https://www.lifewithbharat.com/personal-swot-analysis/
Personal Life Reflection
“Self-reflection entails asking yourself questions about your values, assessing your strengths and failures, thinking about your perceptions and interactions with others, and imagining where you want to take your life in the future.” – Robert L. Rosen
From the 17th – 19th 2023; I was attending an internal auditor’s workshop at Hotel Africana on behalf of my organization – SADRiNE. While I sat in that training on the second day; our facilitator Mr. Alex Mboijana reminded us of the tools used to understand the context of our organization as regards to auditing our Integrated Management System. He mentioned that the tools are; SWOT and PESTEL. He added that these tools enable an organization to determine its internal and external issues that are relevant to its purpose and its strategic direction and that affect its ability to achieve the intended results.
As as he discussed, my mind was driven away into a deep personal reflection of my life. It was amazing how this deep thought came to me on that day, yet it wasn’t the first time for me to hear about the SWOT tool. In fact, this tool had been discussed by Mr. Joshua Roni Wakholi the day before and in my organization, we had already used it to highlight our issues.
For some good minutes, I meditated on, my weaknesses, behaviors, thoughts, attitudes, and desires. To myself I asked; how great would it be if I not only used the SWOT analysis tool for solving issues of my organization but also used it to solve my personal issues that may have held me back into becoming the best version of myself. This personal reflection couldn’t get out off my head until I sat down that evening and wrote down a few details about myself using the tool.
Learning Verses Growing
Iyanla Vanzant is quoted in a saying. “The journey into self-love and self-acceptance must begin with self-examination… until you take the journey of self-reflection, it is almost impossible to grow or learn in life.” I feel like I am at a point in life where I need to grow. I mean; I do really need to grow with everything that I am learning right now. It’s one thing to learn and it’s also another thing to grow.
A focus on growth makes you more willing to accept both challenges and mistakes with the understanding that you may need to try several times to reach success. On the other hand, if you focus only on learning, you can develop a habit of procrastinating when it comes to reaching your goals and this is what I have focusing on in the past. For me to realize this growth I have started by knowing where I stand through conducting a SWOT analysis on myself. Let’s see what a Personal SWOT analysis mean.
What is a Personal SWOT analysis?
A personal SWOT analysis is a tried and tested method of evaluating one’s strengths and weaknesses. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Why do a Personal Swot Analysis?
A personal SWOT analysis is a very important tool anyone can use in their life for self-reflection. While a SWOT tool is used in business; it can be used personally say you expect to interview for a job, want to change or decide on which career to take and any time you need to change certain details about your life.
The aim of using this tool is to turn our weaknesses into strengths, and our threats into opportunities so that we can become better human beings.
Implementing a SWOT Analysis in Your Personal Life
Implementing a SWOT analysis requires some effort. First you must have a goal for doing the analysis. Second you need to brainstorm questions that flow with your goal. Thirdly, you need to spare some time to do a personal reflection and crafting your answers as honestly as possible. Let’s explore some personal questions you can ask for each quadrant.
Strengths Analysis
Strengths are internal factors (meaning factors about you) that could help you achieve your goals. These are things you do well that sets you apart from other people. Some questions to reflect on could be?
- What knowledge-based skills do I have?
- What soft-skills do I have?
- What positive personality traits do I have?
- What do other people in my life say are my strengths?
- What do I do well?
Weakness Analysis
Weaknesses are internal factors (factors about you) that could get in the way of you achieving your goals. These are things you don’t do well or as well as other people that may hinder your success and growth. Some questions to reflect on could be?
- What times have I “messed up” in work, relationships, with my family, etc. What about me or what did I do to cause that issue?
- What situations and tasks do I usually avoid? Why? What does this say about me as a person?
- What bad habits do I have?
- Have people ever complained about me? What have been the valid complaints?
- What would others say I could improve? Think about things that aren’t necessarily weaknesses, but things that you could improve.
What a long list this is! Something has to be done about this seriously.
Opportunities Analysis
Opportunities are external factors (factors that you can’t influence and aren’t about you directly) that could help you to achieve your goals. These are changes occurring externally that you could take advantage of. Opportunities help you know where to focus your time and resources. Some questions to reflect on could be?
- What activities or hobbies could I start doing or learn to do?
- Are there any groups I can join?
- What could I achieve in my personal life if I improved on some of my weaknesses?
- What trends could I take advantage of?
- How can I turn my strengths into opportunities?
- What connections do you have that I can leverage to grow my character?
- Do I have some people in my circles which are good at something and can help me?
Threats Analysis
Threats are external factors (factors that you can’t influence and aren’t about you directly) that you need to be aware of in case they get in the way of achieving your goals. Some questions to reflect on could be?
- Is there someone in my life holding me back?
- What threats do my weaknesses expose me to?
- What obstacles do I currently find while working?
- Thinking about weaknesses: Does anyone in my life exacerbate these weaknesses or encourage them?
- Are there any new trends, technologies, or processes that I can’t or haven’t gotten involved in that are keeping me from advancing?
- Are there certain tasks, errands, or projects that bog me down and keep me from advancing?
- Is my job, education, or personal life getting in the way of advancing in one of the other areas?
- Do any of my personal traits of weaknesses directly lead to a threat to my success?
- Think about things that, if they were different, would help you move closer to achieving your goals. What are they?
Check out my own analysis Rashidhar SWOT Analysis and come upto with you own analysis. Remeber the aim of using this tool is to turn our weaknesses into strengths, and our threats into opportunities so that we can become better human beings.
Summing it up
Organizations often use the SWOT tool to identify how they can stand out from their competitors. How about taking some time to identify your strengths and weaknesses then assess opportunities and threats that flows with them using the same tool? If you give it a just a little thought, doing a personal analysis could help you identify opportunities you would not have identified.
Once you are aware of your weaknesses you will be able to work towards mitigating or minimizing them and be able to reduce or eliminate threats that would stop you from moving forward. Remember, it does not stop at analysis. To quote Natalie wood, “Not even analysis, by itself, can transform you. You must still do the changing yourself”. It’s my advice that you make some analysis to yourself and not end there but also embark on the journey of embracing the change you wish to see in your life.
Thank you for sparing time to read!
What’s your take on the Personal SWOT Analysis? Kindly share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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