Are you living your life?

I have been doing some interesting reading about working to our strengths rather than focusing on our weaknesses. How building and developing our strengths will make us more of who we truly are. I am a real expert in self criticism and it is refreshing to be reminded that there are some amazing strengths that I have that I should be making more use of. Problem is, because I do these things well, I take them for granted and really what's there to criticize if I do them well?

I do not do numbers well. I transpose them when I write them, I cannot keep them in my head for longer than I can read them on a page and don't ask me to multiply, divide or add more than 2 in my head without me going into an instant panic. I start to sweat, second guess myself and invariably get the simplest calculation wrong just because my brain goes into a knotted ball of mess. This makes me feel ashamed and embarrassed. So I try really, really hard to get them right and not show how absolutely awful I am at them.

I do words well. I love words. I love to draft a good presentation, choosing my words carefully and delivering them with confidence. I relieve my boredom at long-winded lectures or meetings by writing poems or writing descriptions of the people in the room with me. I know that given enough time and the right plot I can string a story together that will make you weep and laugh and live the story with me. I feel words like I feel emotions. They have a taste on my tongue and a sound in my ears.

So why is it that I waste so much time worrying about not being good with numbers? I don't know many people who care if they don't do words well. They happily say, "I can't spell", or "I don't read" or "I hated English at school - never saw the point".

So enough of that I am going to broadcast what I do well. Here goes:

I do words well, I do communication well, I do people well, I do learning well, I do introspection well, I do containing well, I do creativity well, I do planning well, I do organizing well, I do joining the dots well.

What do you do well?