All Your Strength: Celebrate & introspect at the same time

Rio Olympics ended last week and there has been much written about the state of Indian Sports and our Sporting Heroes (in our case Heroines) who have got back glory for our country in spite of all odds. This is not yet another article dissecting on what went right and wrong but delves into the partnership that has given India glory and what we can derive from this. Each of the women athletes: Dipa Karmakar, Sakshi Malik, P V Sindhu had a strong partnership with their coach who advised them on mental and physical fitness apart from the technical skills to succeed. While we accept and applaud the coach’s role in an athletes career, how often do you hear or even know firsthand of coaches who have helped their mentees rise to the top in the professional world. If we don’t accept mediocrity in sports and think India as a sporting nation thrives on being ok with non-medal winning performances, how is it that we are ok with being average and not reaching our full potential in our work lives? Is it that in sport, seeking training to double up on your strengths and work on your weaknesses is considered a pre-requisite to any excellence? I think the answer is a resounding YES.

All Your Strength

I am reminded me of a story I read sometime back which went like this – a little girl was walking with her father when she came across a branch that had fallen of a tree. She asked her father if she could lift it and keep it on the side so as to remove the obstruction on the road. The father gave her permission and said- “Sure you can, if you use all your strength. “ The little girl tried to lift the branch but she couldn’t. She came to her father in tears and asked him why he had not told her she wouldn’t be able to move the branch. The father of course knew that his daughter was too small and had overestimated her strength to do this herself. He replied back, “I advised you to use ‘all your strength’. You didn’t ask me for my help”. The moral of the story being: We all have our strengths and weaknesses. It’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help and support but a sign of wisdom and strength to seek from the outside.

In my last #CultureCubicle article I wrote about the importance of strong relationships and de-cluttering some unwanted ones from your life. I would like to extend the framework further and ask you to incorporate into your life those people, communities, ideas or a mix of all that enable and empower you to achieve with All Your Strength.

As real busy bodies today with little to no time for ourselves, we seldom assess where we are, introspect on what we need to work on and celebrate our strengths. Hence a reach out or call for help is a rarity and seen as a weakness but that shouldn’t be the case and the building blocks to doubling up on your strengths is quite simple.

Here are my top 3 things to do

1. WhatsApp Groups: You are probably in 10s or even 100s of WhatsApp groups discussing everything from childcare to recipes. How about finding likeminded people to discuss work related topics. Apart from learning something new, this could be a great networking tool, keep you relevant and current and be a sound listening board when you actually need work related advice.
2. Finding a mentor: Hard to find a good one but priceless when you have the right connect with someone who will guide you past your problems and make you see the bigger picture. Invest time, develop the rightand you won’t regret even for a minute about the time investment, trust my word for it.
3. Rely on Communities: The internet is a wonderful melting pot for people with similar passions to discuss, share and help each other. It’s the purest form of giving and receiving that there is provided you find the right fit with a community you trust and partake in its growth along with other community members but through that experience develop trusted relationships that help you multiply your strengths and achieve.

Thank you for reading my post. Hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please remember to leave a comment. It motivates me to continue writing more stories like this one and yes, it helps people find this post too. Post any feedback or question you have in the comment box below, or tweet to me @jasuja on Twitter.

About the author: Monica Jasuja is a Payments Ninja specializing in Digital Payments Initiatives to further India’s progress as a less cash dependent economy. She is a Product Strategist with work experience in 4 geographies globally and brings knowledge and firsthand experience of designing, developing products with the wow factor. This article expresses her personal views, and not those of any of her employers—past, present or future. Monica is available on Twitter: @jasuja