By Troy Headrick
What is your “Achilles Heel” and what action might you take to strengthen this personal weakness?
My answer: My Achilles Heel is that I’m quite anxious. Physical exercise always helps me feel calmer. Also, I’m working on taking things less seriously. I’ve always been a serious person, and this can cause me to be uptight. I think caring too much can be a real problem.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to hearing what you have to say.
Troy Headrick’s personal blog can be found here.
I am very nervous speaker also I take things very seriously.
Hi. It sounds like we might be quite similar in our personalities. What can we do to become a little less serious and uptight? Do you have any ideas?
Journaling has helped me a lot, also belief and sometimes just speak of it positively within . At th most accepting result is not in our hand only effort is , make things light being around out near ones learning to laugh and joke about situations .
Wow! You’ve listed a bunch of really good curatives. As someone who’s spent years teaching writing at the university level, I have used journaling a lot myself with students. Your other remedies also sound really good. Laughing, as the say, is the very best medicine. I think it helps to learn to laught at ourselves too. Thank you!
Thank you .
Social anxiety. It stops me from learning new knowledge and perspectives, and robs me of joy in everyday activities.
When you say “social anxiety” do you mean meeting new people or do you mean something else? I’d say I have a touch of that as well. When I was a kid, I was painfully shy. I’m much better today, but there’s still room for improvement. Thank you fo the comment.
Just being around people in general. Even friends and family.
I get really anxious for almost everything. The good thing is that knowing your issues is always the first step to deal with them 🙂
I absolutely agree, E. T. Self-knowledge is so important. But I sometimes wonder how much I truly know about myself. I’d love to be able to step outside myself for a day and see myself as others see me. That would be cool, wouldn’t it? Thanks.
I can be sensitive, taking things to heart… But its certainly got so much better as I get older (things tend to with age and when more self-aware). I’m with you on the physical exercise – helps clear the head & is beneficial in so many ways. Thank you for this post. Bernie 🦶😊
I was terribly sensitve as a child too and got my feelings hurt very easily. (I’m a lot more hard-nosed and thick-skinned now, though.) Do you prefer a certain kind of exercise? I love riding my bike with my wife late in the afternoons. The joy I get from such activity is amazing. Thanks for the comment.
Before having my 2 little girls I was big into long distance running and spinning classes! Now, I happily enjoy gentle jogs (without the garmin & focussing on pace all the time) and scenic walks with my family! Cycling in the afternoon with your wife sounds lovely – its great how good exercise makes you feel isnt it? I’m sure you get to soak up some great scenic views too!!
I think part of the attraction with biking with me is that it’s something I did as a child and so I associate it with childhood, a much more carefree time in my life. Oftentimes, our current attitudes about things can be traced back to some form of nostalgic remembrance. Thanks.
Sometimes I tend to enlarge problems, which gives anxiety. Fortunately, I realize and I sit down and try to be more objective. Exercise does help a lot too! 🙂
It’s amazing. As I’m reading these comments, I keep thinking, “That sounds exactly like me!” I have a special talent for making mountains out of molehills. When I find myself doing such a thing, I just sit myself down and have a heart-to-heart talk. That usually helps. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing this feeling. I’m sure many people have these problems nowadays 🙂
I think we live in an extremely stressful time. Such stress has a way of causing people to have extreme reactions to all sorts of things.
It’s so true 🙂
I have anxiety.. if I don’t channel my “true path”. My biggest weakness? I don’t ask for help. Which is one thing my faith has helped me with 🦋
Are you American? I ask because so many of us who grew up in the states were taught that we have to be self-sufficient and independent. This cultural influence is both positive and negative. Negative in that extreme self-sufficency can actually lead to a sense of alienation from others or loneliness. Thanks.
I start off something with enthusiasm and motivation but when time goes on I lose the motivation and eventually dislike doing it.
Trying to work on setting small goals on everything that I start off
Are you describing disenchantment? Are you saying that you think your dreams are too big, too unrealistic and that you feel disappointed when you can’t achieve them? If so, I think your remedy sounds really good. Breaking big dreams and goals down into little doable chunks is very wise. It’s a method I use myself. Thanks so much for leaving such a wise comment.
Not exactly. I dont think they are too big because my dreams are small and simple. Its just that I get bored,lose enthu and lack the motivation to achieve the goals.
Haha. I am trying to work on them. Warmly welcome 🙂
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being satisfied with what you currently have. Wanting to live a “small” and simple life seems like an extremely healthy desire to me. It’s the constant chasing after the unattainable that wears us out. I also want to keep life simple. The simpler the better…
Thank you so much.
Glad to meet you sir. Good luck to you. May god ease your affairs and bless you!
I’m so happy to have met you too! Thanks so much!
