Consider Doing a SWOT Analysis on Yourself

2019-01-092019-01-09 ~ adminlife

When people create case studies on businesses, they often include a SWOT analysis. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. If you can do this for business, why not consider doing one for yourself? It can help you gain insight about yourself and reinforce the idea of believing in yourself.

The concept of SWOT is usually diagrammed in quadrants or squares, representing each of the words of the acronym. It’s up to you as to which squares to place each of the words. By convention, the upper-left square is for Strengths, while the lower-left square is for Opportunities. The upper-right square is for Weaknesses, and the lower-right square is for Threats.

Fill up each quadrant with appropriate items relating to the heading of the quadrant. To take this a step further, ask family and friends to help you fill up the quadrants. After you have them all filled, you can evaluate them to see what needs improvement.

Don’t let the negative aspects (Weaknesses, Threats) trip you up when creating your analysis. You are listing them to gain perspective in areas that you need your focus. In fact, some weaknesses you may not want to tackle because it doesn’t interest you. Threats are merely items to be aware of and may help you try to overcome them.

The key to success is to be as honest as possible with yourself about all the items included in the analysis. If you aren’t, it isn’t going to help you much, and you may focus on the wrong items to improve. Further, you may not be as strong in some areas as you believed, which can lead you on the wrong path as well.

A representative SWOT analysis will give you a great foundation for your life, both personally and professionally. You can use it as a tool to advance your goals. You will learn about yourself and who you are. Don’t rush this process. You want it to be as representative of yourself as possible. It’s better to take several days or even weeks than to try to list items for the sake of filling up the quadrants.

Once you feel comfortable that you have the right items for your analysis, you can use it to help you believe in yourself. It’s all there for you to reference, and it can help you to refine your goals and tasks further.

To your success

Michael W

P.S. If you are looking for a confidence program that can help you with your self development. Send me an email at michael@youaresuccesslifecoach.com to request a copy of my “Maximum Confidence Transformation Package”. Afterwards we can arrange a discovery telephone call to discuss the package and how you can benefit further from developing your confidence level.

Feature photo used under CCO and available at https://pixabay.com/en/plant-computer-using-person-mouse-2798849/

Become a Negative-Thinking Turnaround Factory

2019-01-082019-01-08 ~ adminlife

Negative thoughts bombard your life. They are all over the television. The news or your favourite television shows contain negativity. You face it at work and even at home. You will see enough of it online as well. It invades your life.

What if you could picture your brain as a factory that takes negative thinking as input and processes it to churn out positive thoughts? Perhaps this seems a bit abstract as you are not indeed a factory. But, if you can think in these terms, you may be able to combat the negative thinking.

On your transition to factory status, you need to stop yourself from overreacting to what people say. When someone says something you don’t agree with, take a moment to consider what they are saying. When you get annoyed at others, you stop listening to them and only want to get your point across as to why they are wrong. Instead, after he or she speaks, take a moment and consider what the message is.

The next stage is to try and see the other person’s point of view. If you have a difficult time doing this, calmly ask questions of the person making the statement. You can say that you don’t understand the reason for the statement and would like to know more about why they said it.

You don’t have to agree with the other person, even after you start to process what they say. But, the act of listening and considering their point of view will transform you. You may start to challenge your belief system. Sometimes, you can get so focused on a belief even when the reason why you feel that way has changed. When you start to question your beliefs, you will consider what others have to say more openly. The process will help you turn negative thoughts into positive ones.

Negative thoughts seldom lead to believing in oneself. You will end up challenging what everyone says as wrong if they don’t agree with your way of thinking. You will become bitter towards others and eventually towards yourself. You won’t believe that anything is possible because you shoot down every suggestion. This type of thinking doesn’t make people happy.

When you start to open yourself to others, you will learn more and be accepting of different beliefs. You will become enlightened when this happens.

To your success

Michael W

Feature photo used under CCO and available at https://pixabay.com/en/insecurity-fears-aversions-cube-1306280/

Build Confidence with Competence

2019-01-062019-01-06 ~ adminlife

Confidence and competence are crucial to ultimate success no matter what your endeavor is. The more competence you have in a given career, sport or personal goal, the more confident you’ll become that you can complete the task giving it all you’ve got – mentally and physically.

Competence means that you have unwavering belief in yourself to meet and complete any challenge. Your competence comes from the understanding, knowledge and willingness to perform whatever is needed to become successful in a chosen field.

Confidence is more of a state of mind that you have the ability to go forward with a goal or task. With competence added to the mix, you’ll be able to present an image to others that you’re strong and have the qualities needed to undertake a task.

The two traits, confidence and competence, are powerful components in your life and with them, you can achieve beyond your wildest dreams. Those who are confident in their abilities feel competent to seek more challenges, push themselves to new heights, even though they’ve already succeeded.

