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Harness Your Strengths To Succeed In Life

Introduction

Imagine how successful you would be if instead of feeling held back by weakness, you instead were allowed to harness your strengths to excel?

There’s nothing wrong with having an awareness of your weaknesses.

In fact, it’s healthy to know your weak points so that you can overcome them.

It’s much more important to identify your strengths, though, and then use those strengths to succeed.

Maintaining a positive level of mental health will allow you to operate from strength as you identify your talents, skills, and strengths.

These are what will best serve you as you move forward.

It isn’t just a professional boon, identifying and using your strengths to excel will also benefit your personal life.

It doesn’t matter what stage of life you are in, this is applicable to people who have long retired or students who are still trying to make big decisions to plot their life course.

The first step is looking for those strengths instead of trying to figure out those weaknesses.

Operating on a model of personal strengths will allow you to determine what strengths you have, and you can use that information to see the strengths in others.

This can help you navigate life and harness the strengths of others, along with your own, to move forward.

It’s all about understanding and harnessing that to transform not only yourself, but your workplace, relationships, and lifestyle.

Self Identity

The focus is on you.

If you come up with a list of your favorite things to do, at work and at home, ask yourself why you love those things.

It’s probably because you’re really good at doing them!

You are talented in those areas, you enjoy the tasks, and it’s because you can do them well. Enjoyment often means that you have skills or talents in that area.

Just think about how different life can be, whether in your home life or at the office, if your focus was on what’s right in yourself and in others.

When you look at amazing leaders and others, what are the differences?

None of them are the same as each other, but what they all do is play to their strengths. They remain true to themselves, and in doing that they are effective.

Think about it like this. If you are focused on trying to do everything well, then you won’t be great at any of those things.

If you chuckle as you tell people that you’re a Jack of all trades, you’re forgetting that the rest of that saying is master of none.

The issue is that you get caught up in making comparisons with yourself and others.

You see someone else exercise their strengths and wish that you also had that strength.

You spend your days trying to fix yourself, instead of using your skills, talents, and strengths.

Forget trying to be like someone else, start focusing on being your best self.

We are each valuable, we are rare and unique, and when you accept that, you can start to flex your strengths.

Identifying Your Strengths

So, how do you go about recognizing your strengths?

Sometimes the best way to get started is to ask the people around you.

You probably know some truly talented people who don’t see themselves in that way.

You just wish that they could see themselves through your eyes.

Well, you’re exactly the same. When you allow others to hold up a mirror for you to see yourself, you can start to identify your strengths and unique talents.

Sure, you can focus on fixing your weaknesses.

However, that’s not going to help you excel.

It’s your strengths that will help you excel. History, recent and past, is littered with amazing people who have experienced failure.

There are athletes weak in one area and had they focused on that weakness, they could have missed out on the strengths that made them great athletes.

Don’t allow your weaknesses to dictate your decisions or your actions.

Of course, you cannot leverage those strengths until you first identify them. There are a number of ways you can get started.

One of the easiest ways is to find an online self-assessment survey.

The top results give you an idea of where your strengths lie.

Of course, you may take them with a grain of salt as no assessment available free online can be completely accurate. However, it’s a good way to launch your journey and may cast up some new information about yourself.

We are often biased. We can overestimate our ability to think logically, problem solve, and even our sense of humor.

So, we are just as guilty of underestimating ourselves as we are of overestimating ourselves. This is why we suggest turning to friends for a bit of clarity.

While some of us can’t seem to take off those rose-colored glasses, others look at themselves through a lens of negativity. When you do fill out of a self-assessment, think about how you are answering.

Are you being thoroughly honest? Or, do you place more importance of certain aspects of yourself and answer in the way that you think will get you the result you want?

The information isn’t as valuable then, is it?

Ask The People That Know You Best

So, we spoke about having your friends hold up a mirror for you.

How can we do that? There are a number of ways to tackle this task.

The first is to email your closest friends (or call or text), and ask them to relate a story about you.

One where you were at optimum performance, you were in your element, at your very best. Use these stories to find a pattern. This should help you recognize and identify your strengths.

The true first step is to determine which of your friends (or co-workers) will provide you with an honest story.

You don’t want someone who will look to cut you, down nor do you want someone who will simply look to flatter you. Ideally, get 20 or so people to offer you feedback.

Pick different people from different areas and stages of your life, this will help you get a wider view.

