Analyzing Your Strengths and Weaknesses

We hear about the importance of assessing our strengths and weaknesses in many a success article, and this is an important subject to be sure. A key step in developing personal awareness is to know ourselves – to work with our natural strengths and eliminate or compensate for your weaknesses.*



This is a strength and weakness article with a twist.

Why not, instead of letting others determine and label your strengths and weaknesses, forge your own character by taking stock of what is important to you? What kind of person you want to be, and what traits will help you build yourself into that person, decision by decision?

The truth is, of course, that we all have an endearing combination of character traits and personality features which make us unique and interesting. We are all doing our best to enjoy and make the most of our lives, and we learn and grow at the pace which feels comfortable at any given time.

Even so, it is possible to take conscious control of our growth and learning, as anyone in the personal development field will attest to. This makes life juicy and exciting, and whether for you it means travel and adventure, artistic expression, volunteer work or inner, mind-based exploration, the result is always the same – conscious, choice-based living gives us feelings of accomplishment, fulfillment and the pleasure of growth.

With this in mind, here are some examples of a new type of strength and weakness assessment – my own personal list. Knowing what makes you, specifically, feel strong and weak is another way of looking at the strength and weakness analysis. After all, when you feel strong, centered and true to yourself, you perform your best, you give your best self to the world and you attract the best things to you.

I feel weak if I do the following things. Sometimes the feeling of weakness does not come over me until I have reflected on a situation, and sometimes it is immediate, depending on the circumstances. It is through recognition of these feelings and regrets that I learn what will make me feel wonderful, powerful and true to myself the next time I am faced with a similar choice:

• Break a promise I should have kept to myself or to someone else I know
• Choose conflict over harmony when I have the choice
• Hold on to the treadmill handles
• Take the easy road to avoid a challenge
• Neglect to call or write someone when I ‘should’
• Am lazy...I also feel that not being able to be lazy might be a weakness...I’m working on it!

I feel strong and centred when I do the following things, as examples. Some of these may conflict with the previous list, and that is partially the point! We all experience conflicts in our feelings and intentions, and only by looking honestly at them can we make better choices in the future, leading us to enjoy more happiness and peace of mind.

• Get rid of my list of ‘shoulds’ and decide what I want from inside.
• Step back and look at things from the ‘observer’ point of view and release conflict, the need to be right, and judgement.
• Decide (remember?) I don’t care what people think of me, and just enjoy being me – expressing my joy and fascination without worrying what it looks like to others
• Exercise in some way – whether walking outside, running on the treadmill or doing yoga, exercising my body never fails to make me feel great. I feel ‘back in the groove,’ connected, and whole, like I am doing what’s best for me.
• Take time to enjoy the ‘little’ things, such as listening to great jazz, enjoying fresh flowers, stopping during a walk or drive to enjoy a beautiful view or wildlife.

If we filled our lives with moments of presence – of enjoying what is surrounding us NOW – we would live in perpetual happiness and appreciation. Isn’t that what we all want?...

*Note with profit that while most school systems teach children to try and balance their skills, the vast majority of successful entrepreneurs will tell you that what’s really important is to develop and harness your strengths and forget about your weaknesses. You can hire help to compensate for any weaknesses, but no one can utilize your innate and unique strengths like you can – use them and build them to your advantage!

Recommended:

The Power of NOW by Eckhart Tolle

Analyzing Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Gratitude Equals Expansion

Good day!

I'm guessing that anyone reading this blog will have expansion as an intention - expansion of lifestyle, expansion of financial means, and of happiness, satisfaction and overall well-being. Forging your own path means all of these things and more.

While many of us have heard that having - exercising - gratitude will help us attract more into our lives, few of us practise this amazing and transformative process. It IS a process, just like every other action in our lives, which unfold in space and time.

To demonstrate today how quick and effective this process can be in expanding your heart and your life, I propose a little exercise - perform if it you will! There is no one to force you; however, hopefully the future you are longing for is also calling to you, telling you in a tiny voice to just try this...

This little exercise is so simple and powerful, I once sent it to myself in an email, entitled 'To Shauna, from YOUR FUTURE SELF' and every time I come across it, it startles me anew. I open it, read it, perform the exercise because I trust myself (as I did today and having been reminded, I am sharing it with you), and am amazed at the flood of gratitude and sense of remembrance I feel.

This exercise combats the boredom people sometimes feel when they have committed to the habit of writing gratitude lists every day, but cannot plumb the depths to find 'new' things to be grateful for, and so end up just going through the motions. This type of forced but heartless activity does NOT create expansion and in fact feels like a chore. This is NOT what we're after!

Here is my note to myself, verbatim, lest I mess with the magic in trying to paraphrase it:

Have You Thanked the Universe Today?

Shauna;

Today's reminder is -- gratitude.

Sure, you've heard it countless times before...be grateful for what you have, and the Universe will send you more. But have you ever noticed how hard it is sometimes to sit and appreciate things, and how EASY it is to appreciate something once it is gone?....

