Nothing like fresh coconut juice!

Lately, I’ve been flooring it past these left-lane abusers and quickly (and safely!) cut in front of them. I’m sure it makes no difference, but it makes me feel better. I’m seriously considering getting some ‘Road Rage‘ signs, like ‘GET OUT OF THE FAST LANE, MORON!’ but I’m also fearful for my safety. That would inevitably lead to some sort of profiling, as I wouldn’t want to bully a senior citizen or a gangsta.

Anyway, LZ Granderson has a great commentary of which this is a part of:

I would much rather have someone pull up beside me, roll down their window and flip me the bird as they go driving by than be trapped behind this vehicular anarchist.

A friend was waiting to hear about the results of a job interview. He hadn’t heard in a while and he asked me, “how long before I should start worrying?”

Of course, the answer is, “you should never start worrying.”

Worrying is not a useful output. Worrying doesn’t change outcomes. Worrying ruins your day. Worrying distracts you from the work at hand. You may have fooled yourself into thinking that it’s useful or unavoidable, but it’s not. Now you’ve got one more thing to worry about.

I’ll be the first to say it, I love road trips. They’re like a national pastime to me. I’m not talking day-trips around Southern California (although, those are great, too), but real road trips. The kind of road trips that require driving shifts; so many stops at 7-Eleven’s that the food groups consist of Combos (grains), beef jerky (protein), milk chocolate (dairy, duh), well, you get the idea. The kind of road trips that cross time zones (the more the better!), road trips that require an oil change by the time you get home.

Vacations to many people are sipping cocktails on the beach in Cabo with not a care in the world. They just want to veg out and be lazy and not have an agenda. That’s great and all, but that’s not a vacation to me. The kind of vacations I grew up on, and the kind I prefer now, are more exhausting than everyday life. I want to try and pack in as much as possible, take in all the sights, get up early, go to bed late. Sleeping in and being lazy are what weekends are for; I can do that at home!

There are some tasks that I am just not at all good at and others areas where I excel. My partner and I complement each other well, in that he is mostly left-brained and is perfect for the accounting side of accounting (yes, that makes sense), whereas I’m left-brained, but also have a lot of right-brain tendencies. Since I am good at formulating words and coming up with ideas, I do the majority of our marketing material and sales calls, as well as the technical writing. My partner is much better at coming up with solutions to accounting issues without getting stuck in the details.  He is quicker to think of things that may take me hours, or at least plenty of trial and error. In short, he is programmed for dealing with numbers in a way I can’t seem to grasp.

The reason I’m even talking about this is simple: our culture teaches us to improve our weaknesses while assuming our strengths will remain strong. My question is, If we’re so often focusing on weakness, is it reasonable to think our strengths will lose some of their punch?

I recently came across an article written by leadership expert and speaker, John Maxwell. He writes about how average people usually do not become extremely successful. People do not pay for average. An average business, career, or life makes no difference to anyone, really. I agree, for the most part, but what really stood out to me is the point of why I’m even writing about this: your strengths are strong for a reason, so stop wasting your time on trying to eradicate your weaknesses. Maxwell puts it this way:

I’d like to tell you something that goes against all of the rules you have ever been taught or have ever believed about weaknesses:  From this moment on, stop working on your weaknesses. Why? Well, it’s very simple. It’s because we are weak in our weaknesses, so stop doing these things that you’re not any good at.

Our education system taught us to work on our weakness. If you got an A in math but a C in English, what did they tell you to work on? That’s right, English. They say, “Get that English grade up.”

I’m here to tell you, don’t work on your English. You ask, “Why shouldn’t I work on my English?” It’s very simple. You have a math mind. It’s not that you’re dumb; it’s just that your math mind is better than your English mind. You’re better at numbers than you are at words. It’s not right or wrong; it’s just who you are. It’s your uniqueness.

It’s something to think about. Try and look for ways in which you can delegate things you consider chores or a waste of time. In terms of leadership, a CEO of a company doesn’t do the majority of things that make a company run. No, the CEO makes sure that people are in place who are the best at what they do, and are doing it.

Companies who have lost focus are those who focus too much on trying to improve their weaknesses, while their competitors exploit that weakness by becoming even stronger in their strengths. This even applies to those of you who aren’t in leadership roles or even work in the business world. We all have a company to run, and it’s called You, Inc. (I stole that from somewhere.)

Borders isn’t even ordering supplies anymore! I guess customer service is moot.

Maybe it’s due to my introverted nature, but I’ve always fancied myself an obervationalist. Most of my writing has been about my life, things that bug me, politics, ramblings about nothing, you name it–and always conversational. I guess I play to my strengths, but at the same time, when I think about making writing a career choice, the more I feel like I need to hone my craft if I want to be successful at it. Of course, that makes sense; any skill or job you want to improve must be invested in.

I remember an author once saying that if you want to be a writer, read as many books, in the genre you want to write in, as possible. That makes sense to me. If I want to be a leader, I should learn from leaders; if I want to be a millionaire, I should spend time with millionaires (Where does one find millionaires, by the way, and how does one convince millionaires to spend time with them?); and, rather crudely, if you want to be healthy, don’t spend the majority of your time with obese folks.

I also seem to recall Stephen King once saying that once you finish your first novel, throw it away. It’s trash. But you need to complete the task to be able to improve and be a better storyteller. That may come as a shock to many; “I’ve spent months writing this book and I’m just supposed to throw it away?” Valid argument, especially since young King threw his manuscript for “Carrie” away, until his wife found it and encouraged him to shop it around. Maybe his advice isn’t as good as I thought it was.

I was browsing the shelves at Barnes & Noble a couple of weeks ago when I came across a title called, “God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours,” by Regina Brett. I’m not sure why I felt stirred to pull it off the shelf, but, as I started to flip through it, the first chapter I stopped on was called, “A Writer Is Someone Who Writes. If You Want to Be a Writer, Write.”

Well, duh? Well, duh. I don’t know if you want to call this random chance or fate, but I think I landed on this book and this chapter for a reason. I needed someone to tell me what it seemed should have been obvious: If I want to be a writer, I need to start writing.

Whether I decide to write a novel, short stories, essays, non-fiction, humor, or many other scores of genres, matters not. That will come to me in time, I just need to put pen to paper, because that’s what a writer does. He writes.