An idea taken from business into the realms of the personal can have outrageously powerful results let me tell you how.
If you have ever spent a significant amount of time in business you will have come across a SWOT analysis.
It is a super useful tool to quickly assess what a business is good at, what it is bad at, what areas it can grow into and what areas it should be worried about. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT).
Great for business but oh so overlooked as a tool for personal development.
I’ve been Obsessed for years about using a personal SWOT analysis.
Let me tell you a secret… The average human’s level of self-awareness is pretty thin on the ground. We all have so many blind spots as to what we are and how we “turn up” in the world.
Here is the secret to using a personal SWOT to rapidly gain a clear picture of who you are. So you don’t walk around blindly underestimating your strengths, overlooking your weaknesses, missing out on opportunities and being run over by the threats you don’t see.
The Basics
Self Analysis…
Here is what you are going to do… you are going to set aside some time preferably a morning or an afternoon. You will sit down with a pad of paper and a pen. You will take a deep breath and make a commitment to being 100% as truthful and honest with yourself as you can be.
- Write a heading titled Strengths
- Under this, you will list all the things you honestly believe you are good at. Skills, talents, subjects, areas of expertise, competencies, abilities, anything and everything you think you are best at or better than the average person at.
- Give yourself a percentage score. 1 being the worst in the world 100 being best in the world at it.
- Decide if any of these strengths are worth improving.
- Write a Heading Weaknesses
- This might be hard, but make the list. Look at areas you consistently fall down, or don’t show up well. This is not a criticism of yourself this is clarity on who you are. The first step in fixing a thing is knowing something needs to be fixed.
- Give yourself a %
- Decide if this is a weakness worth fixing.
- Write a Heading Opportunities.
- Make a list of all the current opportunities you already have. Make a list of everything you might like to pursue. Make a list of any curiosities you might like to enquire about. If you like you can combine these with your existing strengths and weaknesses to gain direction.
- Give yourself a % on how desirable they are to pursue or what upside potential they have to give you.
- Decide which ones are worth pursuing.
- Write a Heading Threats
- Make a list of all the dangers to you of not achieving what you want. These could be internal or external. Things like bad habits you need to be rid of, to people who are not good for you or seek to do you harm either deliberately or not (think emotional vampires). Get down everything that stands in your way slows you down or stops you in your tracks.
- Make a commitment to systematically removing these from your path.
The Advanced
There is an advanced version of the above where instead of doing it by yourself you invite a trusted friend or loved one to sit down with you and help you see your blind spots. This is not just for your weaknesses which friends are great at pointing out, but also because often we all underestimate our virtues.
When we have our analysis complete. We have in hand the first part in what we all need to get everything we want out of life. That is to say Clarity in where we are right at this moment. And you only require three things to get anything. Clarity (of where you are) Direction (where you want to arrive) Strategy (a method to get you there).
So now the first part of your mission is complete..
Gentle Remember: Action on insights, is the Answer.
Thank you for reading.
If you’re a business owner, entrepreneur or life hacker trying to fast-track your success drop me a follow @thesnowhow for more growth-related content. And if you enjoyed this, it would help massively if you shared or commented. Thanks again.
fnord