Today, look around you and consider for a moment that you have lost each item or person in your life, as your eyes and mind come to rest on it. It will only take you a moment to appreciate it much more than you did the second before. Take a few minutes right now and perform this little task....and then say Thank you!! You are truly blessed.

S

That's it! If you let this work on even a few things which surround you, I guarantee you'll have a big smile on your face when you're done. The possibilities are endless as you take the time to look around you. I find myself saying, for instance, 'Someone took my windows' and then imagine sitting in the dark and remembering wistfully how much I loved the light streaming in. This is especially effective for me, because I sometimes complain that I don't have enough windows, ie. enough sunlight.

I once feared that by trying to be grateful for what I already have, I would in essence be settling for just that...I would be saying to the Universe that I am satisfied here, thank you, and I require no more. It has been my experience that just the opposite has occurred. As my heart expands with gratitude for how wonderful my life already is, and how beautiful and miraculous life is and our earth is, I feel as if I might explode from the enormity of it. This happiness creates expansion in all areas...I find more friendly faces, I connect with people and animals more readily, and I tell the Universe 'bring it on!' instead of 'I can't take it - it's too beautiful!' which is what I used to say. This expanded feeling, coupled with focus on my goals, has brought about radical change in my life, and I'm telling you from experience...prosperity floods to the person with open arms, NOT into a closed cup.

TRY IT, and enjoy the positive consequences!

Gratitude Equals Expansion

Narrow Your Choices to Achieve Success

We have been told we can have, be and do ANYTHING we can imagine. How exhilarating!

At the same time, a little-spoken-about phenomenon often occurs when we begin contemplating change in our lives. We have decided to open our minds and pick from the Universe of opportunities which await us, so why do we sometimes feel overwhelmed by the choices?

Remember when you were a child and you changed what you wanted to be 'when you grew up' almost daily? Of course it felt like you had all the time in the world, and from that space of limitless possibilities, you knew you could explore and change your mind and explore some more. YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DECIDE.

Fast forward to the adult world, many years later. Life - at least this life - seems a little more finite. Choices seem a lot more set in stone, and more difficult to change. You know what? They ARE more difficult to change. We have much more deeply developed personalities, beliefs and behavior patterns as adults, and often they stem from years of acting in a certain way. Somehow, we have lulled ourselves into thinking that we are not at cause; that things outside of us are to blame or at fault - or occasionally to credit - for major events and minor irritations in our lives.

Along comes the discovery (reminder?) that we can create our lives to order. We can think our way into a new reality, we learn, and we have more control than we've been giving ourselves credit for. ALL of our experiences are based on what we have been thinking. We have thought it was:

EXPERIENCE >>> REACT >>> EXPERIENCE

when instead it really works like this:

BE/THINK >>> EXPERIENCE >>> REACT/CREATE BASED ON EXPERIENCE

There is an important key here which allows for integrating more power into your life by making conscious choices, but first let's review what happens. When people begin to realize how much possibility they really have, it can feel so overwhelming that instead of being exciting, it becomes scary or intimidating. How can we choose when there is such sheer volume of possibilities from which to choose? Underneath the excitement and sense of freedom lies fear, apprehension and lack of surety. This phenomenon leads to paralysis, ie. doing nothing instead of something, which, of course, brings the same result as having had no choices at all.

A solution: Facing our mortality is one way to really put our potential choices in sharp focus. When we truly know that our time here is limited, we see how wise it is to make the best of that time. We must not confuse the ability to do anything with the potential to do everything. Our possibilities are indeed almost limitless, but our time here is not. Therefore, we must DECIDE between the possibilities, at least for now. For this life, we must give some serious thought as to what we would like to accomplish.

Let's use travel as an example to illiustrate this powerful skill to exercise choice and thus achieve more in our lives. Let's say that you have always wanted to 'travel the world someday.' If you have not defined it further than that; if you have not put together a plan as to which specific countries or experiences are MUSTS on this world travel list, then you may never do any of it. There are hundreds of countries and sites to see on our beautiful globe. Unless you narrow down your choices, you may leave that goal of world travel as a wish, rather than seeing it accomplished. For those whose list includes this goal, ask yourself a simple question: which places do you HAVE to see before you die? Try it - it's enlightening. All of a sudden, your mind is forced to make sense out of what was a vague and glittery 'someday' goal. Is it Paris or San Francisco? Is it both? What can you live without?

When you begin to truly define what it is you want, you will find that your mind becomes skilled in creating priorities: This is a must. That is a 'would be nice but I can live without it'. The great part about this is that by nurturing this skill (which your mind has always possessed), your chances of accomplishing things jump a thousand-fold. Instead of an overwhelming list of possibilities, you begin to form solid goals, and with this comes confidence - and the realization that you actually CAN do those things on your list.

Accept your ability to do anything you choose, and then CHOOSE. Narrow your choices and increase your level of achievement and success!

Recommended - highly - books which help with this concept below:

Narrow Your Choices to Achieve Success