Tips to Convert your Freelance Weaknesses into Strengths

“Our strength grows out of our weaknesses,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson. Well, Emerson happens to be one of my favourite writers and I also love his words like the ones I quoted above. But whether he is my fave or not, the adage above sure is right and perfectly suits to the topic we are currently digging in. Strengths are actually driven from weakness, which is why converting weaknesses into strengths is not a hard thing. It is not impossible and not as difficult as one may think it is. So, let us now look into how you can convert your strength into weakness. As a freelancer, you will surely get tons of benefits from this.

Defining strengths and weakness

Each and every one of us has its own strength and weakness. When we speak of strength, it refers to one aspect of a person that gives him the capacity for exertion or endurance intellectually, physically and other aspects. The strengths that a person possesses can help him to acquire quality results for his actions and activities. On the other hand, weakness is the opposite of strength. It means a lack of strength, a character flaw or a weak point of a person. There are times that these weaknesses hinder one success towards something he is aiming for. For instance, a person is intelligent which helps him do his tasks efficiently but he is short-tempered and quick to anger. His strength is his intelligence while his weakness is his being short-tempered and quick to anger.

Most of us know what our strengths and weaknesses are. With that, you will find it easier to control yourself and to improve yourself in order to become a better person by converting your weaknesses into strengths. Many people find it hard to do that while others find it unnecessary to do it. In this articles, we will not just give you tips on you can convert your weakness into strength but we will also give you reasons why you have to do it. Check on the tips on how you can start converting your negative points into a positive one.

How to Convert Weakness into Strengths

1. Identify your weakness.

First thing you need to do of course is to identify what your weaknesses are. Doing so will help you determine how you can turn them into a strength. Sometimes, it is hard for you to determine your own weaknesses. You can ask your friends or other people who are close to you. They can tell you what your weaknesses are. But of course, it is still better if you could tell that by yourself.

2. Asses yourself.

Look into yourself. Check yourself. What are your strong points? These refer to some tasks that you are good at. What are your weak points? This refers to some aspects where you think you haven’t mastered or some tasks where you need more practice. Doing this, you will be able to determine both your strengths and weaknesses.

3. Determine what you need to develop.

Ask yourself regarding what you really need. It could be something for yourself or for your career. Like if your weak point in freelancing is you are impatient to get clients, then try to be more patient. If your strong point is being able to deal with different types of clients really well, then good for you. You do not need to stick on where you are good at. Instead, check on what you need to develop and focus on that at the moment. By the time you are okay with it, check on another point you need to develop until you are good at it. Doing it little by little will sharpen your skills and make you a better designer.

4. Look for support.

If you think you cannot improve yourself alone or you cannot convert your own weakness into strength, then it is time to ask for support. Get advice from friends. Let them know what you need and how they can help you. They can even find better ways to help you especially if your weakness is their strength. When looking for support, make sure that you are asking for it from the right person. There are people in your freelance network that can aid you for this. Check out the Ultimate Networking Guide for Freelancers, a three part series about networking.

5. Correct your weakness.

Some weaknesses only turn into a weakness just because it is done wrongly. Of course, to turn it into strength, you have to correct it or you have to find ways in order to make it right. Do not be afraid to correct yourself because it is much better to find the right way than merely sticking to the wrong one. You also need to accept that there are really things where you are still ignorant about. Being open minded and accepting errors can make you a better person.

6. Seek for inspiration.

It would be helpful on your part if you seek for people or situations that could help you convert your weakness into strengths. There are people who can inspire you to improve who have shared their own experiences on how they succeeded on something despite of some weaknesses. Some people, who make use of their weakness in a positive way, have actually turned it into strength.

7. Look at the brighter side of things.

In whatever situation, it would always be helpful to look at the brighter side. Doing this will help you to have a better outlook in life and in every situation you are in. If we speak of your weakness, assess it and check on the good parts of it. It doesn’t mean that just because it is a weakness, it would be nothing but merely negatives. You are wrong about that. Look at the good part of your weakness so you can turn it into strengths.

8. Go for where you are comfortable.

Do not insist on something you really cannot do. Look for your happy place where you can work comfortably. If you insist on doing something even if you really can’t do it, you will be merely wasting time. Instead, determine what you really want to do and how you can do it. Like in freelancing, you can choose whether to work with a certain freelance team who can help you look for jobs or you can just do it on your own. If your weakness is working with a team, you can stick with working alone if you know you can succeed better that way. Doing this is like turning your weakness into strength.

