February 3 - Toot Your Horn

Why is it in this era of participation trophies, at a time when so much emphasis is placed on self-esteem—do we have such a hard time saying something nice about ourselves?

Most of us are excellent at being self-deprecating, and are not so good at the opposite. Tell us your favorite thing about yourself.

The visceral aversion I have to this question tells me more than anything I will write—or avoid writing. I know I’m not alone. At the end of every episode of my podcast, Walk-Ins Welcome, I ask my guest the same two questions: 1. What’s your biggest defect of character? 2. What’s your biggest asset?

For 90% of my guests, the latter question is much harder to answer than the former.