Most people who are confident and competent enter each challenge and set and perform goals with much enthusiasm and determination to succeed. They don’t dwell on failures and mistakes, but turn them into learning experiences which spur them on to bigger and better things. Challenges become opportunities and obstacles become challenges.

Confidence is something that’s difficult to fake. It must be gained from the learning process which makes you confident in your abilities – and that is competence. Competence is also derived from seeking knowledge and putting into action certain goals, organization and preparation that will lead you toward completing a goal or competition.

It’s important to set goals that, step-by-step, lead you to a competence you feel and a confidence you exude. Be sure you learn how to set goals and follow the steps needed to get there. The more goals you set and the better you become at the tasks, the more competent you’ll feel to go on to bigger and better things.

When you develop confidence that comes from competence that was learned and practiced, you’ll become the person who instills trust in others. Confidence communicates with others by the role model you create for yourself. When others see that image, they’re either put-off, intimidated or encouraged by what they experience. You communicate the image you’ve derived from the confidence you’ve created and that ability can help you soar to success.

To your success

Michael W

Feature photo used under CCO and available at https://pixabay.com/en/motivation-live-courage-enjoy-life-1389126/

Focus and Action Go Hand in Hand

2018-12-312018-12-31 ~ adminlife

What good is having focus if you don’t take any action? Conversely, if you take action without a focus, how will you know you are doing the right things? As you can probably surmise, focus and action go hand in hand.

The concepts reinforce each other. Suppose you decide that you need to increase sales, or whatever your goal happens to be. You plan out the steps and use that to set your focus. Then, when you execute the plan by taking action, you will learn that your focus was correct. Or, you will learn that it didn’t work out for some reason and that you need to consider alternate plans.

The last sentence of the previous paragraph is important. Not everything you plan will work out and you need to keep that in mind. If you find something isn’t working out, and you don’t believe it is going to get any better, don’t hesitate to find something else. Otherwise, the focus-action loop will get stale, and you will get frustrated. This is a negative reinforcement that will only serve to help you fail.

Failure is part of the process. Your actions should be iterative along with measures of what is happening. It can’t hurt to have alternative plans defined at the beginning of the cycle if that is possible. If not, just determine those alternatives when they make sense.

When you continue in this manner, you will find your focus is more intense. This is because you believe the actions you take will lead you to the desired results and you’ll shift your focus if it doesn’t.

If you need to extend this entire concept to a team, make sure they understand that the possibility of failure exists. This will help you guide them to different paths. Of course, if a few of the team members are not doing their part, this is another path you will need to deal with. These members may not be clear on the benefits of the plan. When that happens, they will lose focus, and they won’t be able to take action. Or, the actions they do take will not coincide with what the team is trying to deliver.

When you approach your goals in this way, you will likely excel at your job or business. You’ll have a renewed sense of purpose, and you will bring the business to new heights.

To your success

Michael W

Feature photo used under CCO and available at https://pixabay.com/en/board-result-excuse-me-failure-3240465/

3 Tips to Increase Your Personal Power

2018-12-302018-12-30 ~ adminlife

Personal power is never fully developed. Like your body, it needs exercise. Not a couple of times a week. Instead, conscious training several times a day. To develop habits that ingrain beliefs, values and help you become at one with yourself. When you know yourself, value yourself and stay true to you, you’ll find meaningful purpose in all areas of life. At the core of the true you is the ability to bring the best out in those around you.

That’s the makings of a true leader. Leading from a place of wisdom and not using positional power alone.

You can have positional power and personal power, but you cannot be an effective leader without personal power. Nor do you need the positional power to be a driving force for good in your own life and those around you.

3 Tips to Boost Your Personal Power

1. Strive to learn more

Commit to consistent learning and be broad about the topics you study. Study life and attend seminars and workshops to build your expertise. Most important is to learn more about yourself continually. Try new things, experiment, take some risks and put yourself into situations that make you feel vulnerable. Go to the cinema after work instead of feeling the need to have drinks with your colleagues, just because you feel the need to fit in. Do what feels right by you.

2. Practice Mindful Gratitude

Practicing gratitude is among the most positive habits you can develop. Keeping a gratitude journal can serve you in multiple ways. You’ll feel better, sleep better, eat healthier, have stronger relationships with everyone important in your life, and you’ll feel happier for being grateful for everything you have surrounding you.

3. Own Your Authenticity

Authenticity is about being true to you. It is only possible when you have in-depth knowledge and know your strengths and weaknesses. You will begin to act with deliberate intentions that are in line with your moral compass. You will know your place and when to delegate and how to go about using your relationship skills to get people to do things for you that you know they’ll do a better job than you could if you were to try.

That’s where coming from a place of personal power to influence others will help push you toward reaching your goals faster, because you will have strong relationships with people who value your input, expertise, trust your credibility and will help you when you ask, without hesitation.

To your success

Michael W

Feature photo used under CCO and available at https://pixabay.com/en/identity-self-authentic-795295/