5 Personal Weaknesses That I Want To Improve

The creative juices are flowing once again. It feels pretty good to have been hit with a new dose of inspiration over these last few weeks. I’ve been doing what I can to ensure that my start to 2018 is a strong one. For the most part, I’ve been sticking to my word.

So far, I’ve shared some of my personal goals, top travel destinations and reading list for this new year. There are definitely some aspects of my life that I need to make a conscious effort to improve on as well. These are things that I have constantly struggled with throughout the years and while I’ve definitely gotten a better handle on all of them, I still have room for growth.

And that’s OK. We all fall short sometimes. We are imperfect. We are constantly learning. We are a work in progress.

So today, I wanted to dive into these 5 “weaknesses” of mine as I hope that by the end of 2018, they will have become some of my strengths.

Impatience 

“Patience is a virtue.” We all know this saying and it holds so much truth. For as long as I can remember, my parents had to constantly remind me to be patient. In my own ways, I have always tried to rush my life’s timeline.

Last year taught me a tremendous amount of patience and it was actually very humbling. All around me I had friends getting engaged, married, pregnant and becoming homeowners. As happy as I was for every single one of them, I also had moments where I felt sad for myself.

It took awhile, but I began to realize how different my lifestyle and personal journey is from all of theirs. And that just because these things have not happened for me yet, it does not mean that they won’t ever happen.

The same goes for my business. While I have come so far over these last 6 years, I am still not where I want to be at this stage of life. I often forget to remind myself of the success because I focus too much on what I have not yet achieved.

It’s time for me to embrace time, no matter how quickly or slowly it seems to pass me by. I need to appreciate where I am at in my life and have faith that everything will happen exactly when it’s supposed to.

I’ll be thinking a lot about one of my father’s favorite quotes, “Slow and steady wins the race.” No more rushing my timeline.

Indecisiveness 

This is probably one of my most annoying traits. When it comes to certain things, I know exactly what I want (or don’t want) and can easily make a choice. On the flip side, I can also be the most indecisive person that you will ever meet.

It’s frustrating. I hate it.

This was not always an issue for me. In fact, I began to notice its development over the last few years. I literally yell inside my head like, “OMG, just make a decision Natalie!”

I believe my problem is that I tend to overthink, so much to the point where I actually confuse myself and it becomes difficult for me to make a choice. I then rely on the opinions of close friends. There’s too much comfort in that and not enough growth.

It’s great to get someone else’s view on a particular subject, but when we focus too much on the opinions of others, we lose our own perspective.

I have become much more mindful of this recently and have actually caught myself in the process. I’ve been resisting the urge to ask friends what they think and instead figure out what it is that I want. After all, I am the one who has to make the decision!

Procrastination 

Ah, yes. I have dubbed myself the Queen of Procrastination. It’s not something that I am particularly proud of, it’s just a fact. I have been this way literally my entire life. I would type up my writing assignments and complete my homework at the very last minute.

*Note: I’m actually writing this at 5pm today when it should have already been written over the weekend.

I will never forget the 22 page research paper that I had to complete for my communications class my senior year of college. We got the assignment at the beginning of the semester and I waited until the week it was due to complete it. Somehow, I got an A!

I swear I work better under pressure, but that’s not always a good thing. It makes me unorganized and I drive myself crazy in the process.

Once this blog transitioned into my business, I finally saw the downsides of my procrastination. When working on several projects at once with different due dates, I quickly learned that waiting until the last minute was no longer doable.

I need to schedule. I need to be more ahead of the game. I need to plan.

This has always been one of the toughest obstacles for me to overcome. I have definitely made progress, but I’ve still got a lot of work ahead of me.

Balance 

I lost my balance towards the end of last year and in many ways, it made me feel as though I had lost a little bit of myself too. It became extremely difficult for me to give equal time to both my personal life and to my work life.

This is something that I had finally figured out and then all of a sudden, I no longer had it in my grasp. I sat back and watched it slip away. I then felt uninspired and unmotivated.

I have this habit of being all consuming. I completely immerse myself into whatever it is that I have going on and I tend to forget everything else around me. My work will always be top priority, but my personal life needs to be as well.

I am slowly bringing myself back to a place where both can co-exist equally. It’s just a matter of managing my time better (bye procrastination) and making small, yet significant lifestyle changes.

It can be challenging, but I’m determined to find balance once again.

Self-Love 

This is ongoing and it probably always will be. The relationship that I have with myself has strengthened so much over the years. I’m very proud of the progress that I have made.

We all have insecurities and sometimes we don’t feel 100% comfortable in our skin. I have struggled with this ever since grammar school when I wore braces and big glasses. I was seen as a “geek” and often times the other kids made fun of me.

All of the boys had a crush on my sister. They made it known very often that she was the “hot one.” I never really felt pretty back then. Once I entered high school, I got contacts and my braces were removed. That’s when the guys started to take notice of me.

I got my heart broken quite frequently over the years. I’ve been cheated on. I allowed guys to string me along when they never really wanted to commit. It always made me feel like I wasn’t good enough.

Looking back I realize that I allowed this to happen far too often and it’s because I didn’t really know my worth. When my father passed away, it was not just my dad whom I lost. I had also lost the only man who ever truly loved me unconditionally. And that’s when it hit me. I had to work on loving myself. 

Taking the time to build on this relationship has been crucial. My solo travels have helped so much. Creating this business has made a tremendous impact. I moved my goals and dreams back at the top of my priority list and learned to put myself first again – and I don’t mean that in a selfish way. Sometimes though, you have to be a little selfish.

I am in a much better place than I was 7 years ago, but I can still be overly critical and tend to focus on my imperfections more often than I should. Why is it that we are so hard on ourselves?

This year, I really want to be kinder to myself. I want to truly love the skin that I am in. At 34, I can honestly say that the relationship I have with myself is the strongest it’s ever been. I still have ways to go, but I’m embracing this whole self-love journey!

Thanks so much for reading. What’s one personal weakness that you want to improve on this year?

I’ll leave you with this quote I recently came across. I hope it serves as a friendly reminder for anyone in need of an extra dose of self-love.

“You are so used to your features, you don’t know how beautiful you look to a stranger.” ❤️