Royane Real

By Royane Real

I’ve spent a lot of time in my life studying topics like goals, motivation and success.

One thing I’ve noticed is that some people find it very easy to get motivated and stay motivated about achieving their goals.  Once they have set their minds on achieving a goal, they become like a dog with a bone – nothing is going to get in their way.

Then there are people who really wish they could achieve a particular goal, but who don’t ever get around to doing it.   These people find themselves getting easily distracted or discouraged.  Sometimes they don't even get started.

I can relate to these people that have a hard time staying motivated, because I often suffered from the same problem in my life.  

I would easily lose motivation, I lost focus.  I was totally lacking in confidence and perseverance.

I tried over and over again to learn to become more focused.  I read many articles and tried many motivational techniques that are supposed to help people achieve success.

Did these techniques help?  Yes, they did sometimes, for a little while.  Then I would lose focus again.  Lose confidence.  Drift away.

In my case, I suspect that my difficulty in staying motivated had a lot to do with my lifelong problem with depression.  Also anxiety, poor self esteem.  Severe shyness.  And probably a few other things as well.

I knew though, that in spite of these detriments, I also had a lot going for me – a lot of intelligence, curiosity, friendliness, a great way with words.  Artistic talent.  Creativity.

Gradually I came to think that maybe I couldn’t change very much of my flaws.  What I decided to do instead was to focus on using my talents.

Instead of trying to change my flaws, I decided to develop my assets. 

This change in focus has been a huge benefit to me.

Perhaps many other people could also benefit from focusing on their strengths instead of focusing on their flaws.

I thought of many people throughout history that we remember today because they accomplished incredible things.  Their accomplishments are remembered while their flaws are forgotten.

For example, Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most famous and well loved artists today.  Many years after his death, his paintings sell for many millions of dollars.  Yet while he was alive, his work was ignored, he was mentally ill and penniless.  This did not stop him from pursuing his need to express the visions in his mind.

The composer Mozart probably had many personality flaws, yet his music is celestial and will never be forgotten.  He too died penniless.  He did not slow down his musical work so he could first fix his personality flaws.  He stayed with his music because it was the greatest talent that he had.

I’m sure there are many other examples in history and in the world today of people who achieve great things because they choose to concentrate on developing their talents instead of spending time trying to overcome their flaws.

If you’ve been spending a lot of time trying to overcome your so called flaws and bad habits and not getting anywhere, here’s another suggestion.

Instead of worrying about your flaws, focus on developing your talents and strengths.  You’ll enjoy it a lot more, and you’ll probably get a lot farther.

Don’t worry too much about eliminating your bad habits if your time and energy can be put to better use in developing your areas of strength.

After all, your pool of flaws may actually turn out to be a bottomless pit, so focusing on eliminating your flaws may turn out to be an endless task.

At the same time, your pool of talents may turn out to be limitless as well.  Focusing on developing your talents might lead you to the stars.

This article was written by Royane Real, author of  “How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative”

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