By Steve Beseke, beseke1@earthlink.net
Knowing Yourself Helps Others See Your Potential
Many of us spend too much time on what we could have done, or thinking about our perceived personal and professional weaknesses. We, of course, can learn new strategies as we pursue our next great work or life adventure. I have found dwelling on the past or not getting through my shortcomings can have a spinning affect on me – one that does not allow me to move consistently forward.
To stay resilient and shine a bright light on your personal brand in these challenging times, all of us need to focus on our strengths as a person, spouse, parent, friend and co-worker. This is especially true for many of us who have been seriously affected by recent layoffs, which are unfortunately gaining speed in our country today. Your personal brand and worth do not diminish because you may have lost your job…
- Adapting to new challenges always means looking at ways we can be a better person. Focusing on the past and any weakness(es) you see in yourself will diminish the fantastic person that you are everyday – and not let folks see you unlimited potential.
That is why I encourage you to think about one strength you see in yourself and how this positively affects your life. In fact, when you wake up in the mornings this week, let’s all try to remember this strength and the good people that we are.
- Resiliency and adaptability is sometimes putting the past in perspective and creating a sense of future hope. Identifying your strengths will highlight your personal brand and the terrific assets you bring everyday to yourself, family and friends. As a person with a disability (Cerebral Palsy), I could dwell on my life challenges. But what is the point? I have overcome any negatives with my body to concentrate on the positives of myself.
No matter if you are disabled or not, you can overcome any life/career issues by remembering the resilience you bring to the table everyday. Please think of one positive aspect about you and write a short paragraph on why this is important in your life and career. I challenges you to write down one of your resilient aspects for six weeks. At the end, you’ll have a wonderful snapshot of who you are and the wonderful skills you can bring to your life and career.
- I heard someone say once: “You can’t always fix your weaknesses but you can definitely improve on your strengths.” Focusing too much on weaknesses will expend far more needed resilient energy than continually showing the world your strengths – and diminish your brand.
Highlighting these strengths will allow each of us to tackle the variety of daily issues we face – and the uncertainty all of us may have in this economic perfect storm.
Truly knowing yourself will help differentiate you from your peers, co-workers and others. Not many of us have ultimately know ourselves. If you try my six-week adventure looking at yourself – see my my highlighted sections above, you’ll find that people will begin to see the real you – because you will know who you are!
Good luck and we will see you next week. Also, please check out my examiner.com articles in the Minneapolis career and woekplace section.