As the gloomy and cold weather outside encourages us to hibernate and stay under our blanket with a warm cup of hot chocolate, now may be the time to reflect and find personal strengths within ourselves. As this trying year draws to a close, it may be difficult to focus on the positive things that surround us, but what if we were to see the light within ourselves? A tricky task, isn’t it? This week why not run an inventory of our strengths and by the same token give ourselves a good confidence boost! What is it that makes us a great coworker, a manager to look up to or the best choice for our clients to reach their goals? What elements can we harness in the pursuit of our dreams? Let’s find out!
Why it it important to know our personal strengths?
First, let’s acknowledge the fact that most of us have been trained to focus on the bad, the not so perfect, and all the areas we can improve on. In the professional world, discussing strengths may be considered less productive, whereas identifying weaknesses to work on is synonymous to greater performance. While it is tempting to only focus on your weaknesses and improve on those, neglecting our strengths would only be detrimental to our overall resilience.
Knowing your professional and personal strengths greatly contributes to our wellbeing. A keen, yet humble, awareness of our qualities means we know which resources to draw from when faced with a challenge. In reality, using the advantages we possess to overcome an obstacle makes much more sense than focusing on what we lack. Not so surprisingly, some of us tend to engage with the latter behaviour, focusing solely on our weaknesses. But on the contrary, our personal resilience depends on how we choose to deal with hardships in a way that best suits us. The more we trust ourselves, the stronger we become.
Focusing on our strengths requires us to commit to being in our personal power. Drawing from both Eastern philosophy and Western physiological knowledge, kinesiology offers a way to connect to our inner source, the seat of our personal strength and power. Allowing ourselves to embrace our true self is crucial as we all have superpowers waiting to be uncovered and put to good use. Combined with the wisdom imparted by past experiences, we become more powerful through cultivating the gifts that help us strive confidently into our future.
What are your strengths? Ask others!
The first step is to learn to focus on the good that surrounds us and put aside the not so perfect aspects of ourselves. To best identify our strengths we may call upon the help of others. Have you heard of the “reflected best self exercise”? Ask ten people to recount three times when they saw you in a state they perceive was your best. Note that the respondents should be from various relationships to you, background, age, this will increase the degree of objectivity in the feedback you receive. You can also choose to focus on one area of your life, for example your career. Draw similarities and patterns within the answers you get. Be aware that the answers may not be what you expect and focus on adopting a non-emotional perspective.
We may want to ask ourselves these key questions:
What are our motivations? Refer to the previous article on self-motivation to understand how to best use your drivers.
What has this year taught us about ourselves? What strengths have we uncovered? How can we draw from our strengths to implement changes and achieve our goals?
Acknowledging our strengths as superpowers also means engaging mindfully with this present version of ourselves, regardless of the current state in which we are in. We are perfectly imperfect and that is ok! If uncovering your strength was a difficult exercise for you, you may want to focus on reminding yourself of them everyday through a personal mission statement and positive affirmations which we explain below.
Making our personal strengths clear to ourselves
Our personal mission statement helps remind ourselves of our strengths and how we intend to use them in contributing to the external world. Similar to an affirmation, the mission statement clearly outlines the strengths you contribute for yourself and into the world.A mission statement is both highly personal, usually drafted in the first person, emotional and aspirational. In short, it should strongly resonate with you. Being clear with ourselves helps us better communicate to others what we have to offer.
Examples of self affirmations:
“I activate the pioneer within and turn the impossible into the possible.”
“I replace all limitations with self-belief and pride and the ability to create.”
“If I can think it, I can find a way to achieve it.”
“I open up to my own integrity and power.”
We don’t always know how things will unfold but knowing which strengths we can draw from prepares to face whatever comes our way. Lastly, focusing on our strengths isn’t selfish. In fact, this may be your best way to contribute to the greater good. Having a sense of your talents means you know that you may have the answer to someone else’s problem down the line. Being aware of your strengths can definitely put your forward but also others within your environment, be it at work, at home or in a social situation.
Are you unclear about where your strengths lie? Need some help awakening your superpowers? Aura & Meta has put together a unique 8-week programme launching this February: Reset, Realign, Restart: STOP existing. START LIVING. Taking a look at yourself and retrieving the best qualities is not easy task. We have been so conditioned to focus on our weaknesses, this programme will get to work on making your strengths come to light and contributing them towards the goals you set for yourself in the future.
Book here – https://aurameta.com/mind-set-change-rest-realign-restart/
For any questions regarding Aura & Meta’s practice book a free chemistry call and let’s get chatting!