Just give up. Give up trying to be well-rounded because you were never meant to be so… One thing I love to do is to take people through a process where they can discover how they are wired – how God has designed them. Just recently I got to do this through a new process at The Crossing where I serve as a pastor and that part of the process – where people learned how they are wired – was their favorite part.
The same kind of feedback came when my wife and I, along with our awesome team, took HS students through the same process a few years ago when I served as a student pastor. They loved getting to know how God had wired them uniquely and has gifted them to serve Him in their lives. The process is a simple one: we go through some various assessments with the participants and help them understand their results. The process is simple, but the fundamental idea goes straight against the popular opinion that you should strive to be a well-rounded person.
You Can Give Up Trying to Be Well-Rounded
Think about this: when you were in school and you brought your report card home, what classes were focused on when your parents observed your grades? If you’re not my wife, you probably had a couple grades that weren’t A’s, right? And guess which subjects were of prime focus for your parents… The grades that weren’t so good.
During my freshman year of HS I took an honors biology class. Why? Because I’m an idiot and an over-achiever! Let’s just say that I struggled through that class and if it weren’t for the Senior in that class – who I constantly flirted with – helping me with the in-class work, I would have totally bombed it. I wasn’t going to be a doctor. That became clear that year. Ugh, right?!
Math, though, was a different story. I was good at it. In one math class in HS, I slept through the teaching portion, woke up during the time to do the class work, and completed it before leaving class with no homework and I dominated the tests. I was a bit better at math than I was at biology. That’s part of the reason I majored in Computer Science for a year before going down a path that led me to here.
Anyway, enough about me.
Here are your options: (a) follow popular opinion and try to improve on your weaknesses at the expense of developing your strengths, or (b) see that God has designed you to excel at some things and not so much at others, be okay with it, and maximize your strengths while managing your weaknesses.
4 Things Happen When You Maximize Your Strengths, Gifts, & Personality
In addition to having certain strengths, God has gifted you with certain gifts from His Spirit, as well as wired you with a unique personality that thrives in some situations and doesn’t in others. Understanding how you’re wired and maximizing that wiring will make all the difference in your career, service, and relationships.
1. You’ll Know What You Should Do and What You Shouldn’t
This is talked about a lot in books and articles on leadership, but not a ton in the context of everyone, whether they want to be a leader or not. When you know what you’re good at, how you’re wired, and how God has gifted you uniquely to serve Him, you’ll know that there are certain things that you have no business doing.
Some people shouldn’t be accountants. They must manage their own finances, but they have no business managing someone else’s.
Some people shouldn’t be counselors. They don’t listen well, they are more apt to say get over it, quote some Bible verses, and move on.
Some people should lead teams. They are wired to, they are gifted to, and they are meant to.
You get the idea.
2. You’ll Know Where You Add the Most Value
It’s an absolute beautiful thing when someone is in their sweet spot – the place where their strengths, gifts, personality, and passions come together. They are energized by the very fact that they are doing what they were meant to do. Great organizations put people in the place they are wired for, not just where there are holes to fill.
When you’re aware of these things in yourself, you’ll be able to articulate them clearly to others.
It’s likely that many people who are trying to be well-rounded have never discovered how they are wired and what results is they are stuck in a rut in their career. They are stuck because they didn’t take how they are wired into consideration when choosing their job or career. [shareable]It’s likely that many people who are trying to be well-rounded have never discovered how they are wired.[/shareable]
3. You’ll Do Better Work
If you want to do the best work you can possibly do, then begin to develop your strengths and gifts. You’ll find that when you are working in the place of your design, you’ll do the best work you’ve ever done.
It could be that you’re not doing great work because you’re not doing the kind of work you were designed to do.
4. You’ll Give Up Trying to Be Well-Rounded (You’ll Give Yourself a Break)
Let me be clear: giving up being well-rounded does not mean that you are giving up in areas of sin in your life. That is something completely different. In every moment we should be giving ourselves to God’s sanctifying work that happens through His Spirit molding us, pruning us, and shaping us.
Instead, you’ll give up trying to be good at the things you were never meant to be good at. You’ll give yourself a break and stop being so stressed that you’re not more like so and so. You’ll begin to see that God has uniquely gifted and wired you to be you.
All This to God
What’s the point of the call to give up trying to be well-rounded? The point is to live your life in a way that is sustainable for the glory of God. If you burn out from serving God, you’ll find it hard to get back to serving Him. And if you’re serving in the area of your strengths and giftedness with your personality in mind, you’ll find that you are in the place you were meant to be. And when that happens, it’s a beautiful thing. You’ll know it.
Maximize and develop your strengths and gifts with your personality in mind. Manage your weaknesses. Give up trying to be well-rounded.
Give everything to God. It’s all for Him – not your fulfillment.[shareable]Give everything to God. It’s all for Him – not your fulfillment.[/shareable]
Chew on that last part.
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