Dead flys are a sure sign

I have been working on my goals for the year and it is always a good time to reflect upon my own weaknesses and strengths. I want to improve upon my weaknesses and make my strengths even stronger. It has been my experience that many people do not know their weaknesses. Indeed I have never once fired anyone who thought they deserved to be fired, largely because they did not acknowledge that their behavior was anything but stellar. In their mind it was me, their direct supervisor, or the company at fault and not them. Almost to a person, they left the company angry with me, their supervisor, and/or the company and oblivious to the fact that it was their own poor behavior that caused them to lose their job. This ensures that they will not grow from the experience and future problems will almost be assured.

Unfortunately most folks do not perceive themselves in the same light as others perceive them, largely because they do not give it any serious thought. Recently both my sons and I took a DISC profile. This test only has a few questions on it and takes less than ten minutes to conduct, but it is truly amazing as to how accurate it was in determining our personalities. We are going to start using it more in our company to help us in dealing with employees and customers. I was surprised as to how quickly everyone including my youngest son, (who often is rather argumentative), accepted the results. I suppose the psychoanalysis identifying the makeup of our personality provided by a test is less apt to be taken personally, than perhaps similar analysis offered to someone by a parent or maybe a supervisor.

Regardless of how we identify our weaknesses we should earnestly try to accomplish this task as it is near impossible to correct a problem until it has been first identified, and therefore we should expend some serious effort in this area. What better time than the holiday break to do this? Careful and honest introspection in our lives could prove valuable. Each year I identify at least one major flaw or weak point in my being and I attack it with a vengeance throughout the ensuing year in an effort to turn it around. This year is no different and I have identified the problem(s) for this year and am working towards developing a plan of action to turn the situation around.

Just like having bad breath, we should not want to see a fly drop dead because it had the misfortune of flying by our mouth and thereby got a whiff and suddenly dropped dead. Don’t be the last to know or wait until a fly dies to identify the problem. We cannot stick our heads in the sand and try to pretend that we are sane and the entire world has gone mad. Get out in front of your problems by candidly identifying weaknesses. Be honest and if we are lucky enough to know someone who could assist with this without damaging our precious ego, we should be thankful and for sure take advantage of it. In this regard who better than God’s Holy Spirit to direct us in this endeavor? God knows our heart, soul, mind, and entire being. He knows our weaknesses and our strong points. There is no secret hidden from Him. We should ask Him in intense prayer to help identify things to us that need to be corrected in our lives and then ask Him to help us to defeat the bad and increase the good.

John 14:26
…He will teach you all things…