper. While looking at own deficiencies and shortcomings, important four pillars of life: health, careers, family-society and spirituality-should be kept in mind. The weaknesses at each level should be corrected one by one.
If we are not careful about health, we are likely to be victim of disease or discomfort. If we neglect career or family, entertainment, spirituality or mental development, then that particular aspect of life is seriously overlooked. It may affect other aspects also.
And today, most of the people have a new but common weakness – spending a lot of time on digital platform. If this habit gets corrected, the time thus saved can be used in other creative works. Find out major faults, weaknesses and shortcomings by the end of year 2018. Tries hard to correct them during 2019. As a result, probably they will no more be your weakeness in 2020.