Results – my biggest flaws are
Last week I published a poll, calling out to people to tell me, anonymously, what is my biggest flaw.
My reasons for doing this were that I wanted to get to know myself better, and try and improve. Allowing people the space to speak out honestly, and only asking about my flaws, gave them a safe space to speak their mind.
- You tend to act before you think things through
- Very naive
- Take yourself rather seriously
I would like to say thank you to the three individuals who agreed to give me feedback. I appreciate it a lot.
Even though I had asked for this feedback … hearing criticism is rather difficult. My natural instinct is to try and defend myself in my head, and “explain to these people why they’re wrong”. It’s amazing how much we humans need to be loved and appreciated by others, which is why hearing anything negative about ourselves is so difficult to hear. Still I believe truth is the only way to grow.
I can’t leave this post without a retort to each of these individuals. I’m trying not to be defensive here, but rather just speak my mind:
- True. I do act before I think. Thank you for pointing this out. As you said, it is also an upside, but I can try and maintain the positive influence of this trait while minimizing the downsides… try to adjust my “action parameters” and recognize when something is sensitive and deserves more thought and not straight out action.
- True, I am very naive. I like it this way! I prefer to be naive than cynical. I might get screwed or make blunders because of it once in a while … but for me, the upside in being naive is too great to pass up.
- And finally yes, I tend to take myself too seriously sometimes. Don’t we all? Luckily I complement this with not taking myself seriously at all at other times 🙂
Now I’ll finish with a call to the reader – what do you think of this experiment? Would you be interested in doing such an experiment on yourself, and get some honest to God feedback from your friends?
Always be growing,
Ron
