What If Your Biggest Weakness Is Actually Your Greatest Strength?

Throwback Thursday 4 years ago to the inaugural 500 Rising women’s self-defense level 1 instructors training. This was right as the US was opening up from the Covid lockdown, and I wasn’t sure I could go until 9 days earlier, but thanks to my husband and our restaurant employees, I made it.

In this photo, there’s a whole lot of awesome: high ranking black belts who are martial art school owners, law enforcement officers, a doctor, an author, professional educators, and me—I was a restaurant owner with a brown belt in karate. I had taught women’s self-defense soft skills with my friend, who taught the physical skills, for six months before the lockdown.

One evening at dinner, everyone shared their experiences. I expressed a bit of Imposter Syndrome.

“No,” they said, “You’re important because you’re proof that anyone can do this, and you constantly talk about how your self-defense training benefits your everyday life.”

Their words were transformative. I want to take a moment to highlight the importance of having supportive people in your life. They used their strength to help me discover my strength, which I mistook as a weakness. A 500 Rising motto is “From Strength to Strength We Rise.”

They continued, “You prove that you don’t have to be a law enforcement officer or a black belt to defend yourself. You don’t have to be a violence professional to benefit from soft skills. Anyone can do this and WANT to do this, and you demonstrate that.”

At that time, I expected the restaurant to survive its difficulties. That didn’t happen. The restaurant closed, but I eventually earned my black belt. Now, I’m a life coach, integrating self-defense soft skills like boundary management and personal agency into everyday life.

As a life coach, it’s my job to support you in discovering and developing strengths you might overlook. What we perceive as weaknesses can often be our most powerful tools.

Some of my 7 Keys for Living an Enhanced Life demonstrated in my story are Resilience, Relationships, Leadership, and Joy And Fun.