It should be a good mix of good friends, co-workers, and friends from the community.

The latter could be church members or people you compete with in a local sports league.

It’s also a good idea to include members of your family and people who have mentored you.

They will have seen you in all types of situations and over a larger period of time, so you should get a really clear picture of yourself at a variety of stages.

Once you receive all of the feedback you can look to see if there are any common themes in the stories.

You can keep a list of any themes that pop up repeatedly and cite the examples that support them. Also, think about what this suggests about each strength.

Now you have enough information to start crafting a portrait of who you are.

So, sit down and write a profile or biography of you at your best. From there, you should look to put those strengths into action.

To do this, you will need an action plan on when, how, and where you will exercise those strengths.

It’s important to note that even if you choose great sources, not all of the feedback will be helpful.

However, that’s why you should aim for higher numbers. It will be more time consuming, but you’re increasing the chances of getting valuable feedback that can help you identify your strengths.

Some people are very good at this kind of thing and others just aren’t.

Ask For Specifics

When you contact your friends to ask them to be as specific as possible.

So, it’s great if they see you as creative, it’s wonderful if they see you as compassionate, but they should provide specific situations where this has been apparent.

It’s difficult to use the information productively when there is no concrete example of you displaying said strength.

The key is to go beyond your feedback and do something with it. Often, people learn about strengths they’d never noticed they had.

They read about experiences that they don’t even remember, but it stuck with someone else.

They feel so flattered by it that it all stops there, and they go no further with the exercise.

The immediate benefits from this exercise are only short-term.

To experience long-term benefits, then you need to create an action plan for your newly identified strengths.

Create Long Term Change

Once you have identified those strengths you will feel happier, temporarily.

The only way to sustain those benefits is to create long-term change.

Using your strengths to improve your performance will also help you improve your happiness.

While you compile a list of people to contact you may find yourself thinking about why you have chosen them.

If they’ve touched your life in any way or inspired you, why don’t you write a story to send them as well?

It’s a healthy exercise and will likely come to you naturally as you go through the people whom you feel will provide you with the best information possible.

We have massive blind spots, whether it’s for our talents or weaknesses. The view becomes clearer when you examine yourself through the lens of others.

List Of Skills And Strengths

To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of example skills.

This may help you spark your own brainstorming session. We have split the skills into three different sections – personal, transferable, and skills that are knowledge-based.

Personal

• • Authenticity
  • Ambition
  • Compassionate
  • Creative
  • Enthusiastic
  • Open-minded
  • Dedicated
  • Flexible
  • Logical
  • Motivated
  • Honest
  • Optimistic
  • Resilient
  • Persistent
  • Trustworthy
  • Self-control
  • Responsible

Transferable

• • Organized
  • Motivational
  • Skilled negotiator
  • Strong communication skills
  • Active listener
  • Bi or tri-lingual
  • Strong presentation skills
  • Detail oriented
  • Strong delegator
  • Interpersonal skills
  • Planner
  • Leader
  • Team player
  • Computer skills
  • Problem solver
  • Time management
  • Analytical
  • Ability to follow directions as well as direct

Knowledge-based

• • Marketing
  • Medicine
  • Engineering
  • Accounting
  • Biology
  • Finance
  • Architecture
  • Managerial
  • Artistic
  • Aerospace
  • Music
  • Politics
  • Nursing
  • Product design
  • Legal
  • Philosophy
  • Civil engineering
  • Social media
  • Teaching
  • Contract services
  • Web design
  • Mathematics
  • Photography
  • Computer science

Signs That Show You Your Strengths

• Memories. Think about what you enjoyed doing when you were a child, do you still do it now? If it’s something you were really good at, then you probably do! Your strengths are deep-rooted, even in your earlier years.

• Energy & Authenticity. Think about the types of hobbies or activities that leave you with a buzz of energy. You might just find that it’s because they draw on your strengths. Also, the activities or tasks that you feel at home doing – they make you feel like you’re your real self when you carry them out.

• Easy. Often, the things that come easily to you do so because they play to your strengths. There’s no need to put in much effort because you naturally excel in them. There are your strengths.

• Attention & Learning. What makes you sit up and take notice? We generally pay more attention to things that fall in line with our strengths. Likewise, if there are things you learn easily and quickly, then there may be a strength there.

• Lists. What is always on your to-do list? It may speak to your strengths if it’s something that you are often asked to do.

