It can be difficult to identify your strengths. In fact, sometimes it can feel nearly impossible – we are not very good at celebrating what we are good at! I talk about this as part of developing your personal brand on a KAPOW! Your Brand, Your Way workshop – focussing on things you are good at is a vital part of understanding who you are and what you want to be remembered for.
The trouble is we are really good at remembering criticism and we are pretty crap at remembering the good stuff. You need to stop thrashing about what you are not so good at. Your strengths are ultimately the things that make you great at being you, but we generally find it a lot easier to create a huge long list of all the stuff we think we suck at.
It’s time to turn that mindset around & think Natural Talents + Experience = Strengths
Natural Talents are the things you’ve been good at since childhood.
Because you don’t have to work at these skills, we tend to forget about them and take them for granted, and assume everyone else is good at it too. But that isn’t the case at all – to help realise your own natural talents, give this a go: jot down an example of something you think you did really well.
Then look at the experience part. These are the strengths you’ve honed all your life, such as working in a team, or managing a household.
Once you’ve established a list of all the things you are good at – YOUR strengths – then you can start focussing on your SUPER strengths – the things you are GREAT at. All four of the factors below need to be in play to turn a strength in to a super strength:
- Something that makes you VERY happy
- Something in which you have had a LOT of success
- Something you do a LOT and which you are CONTINUALLY building
- Something that is KNOWN to other people.