Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 6: Understand what you can do
• Part 2 of 6: Do a Reflective Best Self exercise
• Part 3 of 6: Make a list of what you have done
• Part 4 of 6: List your wishes
• Part 5 of 6: Evaluating your strengths and weaknesses
• Part 6 of 6: Using your skills during a job interview
• Tips
• Warnings

Knowing what you are good at and in which areas you could still use some help can be very helpful in balancing your personal life and can help you interact more effectively with others professionally. Self-knowledge is a powerful tool that is unfortunately not used optimally by many people because it seems complicated or difficult to implement in practice, or perhaps because it makes them uncomfortable. Well, traits that one person finds useful by another may not necessarily be seen as strengths, so determining whether certain traits you have are strengths or weaknesses can be quite confusing and even frustrating. In itself this is something you will have to figure out for yourself, but there are exercises you can do to find out what your strengths and weaknesses are, for example for getting a certain job or for personal reasons. There are also helpful tips that can help you apply these tactics in those situations where you need them most, namely during a job interview.

To step

Part 1 of 6: Understand what you can do

1. Appreciate the effort you put in. Because you are willing to take a good look at what you are already good at and in which areas there is still some work to be done, you are a strong person in your own right. It takes courage to sit down and do this work. Give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back and remember that you are a wonderful person.
2. Write down what you do. As a way of determining for yourself what your strengths and weaknesses are, it is a good idea to consider what activities you do most often and what you enjoy the most. For a few weeks, write down everything you do on a particular day, rating each activity from one to five, depending on how much you enjoy doing or being involved in that activity.
   • Studies have shown that keeping a journal is a great way to increase your self-awareness and think about what you are good at personally and what you want to achieve in life. This can be done very simply, for example by making a list of all memorable moments on a particular day, or more extensively, by describing your deepest thoughts and wishes in the smallest details. The better you get to know yourself, the easier it will be to recognize your personal strengths.
3. Think about your values. Sometimes it can be difficult to determine what your strengths and weaknesses are because you have not first taken the time to determine what are actually the most important values ​​in life for you. Your values ​​are the things you believe in and that shape the way you think about yourself, about others, and about the world around you. They are essential in determining the way you live life. By taking some time to determine what your core values ​​are, you will be able to more easily decide which aspects of your life are strong or weak points for youregardless of the way others think about those same things.
   • Consider some of the people you respect. What do you admire in them? What qualities do they have that you value? How do you see those qualities in your own life?
   • Imagine if you could change one thing about the community in which you live. What would that be? Why? What do you think that says about what's most important to you?
   • Try to remember a time in your life when you felt very satisfied or fulfilled. What time was that? What had happened? Who were with you? Why did you feel this way?
   • Imagine your house is on fire (but all pets and people are safe) and you can't save more than 3 things. What would you save from the flames, and why?
4. Review your answers and see if you can spot certain patterns and if certain topics keep recurring. After thinking about your values, find out if you can spot certain repetitions in your answers. For example, you may admire Bill Gates and Kees Verpalen for their entrepreneurial spirit and creativity. This may indicate that you value Ambition, Competition and Ingenuity. Maybe you would end poverty in your community so that everyone has a roof over their head and food. This shows that you may value Community, Improving Society, or Making a Difference. You can have more than one core value.
   • On the internet you can find lists of words that express a certain value. This may help you if you find it difficult to express your values ​​in words.
5. Determine if your life is aligned with your values. Sometimes you may feel like you have a weakness in some area when, for whatever reason, your life is not aligned with your core values. Living a life that is in harmony with your values ​​is known as a "value-congruent" life, and it can lead to greater satisfaction and success in your life.
   • For example, you may value Ambition and Competition, but you feel that you are stuck in a job without perspective in which you are never even challenged and never even given the opportunity to prove yourself. You may feel that you have a weakness in that area because your life at the moment does not correspond to what is so important to you.
   • Or maybe you just became a mother and would like to return to your work as a teacher because you value Intellectual Status. You may feel that "being a good mother" is a weakness because your value (Acquiring Intellectual Status) seems to conflict with another value (Being Family Oriented). In that case, you can try to figure out how to balance your values ​​in a way that you respect them both. Just because you want to go back to work doesn't mean you don't want to enjoy your new child too.
6. Consider social and cultural norms. Try to figure out what strengths and weaknesses are in relation to the social norms or customs within your local context. Social norms are a set of rules that govern how people interact with each other and are determined to be functional within a particular geographic area or culture, hopefully with the aim of maintaining healthy social boundaries. By being aware of how these standards differ depending on where you live, you will be able to more easily determine what might be perceived as a strength or a weakness within that particular geographic location.
   • For example, if you live in a rural area where most of the people work with their hands, the members of that community probably value aspects related to physical work and long hours. On the other hand, if you live in a big city, chances are that those aspects suddenly seem much less important, unless you happen to do physical work there.
   • Check whether the environment in which you live is conducive to your strengths and personal characteristics. If not, think about how you can either change the situation or move to an environment where your personal powers are more valued.

