What's your biggest weakness?

[Telos]

I've been looking at popular questions employers give for job interviews and this one hit me. I've been asked it before in other job interview and I wasn't prepared for it... I said something really cheesy that probably wasn't honest.

But the recognition of our greatest weakness can help us. We see, fix some of it, then go on to our next greatest weakness, fix some of that, and so on. So I ask this question in the hopes that it may help you (and perhaps prepare you for a job interview, if you are in the market).


It occurred to me this morning, as I was waking up, that my biggest weakness is my tendency to go after things that are impossible by our present standards. The number of examples I can think of is shocking. But what's even more shocking is their effect on my life, particularly when I don't succeed. I'm sure I needn't elaborate for you to understand.

But perhaps I can change this by taking these impossible things and breaking them down into possible chunks. You see, before when I thought "anything is possible," I thought it's possible to do anything in a day and anything in a second, without supposedly "required" inputs. So I rejected chunk thinking. Don't blow me chunks and say anything is possible. Of course anything is possible given enough chunks!

So in other words I have neglected the supposed magic of chunks. God I hate saying it like that, but I'd hate saying it any other way...


What about you guys?

[mactombs]

My greatest weakness is my omnipotence.

Seriously, though, I'd have to say birds are a weakness. Why, right now there's a flock of them out my window trying to divert me from writing this response. They're so neat. Sometimes I wonder if I'm going to be watching them while driving or some other activity that requires attention and get myself killed ...

I don't think either of those first two count as what you mean by greatest weakness (nor an interviewer for jobs). So I'd have to say my greatest weakness is my lack of organization. If I was more organized then I would stop jumping from one thing to another, I would know what bit I need to get done today, I would know the state of my finances better - in short, I could maximize my strengths and minimize my weaknesses.

[Telos]

PS tell pandora to stop opening things

Apparently she only needed to do it once.

Thank you for the responses so far. Very thoughtful.

[.Rachel.]

My greatest weakness is probably one of two, one being,  ignoring something that has happened, almost denial, but I'm overcoming this by facing things head on. So now the my greatest weakness is probably laziness, but only for things i don't like.

[mactombs]

I've been thinking about this some more, and I've thought of some more things. (Wouldn't it be cool to call a place you interviewed at a week later, "Hey, I'm just calling back because I thought of some more weaknesses.")

Anyway, I think this one goes for a lot of people, but a big weakness is the opposite sex. Not directly the opposite sex, but indirectly: how it filters through social rules and inhibitions; games; customs; religious ideology; exploitation by consumerism; expectations; popular ideology, and so forth. Horrible topic in its breadth and massive impact on this earth system. Wreaks havoc.

hope is both our greatest delusion. and pure absolute blind faith

I really relate to this one, too. I have no idea how to view hope. I've been stung by it far more than rewarded ...

[Telos]

It's interesting you mention that, mactombs. Although I agree, I can't help but think the opposite sex should be one of our strengths.

I guess every weakness has an undercurrent of strength?

Even laziness can at times be a sign that you protesting an action that does not serve you or others. Like school. So much of schooling prevents real learning - and thus serves no one. And denial can be useful when you must be distracted...

[joya250]

hmmm... my greatest weakness would be self-indulgence, which translates sometimes into lack of will power.  Another way of saying this, may be "knowing better than I do"...

[Dasha]

My greatest weakness is grudge-holding. If someone has wronged me I will dwell on whatever they're done to anger me and think about how I will exact my revenge for a very long time, even long after they've forgotten about the incident. I know this hurts me more than them, but I have yet to keep myself from doing this.

[knightlight]

Great posts so far.  I would have to say my greatest weakness is very complicated and I will try to explain it.

Its not so much a single attribute or anything.  It is a combination of holding myself back and the predictability of the outcome.

I hold myself back where in the past I have had bad experiences.  Since none of you know me I guess I could share a recent real life example to clarify and use you all for therapy all at the same time!!!! (this is fun!     ) In the past I have had wretched experiences with the opposite sex.  I have been used horrifically and broken.  I have been single for 5 years and people think I have issues with my sexual identity or I am an android or something, but really i am just holding myself back because it is easier for me to just forget about it all.  I could put myself out there, let it all go and share the love, or I could simply stay in my shell, stay alone and avoid hurting myself or hurting anyone else as bad as I have been hurt in the past.  This is bad enough, but that is one half of a two part killer combination.

Now the predictability of the outcome.  I work in a restaurant and I see couples everyday and have hours upon hours of in depth observational data on how relationships work.  On top of this everything in life is transient.  I look at the situation I am in now where I have FINALLY met someone much like myself that I can relate to and care about, someone I look at and think "shes the one, shes the one ive been waiting all this time for", things are progressing well.  Most people would look at what I am experiencing and shoot me dead for holding myself back.  I look at the situation and it makes me  hate myself.  All I can think about is the stuff that will happen after the first stages of getting to know each other and the whitty banter stops.  People get used to each other.  People get bored.  It will end.  Call me crazy (which I probably am by medical definition, sociopath would be my guess) but in the end I don't see the purpose in hurting myself or others over something so fleeting and ephemeral.

