Are you the CEO of your life?
There are certain things that CEOs do on a regular business for their company that you could apply to your life.
I speak often of creating a budget, Balance Sheet and Income (Profit & Loss) Statement so you know exactly where you are and what your next steps could be.
Today, let’s discuss the SWOT analysis. This is something that is not as often, but can be very helpful.
If you took any kind of business class in school you probably heard of this. It stands for:
– Strengths
– Weaknesses
– Opportunities
– Threats
The four areas are just what they sound like. Strengths are things you are good at. Weaknesses are the things that you either are not very good at or just do not like to do. Opportunities are things you can use to your advantage. And, Threats are things that could derail your future plans.
Once you have created your SWOT analysis there are two trains of thought. Some people would advise you to work on your weaknesses. Others advise to focus on making your strengths stronger and outsourcing your weaker areas.
This may come down to your desire to improve at what the weakness is. If it is just a matter of research, education, or practice you may find that you want to work on the weakness. If it is something you truly dislike doing, you may want to spend that time making your strengths even stronger.
Opportunities and threats are handled in a similar manner. You want to take advantage (or create) as many opportunities as possible while mitigating any real or perceived threats.
For example, your personal SWOT analysis could look like this:
– Strengths: perseverance, intelligence, creativity
– Weaknesses: procrastination by perfectionism, shy, chocolate
– Opportunities: start own business, additional education, new job
– Threats: COVID lockdowns, limiting beliefs, lack of funding
Have you ever tried an exercise like this? Give it a try and see how it goes!