Every person is born with some strength and weakness. Identifying them can be a difficult task because we never pay much attention towards them during our childhood. But when we grow up, we realize that we have certain qualities that differentiate us from others, which helps us to face the hardships of life. Employers look for people who are aware of their strengths and weaknesses. If you want a stable career, then you must know that one quality which makes you fight all the trouble in your life. We need our strengths not just for a stable career, but for healthy relationships and a successful life overall.
What exactly are strengths? Strength is the quality of being physically strong to be able to withstand pressure and force. Why should we know about our strengths? Our life is full of uncertainties, and we cannot know what may come our way. We must be prepared for all the times by recognizing our truest qualities. We should know about them because when we know that we have some quality, we are able to use it in a much better way. We get an opportunity to improve those skills and work on the weaknesses. It saves your time.
When you know about your skills, you will be prepared to choose a career that suits your skills. You may still look out for other options but you will have your priorities set right in front of you. Another benefit of discovering your strengths is that you can aim higher. If right now you are aware of one or two of your strengths then you can set a target to find more or learn more strengths. Gradually, you will have a huge set of strengths and only a few weaknesses.
Strengths can boost your confidence as when you know your strengths they give a feeling of content and comfort. You know that you are strong and nothing can defeat you. The confidence can make you achieve everything in life. When a person accomplishes their goal and feels confident, they start enjoying bliss in their lives. They stay happy which makes their mind and body healthy. Finally, after finding your strengths, you can help others find their strengths. You can be the guiding light for other people because you know how to discover your strengths. You can be the inspirational figure everyone looks up to. Do you want to know your strengths?
#1. Write Down Your Strengths, To Begin With
Write down those strengths you already know about. A lot of times we have been asked about our strengths, but we barely knew any. Back in school, we were asked to write down our strengths and weaknesses, but we hardly wrote one or two. Why? Because we never thought about them, but once you sit quietly to think about them you will learn that you have a lot of strengths you have been ignoring for a long time. When you cannot think of more strengths then start writing all the activities you participate in. Just list down everything that pleases you and everything you like to do so that you have an idea about yourself. You will know what choices you make and when you have a clear vision of yourself you will be able to find your inner strengths.
#2. Note Down The Situations Associated
After writing down the strengths and the daily activities in a notebook, make a column next to them. Write down all the situations in which you acted out those strengths. The situations where you expressed those strengths will guide you to finding more about yourself and your decisions. It will be like a flashback that will remind of all the things you have learned till now and what you need to work on. You may have acted bravely in a situation, but you were afraid of it. You will know that you have to let go of that fear and make sure that it does not come back. For example, you saw a man steal a woman’s purse. You were afraid at first that you ran to catch the thief. The thief harmed you and since then you have been afraid of theft. You are a brave person. Courage is your strength, but you hid it inside you when you got hurt. What does it mean? You allowed your fear to take over your strength. Now you know that you have strength but you need to work on it.
#3. Appreciate Yourself For Your Efforts
Finding your strengths also shows that you are a learner. The curiosity to learn is also one of the strengths. A person who does not learn in their life will never succeed, but you are trying to discover your strengths implying that you are a strong person. Appreciate yourself for your efforts. All the time when you showed your strength was the moment of victory. You may not have known it back then, but today you know what you did make you strong. Appreciating yourself will make you feel happier about yourself, helping you gain confidence. When you will have confidence, you will be able to know your strengths and weaknesses. You will be able to turn your weaknesses into your strengths when you are aware of them.
#4. Take Feedback From Trusted Sources
You have written down all that you know about yourself but most of the times other people know more about us than we do. Your dearest friends and your siblings know the most about you. They know how you behave in a certain situation. They can tell how you will react in a certain situation because they have spent a lot of their time with you. You grow up with your siblings so they know the best about you and also the worst. They can be your guide and your judge when it comes to strengths and weaknesses. Ask them about your strengths, and they will be able to give you an unbiased opinion of you. These people are the ones you can trust. If you ask some ordinary friend they will not be able to tell you because they may have made their judgments about you based on a certain incident without knowing the whole truth but the closest people know you inside and out. You will have your own list along with theirs.
#5. Determine Your Values And Principles
A lot of times we derive strengths from our values and principles. There is something we strongly believe in, and those beliefs sometimes become our strengths. Your value says that you must help a person in any situation and you fought the thief for a woman you did not know. Your value compelled you to save the woman because of which you did not fear of getting harmed yourself at the second thought. Initially, you were frightened but did you lose hope? No, you went ahead to do what you believed in which gave you the strength you needed. Your value gave you courage and bravery to chase the thief. We can conclude that your values and principles are a source of your strengths.
#6. List What You Aim For In Your Life
Listing down what you aim in your life would mean that you are going to discover the new strengths you have achieved and the ones you have to. Make two lists out of which one list should be about the strengths you have developed over time while working on your goals and the other list should be about the strengths you will need to succeed in future. Your goals are the essence of your life. You live to achieve them, and they are your targets. You will learn everything about life throughout the process of working hard to reach the destination. This list will give you an insight to what you have accomplished by now and how much more is left to be grabbed by you. You will know how much progress you have made in how much time. You can know your strengths and weaknesses along with tracking your goals.
#7. Ask Yourself What Excites You?
What do you desire in your life? What makes you ecstatic? The moment you become conscious of the things that make you happy you will know about your strength. Most likely the areas that please you are the areas of your strength. When you like to do something you do it with passion, and it becomes your strength after a time. You are crazy about basketball, and you keep playing it all the time. What will happen when you keep playing basketball? You will reach perfection. You might have heard this phrase “Practice makes a man perfect” millions of times so when you play basketball every day and all the time you practice it. Eventually, you will become a pro at it, and it will be your area of strength.
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