To continue to make progress on your personal development self-assessment, it’s critical to understand your strengths, talents, and skills, as well as areas where you are challenged.
Having already explored your core values and beliefs through the Part 1 self-reflection exercises, it’s time to delve deeper into identifying what strengths makes you unique as well as areas where you can improve.
How to Identify Strengths and Weaknesses and Set Priorities
We recommend that you begin this phase of the process with additional self-reflection and that you also seek input from people who know you well.
Read on for suggested exercises and journaling prompts to help organize your ideas.
Personal Development Self-Assessment: Identifying Strengths
Knowing your strengths will help you to know what differentiates you, and what existing capabilities you may be able to leverage as you work to explore new opportunities.
- Reflect on moments in your life where you felt confident, successful, or in your element. What skills and traits were you using during those times?
- Ask friends, family, or colleagues for feedback on what they perceive as your strengths. Sometimes, others can offer valuable insights we might overlook.
- Journal prompt: “What are three qualities or skills that I possess that I am proud of? How have these strengths positively impacted my life?”
For inspiration and food for thought, consult Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification, by Christopher Peterson, which includes a thorough discussion of 24 key character strengths associated with 6 major virtues.
Using personality assessments can also guide your understanding of your strengths.
If you’d like to apply objectives measures to your strengths self-assessment, considering these popular tools:
- StrengthsFinder Assessment: This tool helps you discover your strongest skills and provides a detailed report of your top talents.
- VIA Character Strengths Survey: This survey focuses on personal virtues and character traits. It reveals what makes you uniquely you.
Personal Development Self-Assessment: Identifying Challenges
Recognizing weaknesses can be challenging but it is essential. In fact, knowing areas where you will benefit from improvement is more important than knowing your strengths. This is because identifying challenge areas will help you to consciously work to improve skills or acquire knowledge that will help you to unlock new doors in the future.
Procrastination, poor communication, and lack of initiative are common challenges that many people experience in the workplace. Negative thinking, impatience, and difficulty in managing stress can hinder personal relationships. Do any of these examples apply to you?
Here are some additional questions to help get your thought process underway.
- Think about challenges you’ve faced in the past or areas where you struggle. What patterns or behaviors do you notice?
- Self-assess your skills, knowledge, and habits objectively. Where do you feel there is room for improvement?
- Journal prompt: “What are two areas where I often find myself struggling or feeling inadequate? How can I work on improving these areas?”
As you assess your potential areas of improvement, it’s key to look out for negative beliefs that may not be accurate. These self-limiting beliefs hold many people back as they can convince you that you’re not good enough or that you’ll never succeed.
To overcome them, practice cognitive reframing—challenge those thoughts and replace them with positive affirmations. For example, instead of thinking “I can’t do this,” tell yourself “I am capable of learning.”
Note: Not all weaknesses are the same. Some are skill gaps, while others require deeper personal growth.
If an area of opportunity is a skills gap, the actions to remedy it will include a focus on learning such as taking a course, participating in a workshop or webinar, or exploring on-line tutorials. If the issue stems from deeper concerns, coaching or therapy may be required.
Are you focused on professional growth and career advancement? If so, you may find The PI Guidebook: How the Promotability Index Can Help You Get Ahead in Your Career a useful resource to aid this portion of your self-assessment.
Alternatively, if your focus is on growth in your personal well-being, you may wish to explore The Path to Inner Peace: A Journey to Overcome Stress, Anxiety and Negative Thoughts.
Personal Development Self-Assessment: Setting Priorities
A long list of potential areas of improvement can be overwhelming.
With so many options for how to invest your limited time and energy, how can you know which initiatives make the most sense for you at this stage of your life?
Consider these thought prompts to help guide you as you set priorities:
- Reflect on your values and beliefs and align them with your identified strengths and weaknesses. Where do you see the most potential for growth that resonates with your core values?
- Go back to your notes from Part 1 of the Personal Growth Self-Assessment series. Consider what aspects of your life (career, relationships, health, etc.) are most important to you. Where would you like to see the most significant improvement?
- Journal prompt: “Based on my strengths and weaknesses, as well as my values and personal identity, what are three areas I want to prioritize for personal growth now? How can I take actionable steps towards growth in these areas?”
If you are having difficult setting priorities for personal growth, consider exploring Take Back Your Time: Identify Your Priorities, Reduce Stress, and Increase Productivity.
If you would like to explore a more objective means to set priorities, you may find the Eisenhower Matrix a useful approach. The Eisenhower Matrix will aid you by helping you to rank tasks by urgency and importance.
Obtain More Eisenhower Matrix Related Tools and Resources
The Ongoing Process: Continuous Self-Reflection and Growth
A personal development self-assessment is a process that requires effort and focus. What you invest in the process will be well worth it, however, as the outcomes can be truly life-altering.
Take the first step now. Reflect, assess, and set your priorities for a brighter future.
For further guidance and resources on conducting a personal development self-assessment, consider seeking out additional books, workshops, or online courses that align with your identified priority areas for personal development. Also, continue to explore the wide variety of free resources available to you in other areas of KindCompassCoach.
We hope you continue to enjoy your personal growth and personal development process!
Take the time to invest in yourself and your personal growth journey, for it is a path that will lead you to a more fulfilling and empowered life.
Stay tuned for the next article in this series, where we will explore creating a personal growth action plan to turn your aspirations into tangible results.
Thank you as always for reading.
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Joan Senio is the founder of KindCompassCoach. Joan’s career includes clinical healthcare plus 20+ years as an executive in a nationwide health care system and 15 years as a consultant. The common threads throughout Joan’s personal and professional life are a commitment to non-profit organizations, mental health, compassionate coaching, professional development and servant leadership. Joan has had the privilege of mentoring early and mid-career professionals as well as current and future executives and leaders. She is a member of the International Organization of Life Coaches, serves as a thought-leader for KuelLife.com and is also a regular contributor to PsychReg and Sixty and Me. You can read more about Joan here: Joan Senio.
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