Maximize Your Potential

How do we maximize on the potential we have inside of ourselves? By finding more about what we’re made of, what lies inside that we don’t see, and identifying our strengths.

We want to live courageously and embrace the uncertainty of fears by reminding ourselves what we lose when we give into fears. Fear is a natural and necessary part of growth. When we identify more of our strengths it gives us the courage to step into our fears.

You can read more about this in my blog  post: Overcome Fear and Step into Your Courage.

Here are four things you can do to identify your strengths:

1. Ask yourself “What was the hardest time of your life? What tools did you use to get through that?” Whatever it was, the death of a loved one, a health crisis, financial setback, romantic breakup or an addiction. What were the emotional tools, the habits or the things that you tapped into to get past that hard event? Those are strengths.
2. Ask yourself “What do you do that comes easily to you, but not to others?” When people ask you how you do something that you see as very simple, that can be a strength. I love to plan trips and organize and carry out events. People would ask me what my process was. Well, I didn’t have a process, I just did it. Later I realized that was a great strength I had.
3. This one is really fun with really amazing results. I challenge you to pick out five people that know you well, that have been with you through thick and thin. Ask them what they see as your strengths. I would suggest a spouse, family member, best friend, mentor, etc. Ask them to tell you what they see as your top 2 or 3 strengths. When I was challenged with this 3 of my family members said the same thing…”you’re organized.” I was shocked! I never saw myself as organized, but I soon accepted that as a strength and use it that way now.
4. Take a Strengths Test. There are many you can find online, some are free and some charge you a small price. My favorite is the Clifton Strengths Finder 2.0 by Gallup. It’s a well-known book you can buy on Amazon for around $18. But when you buy the book you also get an access code to take the strengths test. Or you can google it and just pay for the test. It’s very robust and gives you your top 5 strengths. Or you can take one for the top 30 strengths. Either way there is a lot of support and explanation.
   There is also a free strengths test at high5test.com. I haven’t tried this one but you can start with it if you want a free choice.

The main thing is to start with the challenge and ask your 5 people and go from there. In discovering and understanding more about the strengths you can maximize your potential to be and do more!