There are moments in life when one comes face to face with one’s own limitations. I am not talking about catastrophic failures or mistakes from which one does not recover, but about those little cracks we feel on a daily basis: the fear of speaking up, the tendency to procrastinate, the insecurity that creeps in silently. Those things we often hide well, even from ourselves.

But if I’ve learned anything – and it hasn’t been all at once – it’s that those weaknesses are not enemies. They are part of the map. They tell us where to start growing.

It’s not about making them disappear with brute force, or pretending they don’t exist. It’s about listening to them. It is about understanding where they come from. And to work, step by step, with them. Because it is there, right in that struggle, where real strength begins to be built.

I know someone who used to tremble every time he had to speak in front of a full room. Today he gives lectures. Not because he is no longer afraid, but because he decided to stop avoiding it. And another person, who always doubted his decisions, learned to trust his judgment based on trial and error, not theory.

We all know these stories. Sometimes they are close, sometimes they are ours. And the important thing to understand is that the process of overcoming a weakness doesn’t look glamorous from the inside. It’s uncomfortable. Uncertain. Slowly transformative.

And yet, that’s where we become more real. Because the strength born from having fallen and picked ourselves up is not the same as someone who has never been broken.

You don’t need to be perfect to be strong. You just need to be willing to face it, with honesty and patience. In the end, it’s not about not having weaknesses. It’s about not letting them define you.