Recently, I have been interviewing for summer internships. I've found that one of the most common questions people ask is something along the lines of, "what are your strengths?" In interviews, I find this question easy to answer because you are trying to sell yourself. Although, if a friend or acquaintance were to ask me the same question I would probably shrug it off or make a joke. Even worse, I may even talk about the things I am bad at. Talking about things you are bad at seems to be easy. So why is talking about your talents so difficult?

I said before that in interviews you sell yourself, so it is simple to say I'm responsible, time oriented and organized. If one of my friends asked me what I do well I wouldn't have much to say, because you do not want to seem like you are bragging about yourself. People typically do not want to appear so self-absorbed.

I have found it is incredibly easy to talk about what I am bad at though. It is easy to say, "Oh well I am really bad at public speaking" and people relate and go "me, too" and share in your misery. If someone had a presentation coming up, it might be difficult to say "I feel really great about it, because I am really good at public speaking." So why is that so difficult to say? Why is it so hard to admit talents or strengths?

For me, I think it is because I am scared of failing or disappointing, and maybe many people feel this way. If I say that I am bad at something and then do a great job, you get praise and can be proud of yourself that you beat the expectations you set for yourself and presented to others. If I say I am really good at something and then fail, it leads to embarrassment. I said I was great at something and then failed. I let myself down and now everyone thinks I am bad at something.

I think that we need to start being okay with failing. I think we need to start being proud of what we believe we are good at. Maybe you were not good at it today, but you usually are. Relieve the pressure from yourself. Start sharing your talents with those that know you and not just when you are trying to brand yourself.

Sure, it may be easy to talk about the things we are bad at, but it also perpetuates negativity and maybe you are bad at something because you keep telling yourself that you are. Not only do we need to start telling people what we are good at, but we also need to start telling ourselves what we are good at. If you fail, then you fail, and redo something and can still be great. We need to stop being afraid of sharing our talents. We need to be proud of ourselves. Liking yourself and thinking you are talented is not self absorbed, but maybe you just know yourself and that is something to be proud of. If you don't believe me, listen to these wise words of Demi Lovato: "What's wrong with being confident?"