Use Your Strengths To Excel

Using your strengths to excel simply means that you use what you are good at to get what you want.

The complicated part is how to use them once you know what they are.

So, at this point, you should already have a list of strengths that you’re ready to take advantage of. Now, comes the real hard work.

Before we proceed, though, it’s important to note that a strength isn’t necessarily just something that you feel passionate about. It’s also not what you wish or want to be.

Your strength is already in front of you, there is evidence of it, which means you can provide examples of it. This is just to ensure you aren’t steering yourself down the wrong path.

• Consider the skills that you have in front of you.

• Take a moment to consider what type of behaviors will help you apply those skills.

• You can also make a note of the behaviors that will have the opposite effect.

1. Now identify three things that will improve the outcome when you apply your skills and strengths.

Likewise, three things that undermine your desired outcome. Do this right down the line for every strength that you have written down.

This is all about removing the obstacles between you and using your strengths to excel.

1. For every strength you have recorded, you should include evidence of it.

So, if you feel that one of your strengths is public speaking, you should be able to point to concrete evidence of that.

For example, you may have to speak publicly as part of your job description.

Do this regularly and every time you do this, you have an opportunity to gain feedback.

This will provide you with the evidence you need to say that yes, this is a strength! It doesn’t stop here.

Creating The Plan

You have evidence, but you need to create a plan that will allow you to create even more evidence.

If you want to use your strengths to excel, then you need to exercise it which means doing more of it!

This isn’t just learning about your strengths, it’s about leveraging them!

Once you have done this with one strength, then you can do it with all of your strengths. It’s just getting better at the things you are already good at. So, here is why it’s so important that you use your strengths to excel.

• Your neural pathways have been forging your natural talents and strengths since you were a child. So, by exploring those you are living authentically.

• If you don’t provide your strengths with an outlet, it may result in self-sabotage.

• Time is finite. When you spend time developing yourself it leaves you with less time for other commitments and activities. So, if you think in terms of ROI, where will you get the most bang for your buck? Harnessing and improving on your existing strengths, of course! You are managing your time effectively, and reserving energy.

• Experts believe that most people will change their job ever few years. So, the sooner you start to work on your strengths the better placed you will be to move to a new position, whether it’s within your company or in a new one. Your resume is a place to highlight your strengths and how these can be of benefit to an organization and in the role you apply for. So, not only is it vital that you know what those strengths are, it’s important that you know what value they bring.

• Don’t forget, your children and the younger people in your office will be watching you. You might not want to be a role model, but you already are to someone, whether you realize it or not. On that note, it’s important to consider what type of impression you make on them. Harnessing your strengths inspires people to greatness.

Final Thoughts

While it’s important to note that your strengths are your strengths, it’s also possible to build new strengths.

There are plenty of things that you’re already naturally good at, that you just haven’t discovered yet. You can continue this process throughout your life.

It’s a great way to discover new strengths and build up from there.

It’s this continual development that will allow you to succeed in every area of your life. So, don’t call it a day once you do this exercise today.

Revisit it, whether it’s twice a year or once a year.

You may want to revisit it before you change positions or start a new job search. There is value in carrying out this activity.

As long as you are focused on progress, and you plan to put it all into action – you can’t go wrong.

Experts believe that there are really just seven core strengths and that other strengths stem from those.

So, if you are trying to develop new strengths, try to trace it to the core and identify something that you can build out from.

Essentially, if you want to build new strengths it’s much easier to do so if you already possess an adjacent strength.

A good example would be how you are good at presentations, so that would likely extend to speeches, which could lead you to hold regular webinars on a social media channel.

Those are different skills and strengths, but they come from the same ability.

You can adapt those strengths to play into new strengths. This might make it easier for you to determine what other strengths you already possess but have never had the opportunity to exercise.

While talents like Serena Williams and Tiger Woods started honing their craft from a very young age, others like Julia Child, only learned how to cook in her thirties.

It’s never too late to discover your natural talents and strengths.

Moreover, it’s never too late to use them to excel.

Just look at The West Wing and Desperate Housewives actress Kathryn Joosten who was 42 before she left her nursing career behind to pursue her acting strength.

Sometimes your greatest strengths have been hiding from you, whether in plain sight or not. Regardless, hopefully this will have helped you uncover your natural strengths. Now it’s time to leverage them.

 

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