Part 2 of 6: Do a Reflective Best Self exercise

1. Find people you can ask. To help you discover your strengths and weaknesses, you can do a Reflective Best Self (RBS) exercise. Such practice will help you find out how others feel about you so that you can more easily discover your strengths. For starters, think about people in all different areas of your life. Think of people from your work and past jobs, teachers from college or school, and of course friends and family members.
   • By looking for people to ask questions in all these different areas of your life, you will be able to better assess your personality on a wide variety of levels and in a wide variety of situations.
2. Ask if they want to give you their opinion of you. When you have selected a candidate, send that person an email asking what they think your good qualities are. Ask if they can name specific times when they have seen you use those strengths. Don't forget to mention that those strengths involve practical skills as well as character traits. Both types of answers are important.
   • Email is usually the best way to do this because asking them directly could make people feel pressured. Asking by email not only gives people time to think about their answer, but also gives them a chance to be more honest.In addition, it is very useful for you to have everything on paper, so that you can analyze the information more easily afterwards.
3. Look for matches. Once you have all the results in, you have to look for matches between the answers. Read each answer and try to figure out what it means. Try to deduce what traits each person is emphasizing and read the specific example to see if it may reveal other traits. Interpret them one by one and then compare them with each other to discover similar traits mentioned by many people.
   • It may be helpful to create a table with a column for the name of the property, a column for each answer, and a column for your own interpretation.
   • For example, many people in your life may have said that you can work well under pressure, that you can hold your own in times of crisis, and that you can also help lead other people in stressful situations. This means that you stay calm under pressure, and you are likely to be a strong and natural leader. You can also conclude that you empathize with others and enjoy working with people.
4. Take a self-portrait. Once you have all the results together, write an analysis of your strengths in the form of a self-portrait. Don't forget to include all the different aspects that people have emphasized when discussing you and your traits, as well as all the traits that have emerged from your own analysis.
   • You are not supposed to make it a full psychological profile, but an in-depth portrait of the best version of yourself. It reminds you of the traits you use when you are at your best and can help you determine the way you will act in the future to strive to use those traits more often.

