What we are going to do now is analyze them using a powerful tool that have been used by life coaches and businesses for years. A SWOT analysis is used to break down and analyze an organization or an individual assessing Different areas that can have an impact on their ability to succeed. Using a SWOT you look at the strengths and  weaknesses as well as opportunities and threats that can, will, or do make a difference in how well they do.

SWOT:

• Strengths: What are the areas you excel in? What areas give you an advantage over others? What resources do you have at your disposal? How good are you at using those resources? What do others around you see as your strengths.
• Weaknesses: What areas can you improve upon? What are areas that should give you concern? What are the things that you should avoid? What are the things that those close to you or that you work with would agree are weaknesses?
• Opportunities: What are the things going on that your strengths can be used well in? What areas do you see that you could take advantage of? What trends do you see that your strengths or a little tweaking of your weaknesses you  could take advantage of? You are thinking about GOOD THINGS that can happen because of your strengths. You are also going to consider good that can come from weaknesses either being turned into strengths or being eliminated altogether.
• Threats: What are the obstacles that stand in your way? What changes are taking place that could cause problems? What weaknesses do you have that could really hold you back or stop you?

One thing that you will need is a SWOT matrix which is essential and very helpful at compartmentalizing all of these areas and helps to make sense of all of it. You can find a free SWOT worksheet here.

Using these areas: Strength/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats, go through that list of things that were revealed in the assessment tests and see where they fit. When using the matrix and going through all of these traits be as honest and objective as you can. Don’t be afraid to pat yourself on the back when looking at your strengths. Don’t pull any punches when looking at your weaknesses. When looking at opportunities, DREAM BIG and use your imagination. When looking at the threats, the glass is really just half full and the other shoe is really about to drop. Think of the worst case scenarios in looking at your threats. It’s OK to border on the extreme with all of these because the truth will be found somewhere in the middle. Don’t feel like you have to limit yourself to what was found in those assessments, either. Those are just a starting point for your self-observation.

In the next few days we will be looking at all of these areas to help make sense of it.

If you are taking on any challenge whatsoever, it is good to take a look around and see what you have that can help you be successful and what areas you have that might hold yourself back. Just because you have limitations in some area doesn’t mean you can’t be successful. It just means that you need to work on it and find ways that your weaknesses can be strengthened.

To find those out, though, one of the most common tools is self assessment tests. Now, you shouldn’t let them be the final decider about what you do because no test is perfect. Anytime you take one of those tests, if you are completely honest in doing it, will have different results each time you take it. They suggest that you make your decisions based on what you feel right at that moment and try not to think too much about it. Well, I feel differently about things all the time. On one day where I may have been particularly successful in one area I may have some confidence that I don’t usually have that may skew things. I could take the test again where I have failed at something and when I take the test the lack of confidence I have in myself may have waned a bit making the results of the test different. Whatever my mood is on any particualar day at any moment, based on what I have experienced around that point in time, will affect what answers I give. If people have ticked me off recently I may come across as more negative and unfriendly.

Even with their limitations you can find ways in which they can be useful.

Here are  few assessments that I found. Some may be a bit more clumsy than others but still they offer some interesting insights.

• How is your attitude towards risk taking?
• How ready for change are you?
• How effective are you at using your time?
• Are you the type of person that would be successful starting a new business?
• What type of leader would you be or are you?

There are many more but these are a good starting point and will give you a good idea of where your strengths and weakenesses are. Don’t look at these tests being something to discourage you or give you false hope. These are only means of finding out where you are at this moment.

Take the time and going through each of these, answering them honestly. Write down what these things say about you. Make a list of all the strengths and weaknesses. Make note of all the areas that you see can be improved upon. Then walk away. Don’t think about them or stew over the results. Give yourself the rest of the day or evening to get away from it. Tomorrow will be the day that you think about it. Giving yourself a chance to step back away from it will enable you to look at this more objectively and make sense of it all.

I think of the song by U2, ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ and I wonder if that is going to be me. Will I find what I’m looking for? If I don’t, will I be OK with that? Will I gain so much from the journey that actually finding it won’t matter? It is easy to dwell on all of that and spend so much time worrying about the road to success that you never get started on it.

Worrying prevents us from acting. The original meaning of the word ‘worry’ means to choke or strangle. More specifically it means to grab by the throat with the teeth, much like some animals will do when they have caught their prey and suffocate it. That is exactly what we do when we worry about something and why we never realize many of our dreams. We strangle them with doubts. We use our doubts and insecurities and chomp down on the neck of our dreams and aspirations causing them die.

We have enough people who surround us that tell us that what we want to accomplish can’t be done. We don’t need ourselves jumping on the negative bandwagon. We need to tell ourselves that while this might be crazy and we might not make it we are going to try anyway.

Wherever it is we are at this moment, what ever shape we are in, we need to convince ourselves that it is time to act. We need to push those doubts aside and press forward. This first part of the journey, finding where we are, we may not like some of the things that we find out about ourselves. Knowing that there are those people and resources available to us to aid us on our journey is going to help us. We don’t have to go it alone, on our own. While we do our self-examination we will also find our strengths. Those strengths may not seem like much to begin with but we need to find ways to help us understand how those strengths can be useful. This will give us the confidence that we may be lacking.

We have what it takes to succeed either within us or within reach. Tomorrow we find out how to find out what those strengths are.

To get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ you need to know where point ‘A’ is. To become successful you need to have a starting point. Sure you can say I start right where I am but where are you? You may know but I’m not sure I do.

One of those survivor shows on television where they drop some guy in the middle of a remote location there was an episode or two where the guy had to scamper up a tall tree to see where he is. He knows kind of where he wants to go (civilization) but to get there he needs to know what direction to take.

What I want to do is take a good look at where I am at this point in my life and take an inventory and see what I have to work with.I need to see what areas I have that I am strong in and what areas might cause me to struggle. I have to be honest with this because the success of the whole journey may depend on what I bring to the table. The areas in which I am strong will help me know how to start and what things I can rely on. The areas that are kind of strong in my life need to be strengthened so I need to develop those. I also need to be fully aware of my weak points and find out what I can do to overcome them. I need to see what resources are available to help me.

The next few days I will be looking at some of the tools available to find out what can be used to figure it all out.