Self-Awareness 1/5: Know Your Strengths

Over the course of my journey into the world of personal development, I’ve repeatedly seen and experienced how the best piece of advice really is to just get started.

It’s something I’ve shared again and again in my writing, podcast, and coaching.

But for a lot of people, this only solves half the problem. The other half? Knowing what to get started on. They know they need to take action, but they don’t know what action to take.

This is why I strongly believe the starting point for anyone looking to step off of the conventional conveyor belt of society and create an exponential life is self-awareness. 

As with any journey, we cannot determine how to get to our destination if we don’t know our starting point. You need to know where you are before you can work out how to get to where you’re going.

In order to help you figure this out, I’ve created a 5-part series of articles to help you develop more self-awareness. In this series, I’ll share a new exercise each day to help you get clear on who you are, what you want and why you’re here.

I suggest doing these in a journal over the course of a week (1 each day) or longer if you wish. The point is not to rush through them, but rather to give each exercise (and yourself) the attention it deserves.

Simply find yourself a quiet place with no distractions (cellphones not allowed!) and allow yourself to really get into it.

Here are the links to all 5 parts in the series:

Part 1: Know Your Strengths (below)

Part 2: Your 110-Year-Old Self

Part 3: The Best Self Diary

Part 4: 100 Questions

Part 5: 50 Life Experiences

BONUS: The Hedgehog Concept

If you’d prefer to get all 5 exercises immediately in a pdf guide, you can download my ebook ‘Do You Know You’ below:

Self-Awareness Part 1: Know Your Strengths

The first step in our self-­awareness journey is to learn what we’re good at. It can be easy to dismiss certain things we do as ‘normal’ or something that everyone can do, but if we take a step back, we may realize that, in fact, we have a natural talent for these things.

As a personal example, I’m really good at organizing things, being consistent, and creating systems, something I initially thought everyone just knew how to do. After speaking with other coaches and entrepreneurs, I realized that these traits didn’t come to them as easily as they do to me.

We all have our own unique character strengths which make us who we are, and in order to create an exponential life, we need to emphasize these strengths and spend less time on our weaknesses.

There are two systems I love when it comes to determining our unique character strengths.

The first is the StrengthsFinder 2.0 test. This test is about $20 but well worth it in my opinion. You’ll take a short survey, after which you’ll receive your top 5 strengths, along with several other resources explaining how to use them, what to focus on, etc.

The second option is the VIA Character Strengths survey. This is a similar test, but is completely free! You’ll also receive a description of your top 5 strengths.

Once you know your unique strengths, it then becomes your job to use them as often as possible.

That’s your exercise for today: Find your unique strengths. Enjoy giving yourself the time to go through one of the tools above and then move on to part 2.

Alternatively, if you’d like to get all 5 exercises immediately in a pdf guide, you can download my ebook ‘Do You Know You’ below.