Focusing on Strengths Quotes

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Spend the most time with your best people. ... Talent is the multiplier. THe more energy and attention you invest in it, the greater the yield. The time you spend with your best is, quite simply, your most productive time. ... Persistence directed primarily toward your non-talents is self-destructive. ... You will reprimand yourself, berate yourself, and put yourself through all manner of contortions in an attempt to achieve the impossible.

People have several times more potential for growth when they invest energy in developing their strengths instead of correcting their deficiencies.

Many mothers make the mistake of forever looking for the bad in the child, trying to . . . uproot and drive it out. This is like trying to eject the darkness from a room without opening the shutters and letting in the light. As John Newton said, 'I cannot sweep the darkness out, but I can shine it out.'

My strategy is simple. I fight at what I'm good at. I am not good at trash talking, so I don't fight with trash talking. It is not my thing.

I think people get caught up a little bit in the fact of finding things that people can't do instead of looking at the things that the player can do.

You win games with your strengths, not your weaknesses.

In examining the potential of individuals, we must focus on their strengths and not just their mistakes. We cannot be limited by what they may have spilled in the kitchen.

Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.

On the whole, however, the critic is far less of a professional faultfinder than is sometimes imagined. He is first of all a virtue-finder, a singer of praise. He is not concerned with getting rid of dross except in so far as it hides the gold. In other words, the destructive side of criticism is purely a subsidiary affair. None of the best critics have been men of destructive minds. They are like gardeners whose business is more with the flowers than with the weeds.

Faith is having a positive attitude about what you can do and not worrying at all about what you can't do.

What I am suggesting is that each of us turn from the negativism that permeates our society and look for the remarkable good among those with whom we associate, that we speak of one another’s virtues more than we speak of one another’s faults, that optimism replace pessimism, that our faith exceed our fears. When I was a young man and was prone to speak critically, my father would say: “Cynics do not contribute, skeptics do not create, doubters do not achieve.

We get so caught up in what a man isn't. It's what he is that counts.

Football was my saving grace so I want to let people know that you can achieve whatever you want. People like to concentrate on what you can't do, so let's preach what you can. Why would I want to talk about not being quick when I'm strong? That's what I want to get across.

When I make criticism, it's constructive. It's not right only to focus on the negatives.

That's exactly the way parents develop positive, successful kids. Don't look for the flaws, warts, and blemishes. Look for the gold, not for the dirt; the good, not the bad. Look for the positive aspects of life. Like everything else, the more good qualities we look for in our children, the more good qualities we are going to find.

I really have a love and passion for football. I enjoy basketball, but it's not something I love. You have to let things go that are not for you.

You shouldn't be looking for people slipping up, you should be looking for all the good things people do and praising those.

Our great mistake is to try to exact from each person virtues which he does not possess, and to neglect the cultivation of those which he has.

I early learned that it is a hard matter to convert an individual by abusing him, and that this is more often accomplished by giving credit for all the praiseworthy actions performed than by calling attention alone to all the evil done.

It remains true that great managers recognize individualities and focus on developing strengths rather than weaknesses. Great leaders, in sharp contrast, recognize what is (or could be) shared in common - a vision, a dream, a mission, whatever - and inspire others to join them in the given enterprise.