Responsibility

I have many nicknames. And you could put the word "Miss" before many different words that would characterize me quite well. One of those could be Miss Responsibility. 

It's in my nature to be and to feel the need to be responsible. I'm also the oldest of ten children. That probably has something to do with it too. 

For most of my life thus far I have often taken on too much responsibility or have been too responsible. There was a point where I began to almost resent this quality of mine. . . 

Until. . . 

I heard a radio broadcast where a woman was talking about how what we feel (and often are) our greatest weakness, can be turned into our greatest strengths. 

I remember asking myself how my deep sense of responsibility could be or become a strength? How it could, instead of take me down over and over, propel me forward and grow me in strength. 

I learned something really perspective changing that day and that is: 

I'll also put it this way: the more responsibility I take for myself, the more I will have to give to others.  

What? 

I could channel my strong vein of responsibility and point it inward, and make a point to take better care of myself, and the things that go awry in me. . . 

So that. . . 

I have more reserves built up inside of me to pour forth from into the lives of others? Into the very lives of those I tend to feel overly responsible for in the first place? 

Instead of burning myself out over things and others I didn't need to be or wasn't really responsible for -- I could harness that acute power and use it to grow in strength. . . 

So that, again. . . 

I would have more go give? 

Yup. 

But. . .

I would be pouring from a place of strength, rather than a place of weakness. 

And that has been an important, and life-giving difference. 

What is one of your greatest weaknesses? And how could you channel it into becoming one of your greatest strengths?