What I Learn from My Weaknesses (with a confession)
I’m taking a break from bullet journals this week. Life has been busy and, frankly, my brain is a little fried. In an attempt to keep my sanity, and get some exercise, I managed to get in a couple of hikes over the last two weeks. Because of said hikes, I feel like it’s time for a confession and a few rhetorical questions.
Do you have something about yourself that you just can’t change no matter how you try? Are you like me and feel the need to self-disclose your weaknesses?
If you do, this post is for you.
The Setup
But first, take a look at the scenery I enjoyed this week.
It’s hard to beat that view! And the light coming through the trees, it’s close to a spiritual experience. I considered writing a post about noticing the forest for the trees or something like that. But, nope, that’s not where I’m going today because guess what? My weakness overcame the beauty.
The Confession
Confession time—I’m clumsy.
I’m sure you audibly gasped, but it’s true. It’s probably not a surprise for anyone who knows me well or has walked anywhere with me. Seriously, I’ve walked into doors and poles and stumble on cracks in the sidewalk.
I used to find my clumsiness baffling because I’m actually pretty coordinated. I mean, I played three sports in high school and a year of college volleyball. Sports come easily to me. Walking to my car without spraining my ankle, not so much.
Now that you know the truth, let me share one more hiking picture.
In case you can’t tell, those my friends are the skid marks from my shoulder and backside sliding down the mountain. The good news—I’m fine. There’s nothing better than lying in cold, wet dirt and laughing until you can’t breathe. My hip was numb for a while but I think that was from the cold. The bad news—despite my best efforts, I’m still clumsy. I can’t escape it.
A year ago, the source of my clumsiness revealed itself to me. I took a personality test, and ever since I’ve been a little obsessed with learning about personality types. The reason—clumsiness is a trait of my personality type. What? I know, weird. (I’m an INFJ for all you MBTI buffs out there.) I had no idea clumsiness was a personality trait. I just thought it was something you either were or…weren’t.
More Confessing
Anyway, my clumsiness seems to be coming out in droves this week. Check out my toe. (Sorry I’m showing you pictures of my toe, but it does illustrate my point and I made them smaller.)
I stubbed it while I was doing nothing more than walking around my house. Granted, it was angry walking. Still, that’s a lot of damage for walking around the house.
Here’s the thing, I’m only sharing and showing you my weakness because over the years I have come to appreciate and find it endlessly entertaining. While clumsiness can be frustrating, it’s funny too. Not only has it provided entertainment for friends and family, but it’s taught me to accept and laugh at myself. Weaknesses have a way of doing that. Don’t you think?
One of my children inherited the trait, poor kid. When I hear the unmistakable sound of falling followed by, “I’m okay!” I laugh and so does my adorably cute, slightly clumsy child. It’s all good because we bond over our shared weakness.
The Takeaway
My point today—weaknesses aren’t all bad. In fact, most of the time we learn more about ourselves from weaknesses than we do strengths. So today, I embrace my clumsiness once again. Whatever your laughable weakness happens to be, I hope you embrace it too.
If you’re feeling so inclined, please feel free to leave your favorite/least favorite laughable weakness in the comments. Please…it would make me feel so much better.
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