Part 3 of 6: Make a list of what you have done

1. Write in more detail about what you have been doing so far. Consider how you react in certain situations where you need to take action, think and show insight. Before doing anything more concrete, try to look carefully at your spontaneous reactions to situations that have already occurred in your life. Get a notebook or buy an official journal to record your thoughts.
   • The benefit of this is that the spontaneous responses tell you a lot about how you react in both ordinary and more intense situations. You can write them down so that you can more easily decipher your course of action and your skills.
2. Think of a challenging situation where something bad happened. That could be a collision or a child suddenly ran in front of your car while you hit the brakes hard. How did you react when you faced this spontaneous situation? Did you close and feel the urge to back off or did you take up the challenge with both hands, collecting tools and other resources to resolve the situation?
   • If you took control of the situation and acted like a leader, you probably feel that courage and the ability to resolve such situations are strong qualities. If you responded by crying uncontrollably, feeling utterly helpless or scolding others, staying calm and avoiding losing control during a difficult situation may be one of your weaknesses.
   • Make sure you look at things from different perspectives. For example, feeling helpless after a car accident is a completely natural response to the stress of the event. If, on the other hand, you have begun to ask someone for help, this suggests that asking others for help (cooperation) may be one of your strengths. Being strong doesn't mean you always have to do everything yourself.
3. Look for a less challenging situation. Think of an occasion when you had to make a difficult decision, but it was not about life and death. For example, how do you react when you step into a room full of people? Would you like to get to know everyone you meet there, or would you rather look for a quieter corner, far away from the noise, where you can talk quietly with just one person?
   • The person who talks to everyone is good at socializing and appearing spontaneously, while someone who is more calm, such as the second person, can listen well and build individual connections with specific people. Both strong qualities can be used by the person in question to his or her advantage.
4. Think of times when you were faced with a difficult personal situation. Try to think about a time when you got into a difficult situation and needed to react immediately. How quickly were you able to learn and adapt to new situations? Are you a quick thinker who immediately gives a witty answer when a colleague makes a snide remark to you? Or do you tend to take things in first, think about them, and then react to those situations?
   • Remember that all the good qualities you have developed in your life almost always have a downside. If you spend most of your life reading and writing alone, for example, then you're probably not as good at having a spontaneous conversation as other people, but you're probably good at figuring out the denouement of a book and in-depth conversations on serious topics with others. You may also have grown up with younger siblings, which means that you are compassionate, patient and can handle chaotic situations well.
   • It's important to keep in mind that the world needs many different kinds of people with different kinds of strengths and interests, otherwise things would be a lot more monotonous here on Earth. You don't necessarily have to be good at everything, just the things that are important to you.
   • The person who gives a quick answer or quickly solves a problem may have the ability to respond quickly and on a case-by-case basis as a strong trait, while he may not have much sense of detail. The person who takes the time to think could be described as someone who is good at planning but who may have limited acumen as a weakness.

Part 4 of 6: List your wishes

1. Ask yourself what exactly you want. Your wants and desires say a lot about who you are, even if you've denied them most of the time. Try to think about why you want to do those activities or achieve those goals and what exactly is needed for that. Chances are, these are the passions and dreams in your life, and most of the time, these are exactly the things you are very good at. Many people make a mistake by doing what their family expects of them; they become doctors or lawyers, for example, while they would much rather have become a ballet dancer or a mountaineer. In a separate section of your journal, describe the wishes and desires you have about your life.
   • Ask yourself: What are my wishes in life? Whether you're applying for your first job or just retired, you should always have goals and desires in your life. Determine what drives you and what makes you happy.
2. Decide what you enjoy doing. To begin with, ask yourself what you enjoy the most in life. Write the answers to the question: What types of activities do I feel attracted to and where do I get satisfaction? For some people, sitting in front of the fireplace in the company of their Labrador is something that gives them tremendous satisfaction. Others would rather go mountain climbing or take a tour by car.
   • List the activities or things you do that make you happy and enjoy. Chances are, the areas where your hobbies belong reflect some of your strengths.
3. Think about what motivates you. In addition to your wishes, you will also have to determine what keeps you motivated in life. In your diary, write your answers to the question: When do I feel energized and motivated? Think of times when you felt like you could take on the whole world and where you were inspired to move up a level. The areas from which you get inspiration and motivation are often your strongest points.
   • Keep in mind that many people have certain wishes at a very young age, which indicates that childlike self-knowledge that many of us lose when the pressure of family members, classmates, colleagues and social expectations causes you to hide those childhood wishes very deeply.

