This is no great revelation, of course, but I thought I would share this way of thinking about it because, for all i know, it might come up in a Performance Review you must give today.

It's not unlike the analogy of traveling eastward and, thousands of miles later, finding oneself in the west. 

Strengths work in a similar way.

That ability you have, that talent, that gift, that natural capacity that accompanies you so effortlessly...it can, when applied beyond its appropriate envelope, be a weakness.

Are you a great listener with no voice?

Are you a great speaker with no ears?

Are you a great visionary who lacks people skills?

Are you an insightful person who decides prematurely?

Are you a wonderfully gung-ho sort who bulldozes over people?

I don't know.

Maybe you are or maybe you aren't.

But the problem is you might not even know yourself.

It's often hardest to see ourselves.

For example, I 'think' I know what I sound like when I speak.  After all, I speak daily.  But then I hear my recorded voice and shudder.  "Is that really ME?  Yikes..."

The same is often true of our strengths--we think we know them, we presume they work wonderfully for us...but perhaps we should step back, regularly seek feedback from others, and be cautious when red-lining our talents and abilities.

After all, the maxim, "If some is good, more must be better" ain't always true.

Too much medicine is poisonous.

Too much of most good things is debilitating.

Those strengths we possess, when used in moderation or appropriate situations, can be wonderful.

Just remember, they are circular, too. 

Perhaps David Banner said it best, "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."  True that.

Green is great, but even more so in small doses.

While I'll be among the last to declare merit in worry, there is a light dusting of truth herein: "Hope is not a strategy, but worry is."

Why?

Because those who live by hope, and hope alone, don't exert much effort looking around corners. 

On the other hand, that's all worriers do!  Almost like the paranoid, the worried are constantly looking around corners.  But sadly, they are often inventing and imagining corners as well...

But as I've written and described extensively, we can--with caution--learn from the worrier because he or she is, in some ways, only 1 or 2 degrees away from the strategist.

How? 

Just as a great strategist is a chess player, constantly evaluating moves, potential moves and possible repercussions, so is the worrier.

The primary differences being "healthy and constructive" (the strategist) vs. "unhealthy and destructive" (the worrier).

So yes, if you aspire to be more strategic, continue envisioning and looking around corners. 

Just make sure you do so with others, do so with an eye toward creating the future and, lastly, do so in ways that are reasonable, healthy and constructive.

Better yet, while pondering the future--never lose your sense of wonder and hope.

Lighthouses (hope) bring many a man to safe harbor, while flying through fog without instruments (worry) is a one-way trip to nowhere good. 

Recently, I bought a magical new toner cartridge for our home printer.  After installation, the printer produced a bizarre test page.  Upon this page were printed these random Observations, Laws, Constants, Corollaries and Rules.  Where they came from, gremlins only know.  But as I read them, I chuckled--and thanked the gremlins.  After reading them, you just might do the same.

Laugh on.

Ettore's Observation: "The other line moves faster.  This applies to all lines--bank, supermarket, tollbooth, customs and so on.  And don't try to change lines.  The other line--the one you were in originally--will then move faster."

Boren's First Law: "When in doubt, mumble."

Murphy's Law: "If anything can go wrong, it will."

O'Toole's Commentary on Murphy's Law: "Murphy was an optimist."

The First Corollary to Murphy's Law: "Anything that is to go wrong will do so at the worst possible moment."

The Unspeakable Law: "As soon as you mention something, if it's good, it goes away; if it's bad, it happens."

Non-Reciprocal Law of Expectations: "Negative expectations yield negative results.  Positive expectations yield negative results."

Howe's Law: "Every man has a scheme which will not work."

Zymurgy's First Law of Evolving System Dynamics: "Once you open a can of worms, the only way to re-can them is to use a larger can."

Skinner's Constant: "The quantity which must be multiplied by, divided by, added to or subtracted from the answer you get to give the answer you should have got."

Law of Selective Gravity: "An object will fall so as to do the most damage."

Jenning's Corollary: "The chance of the bread falling with the buttered side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet."

Barth's Distinction: "There are two types of people: those who categorize people into two types and those who do not."

Ninety-Ninety Rule of Project Schedules: "The first 90% of the job takes 90% of the time, the last 10% takes the other 90%."

Farber's Rule: "Necessity is the mother of strange bedfellows."