When planning for personal growth and development, the self improvement planner will want to consider assets already at hand. The six assets important to a personal growth plan are Life Purpose, Passions, Unique Strengths, Lesser Competencies, Values, and Beliefs.
The personal growth planner may wish to begin with an overall review of the personal asset inventory process. The first three assets to inventory, Life Purpose, Passions, and Strengths have been described in previous articles which can be accessed from Personal Growth Plan: A Personal Asset Inventory.
Six Personal Assets
The six assets important to a personal growth plan are Life Purpose, Passions, Unique Strengths, Lesser Competencies, Values, and Beliefs. Gaining a clear understanding of one's current personal assets when beginning personal growth planning provides an effective starting point for a strong plan for self improvement.
Personal Weaknesses
Lesser Competencies, the fourth asset to inventory, is at the opposite end of the spectrum from unique strengths. Lesser Competencies, often called weaknesses, are those activities at which a person struggles. If necessary to use a lesser competency, a person lacks energy and enthusiasm, becomes easily frustrated and distracted, and generally produces below average productivity and quality.
Though psychologists recommend against spending time and energy to improve Lesser Competencies, inventorying provides the awareness necessary to minimize dependence on them.
Impact of Focus on Weaknesses
Psychologists know that humans have a natural bias toward the negative. Though a negative bias was useful to survival and enabled early humans to anticipate dangers in their environment, it can become a hindrance to personal growth and development. Cultural and corporate practices tend to emphasize identification and correction of personal weaknesses from the mistaken notion that every weakness can be improved.
Psychological research studies show that undue emphasis on improving weaknesses is counterproductive. People are most productive, creative, and happiest when utilizing their strengths. The time and energy focused instead on weaknesses detracts from this creativity, productivity, and happiness. The result of increased emphasis to improve a weakness is likely to result in only marginal improvement.
What to Do About Weaknesses
Calling weaknesses lesser competencies is more than a spin on words. It positions these abilities in a positive vein while acknowledging they fall at the bottom of the competency hierarchy. Inventorying lesser abilities provides awareness and helps the personal growth planner develop strategies to minimize dependence on them.
How to Minimize Dependence on Lesser Abilities
To minimize dependence on lesser competencies look for ways to minimize the need to use them. This may be accomplished by delegating, bartering, or restructuring responsibilities.
When to Work to Improve
There is one circumstance when a personal growth plan will include improvement of a lesser competency. That is when one's roles and responsibilities require extensive use of this ability. In this situation it makes sense to devote some time and energy to sufficient improvement efforts to bring this ability up to an acceptable level.
For more on the process of inventorying personal assets see Personal Growth Plan: A Personal Asset Inventory
