Friday, March 11, 2011

Response to Freak Factor

You can find the article that I am talking about here

The article starts out talking about our weaknesses.  We are all well aware of our weaknesses people in our lives point them out all the time bosses, teachers, parents ect.  The point is we are all-aware of our weaknesses and try to fix them, but its not working this article offers suggestions on fixing our weaknesses, and overcoming our problems.  The article is about using your weaknesses to your advantage. 

#2 What’s My Problem?
The first idea that I want to talk about is number two what’s my problem.  This idea talks about how a persons flaws can be a clue to their strengths like if a person loves talking they would be a good public speaker.  I think this is a very interesting way of looking at your weaknesses.  I have never thought about it this way, but it makes sense.  You don’t have to overcome or conquer your weaknesses, but instead use them to find your strengths.  The article goes on to say that you find success when you find the right fit, and that your weaknesses make you different, and different is good.  This idea will be very hard for me to apply to my life because I have very few weaknesses.  The only ones that I can think of are that I’m to caring, I work to hard, and I am to good looking.  That last one should probably go under strength.  I need to identify my strengths and weaknesses in my creative life and try to exploit them.

#4 Don’t Try to Fix Your Weakness
The second idea that I want to talk about is number four don’t try to fix your weakness.  This one means exactly what it says.  The article talks about a survey that says that 59% of the people surveyed think that fixing your weaknesses is an essential part of personal development.  The problem with this approach is that it is slow, painful, distracts, and doesn’t actually work.  This is a very good observation.  Why waste time trying to fix your problems when you can concentrate on your strengths.    The article talks about how if you remedy a weakness that still doesn’t make it a strength.  If we are focusing on our weaknesses there is no time for activities where we could make significant progress.  I could use this idea in my creative life by trying to focus on things that I am good at like filming, editing, and directing, and leave things like set design, and storyboarding to the people who are good at that.

#6 Focus: You Can’t do Both
The last idea that I am going to talk about is number six focus: you can’t do both.  This idea is basically saying that most people believe that they can fix their weakness, and improve on their strengths, and this is not true.  Most people have two much to do already (like a bunch of blog post), and don’t have time for both.  Focusing on both limits the amount of progress that can be made.  It prevents us from becoming exceptional in one area, and since weaknesses and strengths are linked, attempting to fix a weakness can actually diminish strength.  I can use this in my creative live by not trying to do things that I can’t.  I can’t do animation, or make a video game (even though Girth would be a smash hit) so I’m not going to try to do those things.  I’ll leave that to the experts.

I feel like I have a lot of strengths as far as the creative process goes.  I work great in groups and love it.  I would much rather do creative things with other people.  I also feel like I am a pretty good leader (that could be due to the good looks).  My main weakness as far as the creative process goes is that I can’t draw.  This is a major set back when you are trying to convey thoughts and ideas to other people .

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