I get why people rationalize away or hide their weakness from themselves (I used to be an expert at it) but pride be damned—I love identifying/addressing personal weakness. To me, it’s an obvious target in my quest to make myself a little more capable, and my life a little more harmonious.
Dirty Sci-Fi Buddha 
Objectivity is extremely hard.
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This is true. We are our own worst enemies when we cannot be honest with ourselves. Thanks for reminding!
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No problem! 🙂
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And if that/those weakness are utterly crippling? I’d rather keep those tied up in the basement.
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I’d say it’s a judgment call, depending on what it is (I have no desire to condition myself with being okay with being coated in insects). I was listening to a psychologist talk about the mechanism for overcoming phobias, and it involves graduated exposure therapy, which is clinically documented as very effective. Someone who had panic attacks in elevators decided she was sick of it, so her therapist devised a program where she accustomed herself to just looking at pictures of elevators at first, then looking at them in person, etc. etc. until she could be okay in an elevator. Apparently, the fear doesn’t necessarily go away, but a person does get braver and more capable.
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I would say that it’s not all about overcoming a weakness… not at first, anyway. To me, it’s more about acknowledging the weakness and accepting it. Acceptance is a very powerful thing when dealing with yourself. Accepting a weakness or fear relieves a lot of pressure from your psyche. Acceptance is not necessarily a solution to be sure, but it makes dealing with it much easier.
The next step is where DSFB is right. Overcoming a weakness is a very fulfilling quest anyone can undertake. Overcoming a weakness is one of the biggest hurdles anyone will ever have to jump. But it is a good thing to work at overcoming your weaknesses when and where you can.
I would also say, though, that some weaknesses can’t be overcome by some people. I guess “can’t” is a strong word, but some folks are simply not built to overcome certain things – not without significant help, anyway. We all have our limitations. That is where acceptance can really help.
Just don’t mistake acceptance for complacence. If you can overcome a weakness, you probably should 🙂
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Not to be contrarian, but I would argue that acceptance is an ESSENTIAL part of overcoming weakness, then comes the part where we use our creativity, discipline, and any free will we might have to navigate through or around that shortcoming.
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