Why talk about antitalents?

For many people, I am sure the first response they are going to have to this subject is to ask "even if antitalents really exist, why dwell on them? Why not focus on the positive? Won't this just give people another excuse for failure?"

All fair questions, and all questions I have asked myself.

The first answer I came up with, is that by understanding antitalents, we can come to understand ourselves better. The better we understand ourselves, the more successful we can be in life.

Why not just focus on the positive? I agree strongly that we should focus on the positive. But there has been a lot of focus recently on talents/strengths, most publically through the study done by the Gallup organization and laid out in "Now, Discover your Strengths." Interestingly, that book, which is excellent and which I highly recommend, did discuss weaknesses but did not go as far as dealing with antitalents, or what they would probably call antistrengths. They did a great job of focusing on the positive,and I do not feel I need to cover the area they have already handled so well.

I do think it is positive for us to recognize our antitalents, so that we realize that there is no shame in asking for help when we are asked to do a task that falls in our area of antitalent. In fact, it is vital for our success that we do so.

Won't this just give people another excuse to fail? Possibly, but I hope not. Let me go back to my own experience in this area.

As I have already mentioned, I have an antitalent in the area of repairs, fixing things, etc. Throughout my adult life, I have struggled to have any success in this area. I have tried hard, read books, worked with others more qualified, and yet over and over again I have failed. (Not always - there have been successes. But more failures than successes)
I don't need an excuse to fail in this area. I can fail with or without one. But the failures, as they add up, have taken a toll on me. Regardless of any outside expectations, I have bought into the idea that as a father and a man, I am expected to be able to fix things when they break. I have felt stupid as relatively simple tasks in this area are regularly beyond me, or when I complete a simple task only to have it break again immediately. I felt a failure long before I conceived of antitalents, and would even accuse God of having intervened against me when something unlikely derailed my efforts at even a simple fix.

Discovering the concept of antitalents was a revelation to me. I have ALWAYS believed in talents and the almost mystical way things seem to work out when we do something we are talented at. Conceiving that there could be an opposite force, which worked in the same way but in reverse, explained my experience, and without having to blame a "practical joker God." It ws theory that fit the facts as I had experienced them. It was OK for me to be bad at this. It was OK for me to ask my more talented friends for help, just as they would ask me.

For what its worth, I will continue to try to fix things, and to try to improve in this area. But when I need it, I will also try to improve at asking for help. And this is positive, because my life will be more successful as a result.