It is essential to know your strengths and weaknesses. This way, you can focus on what you are good at and improve the areas you need help. Nobody is perfect – we all have our strengths and weaknesses. It's essential to embrace them both. This blog post will discuss identifying your strengths and weaknesses and what you can do to improve them.

You can try to be a jack-of-all-trades, but it will still be clear that you excel in at least one thing and another where your performance is not so good. Some people will go on in their lives not knowing what they are good at and what they are not. It doesn't hurt to take some time to understand ourselves better and identify strengths and weaknesses. Knowing these things will help us make better decisions on what we should pursue and avoid.

Personal strengths

If you don't know what things serve as your strengths, some indicators can help you identify them.

• These are the things that you find easy to do despite others having difficulty doing them.
• It feels natural for you to do things that are your strengths.
• When trying to learn and improve on something, it feels easy for you to absorb the new knowledge and apply new techniques from what you have learned.
• Other people can point out what things you are good at doing are.
• You usually gain positive feedback and excellent remarks after doing things you excel in.
• You lose track of time from doing something you love.

Personal weaknesses

Alongside your strengths are your weaknesses, and it's vital to identify them, so you don't make rash decisions that can lead to failures or problems. If you don't know your weaknesses yet, look out for the following things.

• Something that you have trouble or difficulty in doing can be a weakness.
• When you feel uncomfortable doing something, it can be your weakness.
• It takes several attempts to do something before you get it right.
• You find it challenging to grasp the ideas behind something when trying to learn and do something new.
• You get negative feedback often or not-so-good remarks after doing something.
• You tend to avoid some situations because you don't feel like doing them.

Why should you know your strengths and weaknesses?

Identifying your strengths and weaknesses is part of being self-aware of who you are as a person. If you know what you are good at and not, you will learn not to overestimate or underestimate yourself when it comes to doing something. Instead, you can make better choices that take advantage of your strengths while adjusting to circumvent your weaknesses. Some of the benefits you can get from knowing yourself better include the following things.

• Knowing yourself better will make more apparent to you what career options to take based on your real strengths. In addition, you will know what particular job to accept or utilize your strengths to make money based on things that interest you and excel in doing.
• A better understanding of what things you are good at and those that are not will make it easier to focus on what skill or ability you should be developing based on your needs. Depending on your current job and circumstances, you can develop your strengths further or improve your weaknesses if you have the time and resources.
• Having self-awareness of your weaknesses will prevent you from shooting yourself in the foot by accepting something beyond your capabilities or not excelling in doing. You can take advantage of this by delegating the task to somebody else who is an expert in your weakness. For example, if you don't want to lose face, it might be better to turn down a proposal you know you won't be able to perform exceptionally. This act can save your reputation instead of trying to act big only to fail in the end.
• Taking advantage of your strengths can help you get the edge above others by seeking opportunities that make good use of your skillset and knowledge. For example, if you have good computer skills, you can focus on doing jobs that cater to programming or software development. Outside of the work context, you can even use your knowledge of computers to do side gigs like creating software or applications that you can sell or offering your knowledge as a service to other people who aren't too techie. It's all about making good use of your biggest personal strength and developing it further for your benefit.

Should I develop my strengths or weaknesses?

Some people will say that you should spend more time working on your strengths, and they do have a point. Your strengths are easier to improve because you are naturally good at them, and you like doing them. In addition, learning new skills and abilities in the field of interest that you excel at will net you tremendous success. On the other hand, some will say to work on your weaknesses. This point is also valid. However, you must assess first whether improving your weakness is doable and if it's necessary for you at the moment. It takes more effort and time to improve on a weakness, and even after working on it, it might not necessarily become a strength. If it's possible to avoid or reassign a task that is your weakness, it can be the better choice. Unless your current job or situation demands something that is your weakness, then this can be one time that you should focus on working on your weakness. Prioritizing whether to work on strengths or weaknesses will depend on your current needs.

Identifying your strengths and weaknesses is crucial for personal growth and achieving your true potential. When you know yourself better, you gain greater self-confidence and aim higher by developing your strengths and weaknesses. You won't force yourself to do things you don't excel at and learn to circumvent things instead. You can also gain better life satisfaction and bring more positive changes to your life if you know where to put your efforts and where you shouldn't bother too much.