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What are your greatest strengths?
Today happens to be one of those days when I don’t feel particularly strong while writing. To me, strength often means having the courage to take action, using your energy, resources, and vitality to achieve something. And today, I feel vulnerable—maybe a little melancholic.
But who says vulnerability can’t be a strength too? Because, first, we must define what strength actually is. With the internet, it's easy to look it up: “A person's strengths are the positive aspects of their personality that help achieve goals and overcome challenges. They include skills, innate or acquired abilities, and psychological traits like perseverance or empathy.”
Thinking about this makes you turn inward and be introspective, looking for positive traits, at a time when we’re usually more focused on finding the negative ones.
It’s like trying to gaze into the depths of the ocean while sailing through it. And that feeling creeps in—that maybe your fears, insecurities, or negative traits are stronger.
If you’re doing this writing exercise with me, I invite you to take a pause.
Do you think you have no strengths, or is it just hard to illuminate them now that you’re being asked?
It’s an interesting question. I’d say one of my greatest strengths is sensitivity. I think I mentioned this in a previous blog entry—that I consider myself sensitive. And I saw that sensitivity as a strength. Throughout my life, I’ve met many people who think negatively of it. Who feel it’s unnecessary or excessive. Who see sensitivity as something to correct. That I should get rid of it, become more ruthless, colder, harsher. Ah… traits I’d never want to have, to be honest.
I understand that the world can be harsh and complicated, but being sensitive today feels like a revolution. And I can speak from experience: being sensitive is, in fact, a strength. It’s a way of living life and seeing the world that I would never give up. Even if, at times, it feels like it shatters my soul.
(Funny note: I feel like my writing style is changing a little, perhaps evolving into the use of more complex words. Oh well…)
Sensitivity is one of my most cherished strengths. It lets me see and feel the flame of a candle as it burns. Notice the beautiful gestures of my friends and loved ones, even when they don’t realize they’re doing them. Appreciate a butterfly flying by while I’m out running errands. Find joy in a puppy walking down the street or the colors and shapes of clouds on a gloomy day.
It lets me enjoy a drink while studying, immersed in the moment—not fearing grades or the learning process—but rather loving the calm beauty of it all.
Sensitivity helps me notice when a friend is sad, so I can offer support. It helps me sense when I’m not welcome somewhere, or how others treat me. I can tell whether the cashier at the supermarket smiles at me or not. Whether my "good mornings" were answered. Or if I need a hot shower when I’m feeling down.
I love my sensitivity. My delicacy. My “dramatic” side, if some would call it that. I don’t mind embracing that trait lovingly, just as I embrace my joy.
And I say it, write it, and think it with pride.
Anyone asking me to stop being sensitive is asking me to step into a cage built for their comfort, while my radiant emotional energy can’t be contained or changed—only understood and managed.
Now that I’ve let those words fly out like a dragon breathing fire, I can keep thinking about other strengths I hold. Wow! Could the goal of this challenge be to feel proud of yourself? If so, I feel better now that I’ve written this.
I can’t speak about strengths without writing about my creativity. That virtue that walks hand in hand with sensitivity, and lets me imagine beyond, find joy in having ideas about myself, about the world, about seeing with different eyes than I normally do.
It frustrates me when people say they lack creativity. I’ve heard it so often—and I strongly disagree. We are all creative in our own way. The problem is we have things holding us back. If conformity is a cage, then creativity is the lion that would never stay in, no matter how beautifully that cage is decorated.
Imagining, experimenting, dreaming, designing—these are things I love to do every day. I’m always walking around with my head in the clouds. Always thinking of new projects, trying new things, and learning so I can bring to life the things that only exist in my mind.
For example, I’m an artist. Yes, but I also enjoy learning about programming, technology, electronics, and robotics. Why? Because they offer tools and solutions to things I couldn’t achieve with just a painting. Where I find limitations in one area, I move to another and keep going. It doesn’t make me any less of one or the other. I’m still me—an artist and a creative.
And if I had to add one more strength to the pack, I couldn’t leave out my curiosity. I’m curious by nature. I love to learn, explore, understand. My attention is always caught by different things I like, and sometimes certain words or concepts ignite a spark I can’t put out. I have to learn about something, discover that delicious and mysterious enigma.
One example is my love for herbalism. I like learning about plants, animals, the stars, technology, video games, magic, the occult, meditation, neuroscience, psychology, and society. I love learning about all the things I don’t yet know. I love collecting books that may give me answers someday, or inspiration through illustrations. I love appreciating the photographs my friends take, seeing the beauty in their daily lives—be it a good meal or flowers spotted during a walk. I enjoy creating drawings and, lately, writing about everything I find fascinating, or the thoughts that constantly spin around in my head. All guided by simple questions:
“How does this work?”
“What would it feel like to start a blog?”
“What if I write about this?”
That’s why I’m always shifting projects, aesthetics, and more. I always describe myself as a shapeshifter. Yesterday I was a charismatic demon who loved magic and rituals, today I’m a shark swimming over coral reefs finding the most beautiful pearls, and tomorrow—who knows? A starseed, a sorcerer in a tower, a chattering ball of energy, etc. But what matters is that within my curiosity, sensitivity, and creativity, I am happy.
I’m truly happy being who I am—with these and probably many more strengths.
It took me years to accept and say these things with confidence, so I hope that when you read this, you find your own strengths. You have so much to be proud of!
With that said, I’ll say goodbye for now. Until tomorrow. And as always, thank you for reading, commenting, and sharing this blog that’s growing more than I ever expected!
✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: :･ﾟ✧:･ﾟ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: *:･ﾟ✧
Thank you for reading till here… 💜
Hello Jaden, yes I understand the struggle, where every meaningful move you do takes energy, requires effort. That's something I struggle even now, sometimes I just start my day off the plan and suddenly I dont have energy to continue, to create, which creates my vulnerability, the state where I am stuck in one place unable to move forward and fearing to move backwards.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's when my first, most important strength comes on - adaptability. Whatever stumps me, I seek the solution, and then implement it in my life. But that would've been nothing if my goal was a comforting life. But no, my goal is something very big, huge even, a herculean task that I will not know outcome of even after my death (it alright).
Because of my goal in life, I believe my adaptability is a hidden gold perk. Because all of my strengths (except one) come from this.
The exception is my empathy, as in "i can feel the emotions you feel" kinda thing. That's something I was born with, and it gave me a bit of a pain, a bit of a happiness. But that's something I didnt consider at all (I lived quite a long time with dulled feelings from my addiction so I didnt really had a chance to use my empathy). So now, since I am getting out of my cave to see new people, I have a chance to use this dormant power of mine, to create good in the world.
I really admire your shapeshifter approach to being creative, that's something I should consider myself, since my approach is (i guess an opposite, but at the same time kinda same) structurization. My creative process is akin to building a brick house. You need to lay a foundation, and then build brick by brick. But at the same time you can swap bricks, or build not a house but a non-eucledian structure, minecraft mob farm, anything you want, but still the bricks and foundation are there.
That process of mine comes from adapting to my unreal standards that I set up for myself. Those standards gave me so much pain, almost drowned me one time, but without them I feel like I would loose a part of my identity, so I decided to work around them, and one day I would produce creations which I will be fully proud of. I believe it is the undeniable Truth (like one math teacher would say).