9. Try better ways.

If you cannot do something in the manner that you are currently doing, try another way. Do not just stick on one thing since there are always better ways that would suit you. Like if you are not good in offline networking, why not try online networking? You might do better in that. Choose those that would make things easier for you but make sure that you will end up with a good output all the time.

10. Be happy and satisfied.

Instead of complaining about your weaknesses, why don’t you just be happy and satisfied of what you can get and what you can do? That is the secret of most people who succeed. They do not dwell much on their weakness. They look at it positively and just be happy. If you have this kind of attitude, you will be surprised that you have actually converted a certain weakness into strength without much effort.

What You Can Get From the Conversion

You might ask why you need to convert your weakness when you are just fine with it. Well, some people do not really mind their weakness not knowing that it can actually affect their entire lives including the decisions they make and the activities they do. That is why, converting them into strengths can have a great impact to one’s way of living and to one’s travel to the road of success. Wanna know what you can get from the conversion? Here are a few of them:

1. Become a better person.

We are not saying that you are not a good person now. Only that you will become a better person if you improve yourself. You will observe that as you took a detour in converting your weakness into strength, some things will change in you. In totality, you will become a better person since you are able to look at things more positively now and you are also better in whatever things you do.

2. More confident.

I came across a quote that says, “our weakness is one of our greatest excuses”. This is indeed true. Some people would not do some tasks or would turn down big opportunities because they are thinking of their own weaknesses. Instead of using it as an excuse, why not accept challenges and try to look for the brighter side of your weakness? This way, you will become more confident in what you do. You will not have doubts in yourself which results in better outputs. Read Benefits Freelancers Can Get from Having Self-Confidence.

3. Accomplish more.

With your weakness buried down, you are now a person who is confident of yourself knowing that you can do anything as long as you believe and as long as you try. If you have this kind of mind set, you will be able to work better. Working better means being able to give quality outputs and being able to accomplish a lot more valuable stuff.

4. You can stand out.

Everyone wants to shine from the rest of the crowd. You can do that, too. If you have uplifted your confidence and have realized your self-worth, you will be able to do a lot better. You can even stand out from the rest even without noticing it.

5. Develop more skills.

If you are able to convert your weakness into strength, you will also be able to develop more skills. There are weaknesses linked to a certain skill and hinders you to learn it. So, if you have realized that you can actually step on your weakness, you will be able to acquire the skills you need. You might even be able to learn more than what you yearn.

6. Give more self-worth.

Once you have gained victory over your weakness, you will elevate your self-worth. Since you are already more positive about everything in life, you will look at yourself with greater value. How much more if you have already acquired more skills or you have already developed yourself into the kind of person you want to be. Self-worth is important because without this, you will merely be tying yourself to the same spot and you will not aim to reach higher than where you are at the moment. This can also lead to self-confidence and self-care.

7. Reach out to others.

When you have learned your own value, it will be easier to reach out to other people. If your weakness is about your social and interpersonal skills, you need to get over that little by little. Get out of your nutshell. Meet new people and introduce yourself. After this, you will realize that dealing with other people is not hard at all! You will be able to increase your network by reaching out to others.

8. Excel in your field.

Since you will be able to develop more skills and you can do better work now, there is a greater chance for you to excel in your field. Well, everyone wants to excel and you can only do that if you will work harder and improve in what you are currently doing. Being able to do better in your design career means you have fulfilled your goals and would also bring in more clients. More success is waiting ahead of you.

9. Make full use of potentials.

Do not waste anything. Make sure that you can use every single skill you have. You can only do that if you will not allow your weakness to eat up your goals in life. Fight hard and win over your weakness so you can use it as strength. With that, you do a lot better in your niche.

10. More happy clients.

Wrapping up the above things, you will not be the only happy person here. Even your clients will also feel happy because you will be able to give great outputs. Satisfied clients give a positive impact to your career and would also give you more chances of getting more of them.

It’s Your Turn Now

Great isn’t it? There are a handful of things you will acquire if you successfully convert your weakness into strength. These things make it all worth the time and effort. This will also encourage you to work more in developing new strengths that would make you a better person. We hope that the tips we have given you will help you to turn your weaknesses into a positive thing. Have you tried doing this before? What was your weakness and how did you turn it into your strength?