Key Questions to Uncover Your Strengths

Ask somebody “what are your strengths?” and you will likely get a perplexed look as a response. This tends to happen for one of two reasons: The person is too shy to mention their strengths, perhaps out of fear of looking conceited, or the person doesn’t answer, probably because they have not fully considered what their strengths are.

Let’s assume that you have no worries and hang-up’s about mentioning your strengths to others, but if you do, you will find Subconscious Restructuring of great interest. If you haven’t yet fully considered what your strengths are then continue reading to find out ways we can focus on uncovering strengths.

Usually our strengths come to us so naturally that we tend think everyone is or ought to be good at them. For example, we all read at a different speeds but yet we tend to think that our reading speed is the average reading speed for other most people. Similarily we may have some exceptional listening skills, artistic eye, or dancing ability that is laying dormant just waiting to be discovered.

The truth is that most other people don’t have the same strengths as you. You are unique simply because of the way you see, process and do things. The talents your see as common are usually one of a kind. Our unique way of seeing the world is an inherent strength that can be used to our advantage. Hone in your strengths and you can easily double your income or successfully build a business around them.

Did you know that country singing sensation Leanne Rhymes started at age 3? Tiger Woods, the guru of golfing generation started at age 7. The worlds most successful investor Warren Buffet credits this principle for becoming a billionaire. What is the success principal that these famous examples all started at such a young age?

Loverage. Simply said: Love what you do and do what you love. When you leverage the love you have for something in your personal and professional life the rest (i.e. the money) will come naturally. Tiger didn’t set out to be the top earning golfer of all time, he set out to become the best golfer of all time. Of course, if you win all the time as the best golfer, that also means you win the prize money. Gotta ‘Love’ that!

The golden rule of motivation is that we all like to do things we can do well, while none of us likes having to do things we can’t do well. You either spend time doing something you love or not. Make it a top priority to spend your time doing whichever makes you most happy. To find out what you like, love or enjoy you can start out with this question: “What motivates you to perform at your best and give your all?”

Once you know what motivates you you can use it to begin to drive your choices, influence your behavior and reprogram old habits. Discover your strengths and then find a way to unfold them in the direction that brings your heart the greatest satisfaction.

The following questions have been distilled from years of interviewing other people about how they derived their top talents and most successful skills:

· What do you do that when your done doing it you feel amazing, alert and alive?
· Have you ever done something that left you feeling more powerful, connected and energized then when you first started?
· What activities do you partake in that when you do them you feel an adrenaline high and when you’re finished you feel energized?
· Where do you most enjoy spending your time?
· What do I do where I lose all track of time?
· What do I most often give to others?
· What do I have the most fun doing?
· What do others look to me for help with?
· What comes especially easy to you right now?
· What have you done especially well previously?
· What skills and activities have accounted for your greatest successes to date?
· What parts of your job do you do better than other parts or other people?
· What do other people most often complimented you on?
· Where do you have the ability to become outstanding?
· Where can you perform in your profession or personal life to “distinction?”
· What do the people closest to me say I am passionate about?
· What are your gifts (unique skills and talents) that if fully developed and completely contributed would make a significant impact in your life, your community, and the world?
· How might you best put these skills into service to better strangers and loved ones alike?
· What ideas, things, places and/or people am I most inspired by?
· What personality qualities account for your greatest successes in life so far?

Take time at the beginning of your day to contemplate your answers to these questions. As you do this exercise over time you will become more comfortable with these questions and you will be able to answer them in more specific detail. In the meantime be patient with yourself and allow the answers to come to you when they do.

If you are still not sure what your strengths are you could probably benefit from the use of an “objective” mirror, such as someone who can see your perspective from a 3rd person point-of-view. What is elusive to spot for you may be plainly obvious for another person to see. Russ built his coaching practice on the ability to spot the “truth” and help his clients recognize it, release it and reclaim their potential.

If this is something that is of interest you contact Russ directly and ask about a complimentary Possibility Finding Session, or look into the possibility of using a mentoring program to help get what you need to done.

Changing Negative Talk to Positive Phrases

What is within, so without. Our inner world creates the outer circumstance and shapes the events that we experience. Our inner world consists of our thoughts, and beliefs. A belief is a thought with a feeling associated with it. We can consciously choose to change either our thoughts and beliefs at any time and by doing so we can improve the quality of our experiences.

Every time we possess a feeling or experience an emotion – of any kind- we have chosen it. If we chose to feel negatively and believe a thought – then we have chosen to be a product of bad thinking. A thought can produce an emotion only if you believe it to be true. Believe it or not holding onto a thought and creating a feeling is a choice, just like it’s our choice to insert a new one.

Like water that overflows when it is being displaced from a container, the human mind can only hold one thought at a time. We tend to believe the mind holds more because it functions so rapidly. This is just an illusion of your experience. The truth is you can displace any unsupportive thought in the conscious mind with a more positive or productive affirmation. With practice you can begin to do this at any time.

To intercept stinking thinking before it lowers your confidence you need to become aware of our internal dialogue, or self-talk, you have with yourself. Listen to your self-talk and what you are saying to yourself inside your head. What do you tell yourself? In what tone of voice? How does it make you feel?

What you project forth into the world reflects back. This is also known as what goes around comes around and the notion of Karma. If you express love and you will receive love. Be respectable and gain respect. How do you expect to love if you do not first love yourself? How do you expect to treat others with respect if you don’t respect yourself foremost?

Pay attention to your self-talk daily. Are you a nurturing coach or a alarming critic? Do you reinforce your own success or negate it? Does your internal dialogue help grow your results or shrink your potential? Do your thoughts magnetize or de-magnetize your ability to attract success?

Here are 21 common self-talk phrases, how do you speak to yourself most often?

Now that you are aware of what you could say differently, strive to make positive self-talk a habit. You can always beat yourself up or build yourself up at anytime with the words you talk to yourself. Drop me a line and let me know your power phrase that makes you feel good, or what you did to eliminate stinking-thinking from stealing your confidence.

Related Information:

Read about 4 Common Self-Limiting Beliefs

Discover 200+ Positive Self-Talk Affirmations