Secret Weapons

Watching Lynda Carter fly her invisible jet while watching Wonder Woman on TV as a kid, I was mesmerized. While I could say that the idea of an aircraft that was truly invisible was amazing or that I thought planes, in general, were just cool, it was most likely due to watching Lynda Carter run around in her Underoos.

Be that as it may, she, and many others, had plenty of secret weapons. 007 had any number of toys. Superheros had abilities of which the villains were unaware and that helped our heroes win.

While you may not have the toys or abilities of your heroes, it is likely you do have a veritable arsenal of secret weapons at the ready and of which you aren’t aware. Worse yet, you might be aware that you have them, don’t identify them as secret weapons, and are likely rejecting them.

In 1978, “Diamond” David Lee Roth, front man for the legendary metal band \m/*_*\m/ Van Halen, gave an interview where he explained exactly what I’m talking about. At eight years old, his doctors at the time said he was, “hyperactive.” But instead of putting David on prescription drugs, his parents went with it.In doing so, David was able to discover and learn to use his secret weapon. David’s family called his hyperactivity, “monkey hour.” And in the interview, David said that he was able to turn “monkey hour” into a successful career. (See the interview here with the referenced part at 50 seconds in.)

Had David and his family tried to reject this aspect of his being, it is very likely we would not have one one the greatest Metal bands of all time.In business, and in life, you are probably looking at something about yourself and judging it as “wrong,” “bad,” or something you need to fix or change. What if you’re wrong? What if the very thing that you are holding against yourself is actually one of your secret weapons? Are you ready to find out?

The Exercise:

Think of the part of you: characteristic, trait, or way of your being that you hold in judgment as “wrong” or “bad” and release that judgment. Move into a place of TOTAL acceptance of this part of you. Remember, this is an exercise so you don’t have to completely be okay with it. Just be okay enough for the moment to be willing to consider that it is a good thing. You can even say, “Let’s pretend for a few minutes that this is a good thing…”

Next, ask yourself aloud, “Assuming this is one of my secret weapons, how might it be used to give me an advantage?”

Physical traits are easiest to start with because most of us have something about our physical appearance that we would like to change. For me, at 5’6″ I’m not exactly the tallest man in most rooms. So, assuming that this is a good thing, what might be a way in which that is so?Well, I’m pretty damn comfortable on a flight in coach. I work out daily so I’m deceptively strong. You may not notice me come into a room and sometimes it’s an advantage when people don’t see you coming. And in this world, we tend to discount people based on how they look. (In my town, the seemingly homeless looking man might be a billionaire.)

Now try it using a non-physical trait

Let’s take dyslexia. You might judge that as a bad thing. But if you’ve done the research, you know that a dyslexic’s brain works differently than other people’s. They think in images and are gifted in the area of visual spatial intelligence. Hmmm… Sounds like a secret weapon!

How about the fact that I have, to this point, had a pattern of making a lot of typos. How might that be a good thing? It provides me an opportunity to own my shit. Yep, I made that error. (There are probably several in this post or have been edited out by my team). So, I have an opportunity to practice two of my paramount requirements for my work – being authentic and accountable.

The point is that whatever you think, you’re right. If you think it’s a problem, you’ll subconsciously make it one. If you think it’s a gift, you’ll use it to your advantage. These are part of your inventory of resources. USE EVERYTHING.

The more you judge, reject and denounce pieces of you, the more you’re ignoring your gifts, avoiding your wholeness, and decreasing your ability to win. The instant you release the judgment around these things, you empower yourself to take hold of more of your secret weapons – resources – and better equip yourself to achieve your goals.

What secret weapons have you been ignoring? How are you going to employ them? Share your ideas/suggestions on our Facebook page! And for inspirational messages (or random goofy stuff) follow us on Twitter, and get more “behind the scenes” stuff on Instagram!

Go from status quo to Status Flow.