Warmly welcome sir. 🙂
Mine is that I’m very “rulesy”. If a person crosses a line or literally breaks a rule/law, I will tell them. If their response is…typical of today’s America, I will cut a person out of my life. All better.
Except, it’s not all better because somehow I end up being the bad guy.
America. Formerly, “land of the free, home of the brave” now it’s more “land of the freely embracing ignorance, home of the victims”. 😭
Hi. Sorry about the delayed response. I’ve been extremely busy and then I got my second COVID shot and felt extremely sick for a day. Like you, I’m disturbed by much of what I see taking place in the US. You put it well when you call it an “embracing” of “ignorance.” I think you’re pointing out something that I tend to do too. I have pretty high expectations of people and then almost always get disappointed. What can be done? Thanks so much for the comment.
And thank *you* for getting your shot! I’m very happy to hear about folks getting their vaccine, despite the known potential for side effects. I am 15 days post-second shot and, phew…those first few days after were rough. I hope your side effects are all behind you now!
Practicing self-compassion abd mindfulness can help feel better when we’re emotionally disturbed, anxious or stressed. I am an empathetic person, and other people’s pain and struggles make me depressed. Regarding work, I crave perfection which causes me to burnout.
Hi. Sorry about the delayed response. I’ve been extremely busy and then I got my second COVID shot and felt extremely sick for a day. I used to be a perfectionist when I was a lot younger. I think being such a person is very tiring which is why I gave up holding myself to such high standards. What do you think you can do about this? Maybe, like with me, this will eventually go away by itself? Thanks so much for your comment.
Hope you’re feeling better. Yes, as I get old I feel I may have to let go of perfectionism. Aging means less energy, but I admire people who are old and still manage to do their very best. Recently I watched a movie THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN, and it had me thinking. Can old people live and enjoy life like the characters in that movie 🤔 it depends how Healthy we are, I guess.
For many years, it was being overly sensitive and then reactionary when I felt like I had been slighted or insulted. These days, I’ve learned to chill the hell out and I know that most insults or curt responses are less about me and more about the deliverer. Deliverer? What a strange word. Great question, as always. -L
Hi. Sorry about the delayed response. I’ve been extremely busy and then I got my second COVID shot and felt extremely sick for a day. Yes, you are right about rudeness (or whatever you want to call it). It’s more about the person who is being rude and less about the “receiver”–the opposite of your “deliverer.” I think I’ve finally figured out that we’re all doing the best we can in most cases which allows me to look past those little insults and such. Life is damn hard. I wish we could have all be given an owner’s manual at birth! Thanks so much for the comment.
I’m 42 and I’d still take that owner’s manual! LOL Hope you’re feeling much better!
I’m actually lazy and have a fear of getting tired or not getting enough sleep because there’s work to do. Not to mention the amount of effort that might be required to do them. Even pursuing dreams requires hard work…
I haven’t been able to find the solution but I guess I should just take them one at a time…
Hi. Sorry about the delayed response. I’ve been extremely busy and then I got my second COVID shot and felt extremely sick for a day. I really liked the honesty of your comment. I agree that dreaming is hard work. In fact, it may be the hardest of all. Dreaming also makes us vulnerable. We have this grand vision in our minds about how we want our lives to go but then, if things don’t turn out that way, we feel like failures or that we’ve been cheated. So much about living seems hard. What can we do? Thanks for sharing your story.
My Achilles Heel is lack of confidence. There isn’t any reason I should feel this, but it doesn’t stop the influence of it. I push through it I want something bad enough.
Hi. Sorry about the delayed response. I’ve been extremely busy and then I got my second COVID shot and felt extremely sick for a day. It sounds like you’re already well on your way to getting past this limitation. “Pushing through” is a good curative for many things that ail us. Thanks so much for your comment.
The two things that can hurt you are if you need money or if you need fame. Those are the things that can be your Achilles’ heel. But if you don’t need money and you don’t need fame, then you’re free.
Dana Carvey
Ah, freedom. Many Americans connect freedom with the pursuit of things, but I like how you turn that notion on its head. I totally agree. Freedom is the absence of need. Being “needy” is like being in a kind of “jail.” I’m so happy you reminded me of this! I want to thank you very much.
Thank you indeed!
My achilles heel, one of them anyway, is that I can be too passive, especially when it comes to conveying things I want in my own life. For a few years if I said “I want to do…” I didn’t know what phrase to say after it to make it true. I didn’t know myself so I couldn’t articulate it out loud to myself or others. Hence I would follow others direction when it came time to decide what to have for dinner, or what movie to see, or whether to throw a frisbee on any given day.
Over the past few years I’ve worked at being more assertive and it’s helped me be more content in my life and decisions I make.