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

The Power of Underachieving

What? UNDERachieving?

That's right. I've made a fun discovery, and I want to share it with you. No doubt many others have discovered this before me, however in my years of studying and applying personal development tenets I have recently read this for the first time, so I'm guessing it's a little-known idea compared to other, more well-known principles. Perhaps we have heard it but put another way, and if even one person reading this has a light-bulb moment, then my sharing it is worthwhile.

I credit one of my mentors, Robert Kiyosaki of the famous Rich Dad franchise for introducing me to this, and he in turn credits Canada's Raymond Aaron. Both gentlemen are very successful, so there must be something to this advice. Robert Kiyosaki has helped me profitably change my mindset when it comes to money, business, and what really matters financially, and Raymond Aaron's advice has helped me with consistency, which in turn has helped me accomplish far more than I otherwise would have. Who knew?

Questions: Do you have big dreams and goals? Are you on the path to amazing and awe-inspiring achievements? If you look inside and are honest, are your goals and dreams so big that they sometimes intimidate and overwhelm you with their enormity?

While we have all been focusing on our goals, reaching for the stars, striving to change our thoughts and behaviors and achieve ever more, this new (to me) idea brings up the opposite point of view. In a simple and stunning swipe at everything I have believed to this point, Aaron tells me to try underachieving. After my double-take, I began to think about what he was saying. It doesn't actually conflict with my beliefs, but complements them. Essentially, the point is reiterated that we put so much pressure on ourselves to accomplish things that sometimes it can be overwhelming. If this feeling of 'too much' begins to feel too heavy, often people will end up doing nothing at all, rather than taking the necessary steps to pursue their dreams.
Solution: try taking the pressure off. What if, every day when you contemplated going to the gym, for instance, instead of thinking you must lift heavier or run faster or last longer ('But I'm still sore from yesterday!' you're thinking), you just said to yourself 'Well, as long as I do a little something, I'm satisfied,'? If you might have even skipped your workout because the prospect was so intimidating, perhaps now you might do that 'little something' and not feel so guilty about not doing more.

You know what? LITTLE SOMETHINGS every day are what add up to success in the long-term.

While this idea seems to fly in the face of conventional wisdom, in reality it fully supports them - and you! With less pressure on yourself, you can feel OK just performing little tasks every day which lead you toward your dreams. The world was not meant to be conquered in a day. Haven't you read a million times that it's the little steps you take every day which lead to your dreams being fulfilled? So why do we try to do so much, and often end up curled up in bed whimpering?

The proof: Since reading this, I have been more consistent with almost every important aspect of my life: exercise, eating habits, cleaning, communication, work and goal-achieving activities...you name it, I've been doing little bits every day. With the pressure off, I can relax and just do what feels right in the moment, and somehow everything gets done, little by little. It's amazing! I feel better about things that have been weighing on me, and they are getting done. A huge pile of filing I'd been avoiding, for instance, is slowly going down, because instead of hiding from what seemed like an insurmountable pile, I'm doing a portion each day.

Perhaps with this new idea you'll even enjoy goal setting and thinking about your future more. Instead of being secretly scared or feeling incompetent, you can relax and assure yourself that with every little bit you do, you're moving along just fine, thank you. And it's OK this way. Slow and steady turtle, anyone?

The Power of Underachieving