This combination of holding myself back and what appears to be an underlying subtle pointlessness to just about everything in life is my greatest bane.  It is something I fear I can never escape, but who knows!  Wish me luck with this situation if you will, maybe I can finally break the cycle.  Thanks for listening.

[Hannah b]

knightlight,
I'll cheer U up...I ve held myself back for almost 5 years too...mainly for the same reasons as you...but I also wanted to find out what I really want from life. Now that the "quiet time" is over, I look back and don't regret a minute of it, because I got SO much out of it..and thanks to those years spend alone I know now what I want, what I need and most importantly I know how to get it all in a blink of an eye...  

so...is it only the 2 of us on the forum???

all the best

[knightlight]

I agree that my time spent alone has matured me and allowed me to grow greatly due to my focus being entirely on whatever purpose I am applying it to.  That I guess is the x factor in my recent problems due to the fact that I am so comfortable in my current situation, I am productive and progressive.  My life is full without adding a relationship!!!  I dont have enough hours in a day to begin with.  Thanks for the reply.  A little support goes a long way!  

[labouts]

Sadly my biggest weakness is obsession with the astral  

[Namra]

My biggest weakness is my inability to move on so far.  I seem to have hit a roadblock.  I was doing very well and moving along good in the world and now suddenly everything seems to be going downhill for me.  That is why I am here on this website right now.  I want to learn and be able to restore the order in my life that I know should exist.

If anyone has some good quick (or not so quick) suggestions please let me know.  I know that things are not right for me right now and that something else should be entirely happening in my life.  Has anyone else known that things were out of order in their life and was positive that was not the way it is supposed to be?

[ap]

Procrastination has always been my biggest weakness.  This is really weird considering that I am a fairly organized person.  Then I take a look at my daily schedule, usually a mental schedule and find that I have placed the things that are really important to me at the end of the list instead of at the beginning or at least the middle.  I am working on breaking out of this rigid type of thinking that I was raised with and since I am currently living alone now, I am more or less free to do that.  I really feel the need to place more of an emphasis on my practice sessions right now and I have been doing that and getting some good results.  The heck with everything else!     Just kidding.

[Telos]

My biggest weakness is my inability to move on so far

Namra, isn't that the result of a weakness, though? All weaknesses prevent people from moving on in some way.

[Namra]

Not the result of weakness Telos, not that I can tell, but I believe the result of surrounding forces.

Perhaps, you are right, Telos, however, and maybe I am afraid to move forward, or now lack the physical ambition to move forward into the future.  I know that I don't lack the mental ambition.

[Telos]

Oh, shoot, I forgot to point this out. I'm sure now I seem confusing. There's a "strategic" distinction that should be made regarding weaknesses.

Weaknesses are internal. They are in your body, behavior, ability, or your general sphere of influence. When a danger is outside of your sphere of influence, it is a threat.

So, mactombs, the opposite sex would be a threat. A weakness would be not being suave or not having especially good looks or something.

I was also wrong when I said they should be our greatest strength. A strength is also internal. Being suave is a strength. When it is external it's an opportunity. So, a pretty girl smiling at you and sitting alone across the room is an opportunity.

But say you are married to this girl. Then her smile is no longer an opportunity per se but a strength, since she and you are close partners united for the time being.

So, recap. Strengths and Weaknesses are internal while Opportunities and Threats are external.

Analyzing these four together is called a "SWOT analysis" and is another pointless something they teach you in business school. It's semantic. We are already intuitively aware of what things are internal and external, so it's not a "lesson" as much as it is a separation of ideas and a reduction of what you already know. I may have harmed you in telling it. But I thought I'd tell you just in case it helps.

[Heather B.]

My greatest weakness right now is being fixated on the past, desperately trying to avoid turning to the next, blank page in order to start writing a new chapter.  If you've ever dealt with writer's block, you probably know what it feels like... Oh my God, what do I write now?!  Where do I go from here?!  I tend to view living as writing a story... except now I've lost the thread of the plot and don't know what comes next.

Work-wise, I'd say... it's hard for me to get motivated sometimes.  In other words, I'm lazy!

Good luck to all in your relationships.  There's nothing at all wrong with taking it slowly and a bit cautiously.  That's the way mature, rock-solid relationships are built.  I honestly think that so many marriages go wrong, because people rush it.  They try to form a bond with someone else before they even know themselves.  I have learned that evaluating relationships takes a good while, and it takes a balancing act sometimes--between not getting discouraged if things get stormy, and on the other hand, not clinging to a relationship that is sinking fast.  I made the latter mistake once, and it was bad.

But then, Patrick and I were together for almost 2 years, and believe me, things were stormy sometimes.  We had our differences, and we both had our rough edges and sharp corners.  But nothing could ever break us up.  There was a magnetism between us.  And over time, the rough edges and sharp corners began to smooth away as we rubbed off on each other.  We never became the same shape, but we came to fit together better, to become better complements to one another.  There's no doubt in my mind that we would have stayed together for life, even if we both made it to 100!

SWOT analysis, UGH.  Reminds me of my one management class I took in library school... the only class I didn't care for.  I could never be a manager!