Focus on Strength or Weakness?

Tonight, I was playing a game of Sudoku on my iPhone.  Actually, I've been playing this particular game for a couple of days off and on.  Usually, I can solve the "hard" games in less than half-an-hour.  But this particular one had me stuck.  I had lots of 6s, 7s, 8s, and 9s, but I just couldn't get the lower numbers.  No matter which way I looked (vertically, horizontally, within the boxes, etc.), I just couldn't located the missing 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s.

So finally tonight it dawned on me to look what 6s, 7s, 8s, & 9s I might be missing.  And sure enough, I found a 6 within a minute.  That led to another 6 (which completed all nine 6s), which led to the discovery of a couple of 7s, and then 8s, and then 9s, which then began to process where the missing 3s, and then some 5s, and then some 1s, and then some 4s, and on and on until the whole thing was solved.  I had been stuck for a couple of days (not that I had had much time to actually play), but suddenly I was done with the game in less than 5 minutes.  Rather than focus on what I didn't have (my weakness in the lower #s), I focused on what I did have (my strengths), and suddenly the game became easy.

In Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham suggests that people shouldn't spend the majority of their time trying to improve their weaknesses.  Rather, they should put the majority of their efforts into improving their God-given strengths.  Sure, we need to balance or shore up our weaknesses so that they aren't a detriment, but to spend the majority of our time on them is foolish.

No matter how hard I try, I will never be a good car mechanic.  I just don't have the knack for it.  Sure, I need to have some knowledge so that a mechanic isn't pulling one past me and ripping me off, but it would be a waste of time for me to go to mechanic's school.  But I do have a strength for learning, and so I can go and learn through reading and asking questions to find out what my car needs so that I'm getting the best service.  (Not the best example, but I think you know what I'm getting at)

What are your strengths?  And where are you spending the majority of your time?  Are you wasting your time looking for the missing 1s rather than leveraging the 9s you already have?

And now I need to end this post, and go exercise my strength of dunking and eating Oreos. :o)