Self Growth
This is the first step in self-growth, requiring you to be honest about the areas where you need to improve.
What is identifying and accepting weaknesses?
Who wrote this Poem?
Douglas Malloch
1 This benefit comes from identifying and addressing weaknesses, leading to a clearer picture of your abilities.
What is Self Awareness?
the ability to understand your own thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and values, and how they impact yourself and others
The practice of viewing weaknesses as opportunities to learn rather than as fixed character traits.
What is cultivating a growth mindset?
The poem uses this literary device, which compares people and trees, to illustrate the theme of growth through struggle.
What is an extended metaphor?
The use of this practice, which involves focused effort on areas you might avoid, drives learning and skill development.
What is Deliberate Practice?
What is a Growth Mindset?
the belief that skills, intelligence, and talent can be developed through dedication, hard work, and persistence, rather than being fixed traits
The use of journaling to look back at past incidents and find what triggers a particular weakness.
What is understanding the root cause?
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a __________
Good timber does not grow with ease
The stronger the wind, the stronger trees.
A weakness, such as being "overly critical," can become an asset in certain professions like this.
What is a critic or editor?
What is an Extended Metaphor?
a literary device that develops a single comparison between two unlike things over multiple sentences, paragraphs, or even an entire work
This practice involves consciously changing negative thoughts about yourself into positive statements.
What is reframing negative self-talk?
This natural element, according to the poem's excerpt, makes trees grow stronger.
What is Wind?
Noticing gaps in your knowledge or skills can provide this, prompting you to seek new information and connections.
What is motivation for proactive behavior?
What does it mean to be Proactive?
taking initiative and control to anticipate and address situations, rather than passively waiting for things to happen or reacting to events after they occur
To help normalize imperfections, one might make a list of these and accept them as a regular part of being human.
What is a list of your weaknesses?
The excerpt compares a path of ease with this, which is emphasized as the way to forge true strength.
What is The Path of Struggle
Approaching weaknesses with curiosity can lead to improvements in this essential skill.
What is problem-solving?
Define 'Bane'
A "bane" can be a strength that becomes a persistent source of trouble. For example, a star athlete's overconfidence (a strength) might become the bane of their career, causing them to take unnecessary risks and suffer repeated injuries.
alt: a cause of great distress or annoyance.