Part 5 of 6: Evaluating your strengths and weaknesses

1. Evaluate your weaknesses again. Actually, "weaknesses" is not the most elegant word to describe areas that you can develop further. In fact, people are not weak at all, although almost everyone sometimes feels sincerely that they are. Yet most people feel that they could improve in certain areas and skills in their lives. Because they feel that they are not that strong on those areas, we often use the word with the opposite meaning to describe some aspect of our life when we feel we need to work on becoming stronger and more capable. to feel. Instead of focusing on your `` weakness '', which has a negative connotation, try to think in terms of the areas of your life that are eligible for growth and improvement - that way, you will continue to focus on the future and on what you can do to get better.
   • You might think of weaknesses as a part of yourself that you can improve on your own, if they are related in some way to your desires. It may also be that they are completely irrelevant to your wishes or goals in life. Whatever you acknowledge, both options are acceptable. Weaknesses are not constant aspects of ourselves, but rather variable aspects of how we do things so that we can get even better at what we already do.
2. Determine in which areas you could grow. Areas you could develop further can be related to everything from certain professional or social skills to poor self-control when it comes to eating. Or you can simply think of the fact that you never manage to catch a ball, or make your maths sums faster. Often times, areas that qualify for growth are about "life lessons" and about not making the same mistakes again. And sometimes it's about making an effort to learn something you previously thought you couldn't do, or at least not well enough.
   • On the other hand, an apparent weakness can often indicate in the first place that a particular activity is just not right for you, and it can be very important that you admit such a thing to yourself. If everyone had the ability to be good at exactly the same activities or even enjoy the exact same kind of activities, the world would be very, very boring.
3. Concentrate on your strengths. Some people find thinking about their personal weaknesses a waste of time in itself, or even see it as a totally wrong way of looking at things. Instead, focus on your strengths to begin with and try to do everything you can to perfect them further. This can be a much better approach than pointing out your personal weaknesses. Since the things that people cite as their weaknesses often come simply from a lack of interest or the will to get better, you may want to focus on the things you are good at and your personal desires and move on from there . Be generous with yourself when it comes to recognizing your strengths, because you probably have a lot of them, even in areas where you feel weak. Only then zoom in on the areas in which you feel that you could become more efficient.
   • For example, if you want to work on becoming more assertive, start with those skills you need to be assertive that you feel you are already putting into practice. You may find it difficult to say no, but you are able to put your intentions into words in a way that makes it clear what you mean and that you manage to spare the other person's feelings.
   • Think about aspects of your personality that you consider strengths. Being kind, generous, open-minded or a good listener are extremely important positive traits related to your skills in general and often overlooked. Be aware of those qualities and be proud of them.
   • Another way of looking at your strengths is to view them as talents, or as innate skills and desires that fit your self-awareness and vision of the future. In other words, these are things you would say, "It took me absolutely no effort, I've always had it in me to" do a certain type of activity well.
4. Write down your strengths and weaknesses. After you have evaluated everything you have written down about your activities and desires, it is time to focus on what you think are your strengths and weaknesses. Using the lists you have previously received from others and what you have learned about yourself through the other exercises, write down areas of your work and your personal life that you think are your strengths and weaknesses. Emphasize how you currently see your strengths and weaknesses based on what you are currently doing in your life, both personally and professionally, rather than your past or your desires. to target.
   • Remember, no one is judging or evaluating you based on your answers, so be honest with yourself. It can help to create two columns titled "Strengths" and "Weaknesses". Then write them down in the same order they come to mind.
5. Compare these lists. Do they match and are you surprised about certain things? Did you think you were strong in a certain area, but is that not reflected in your list of activities? These kinds of contradictions arise when you say to yourself that you are that way, when only during a difficult situation does your real character emerge, and it is not always the same.
   • What about contradictions between your wishes and the things you think you are good at? This contradiction can arise when you have tried to do things in your life based on other people's expectations or based on your own ideas as to what you thought you should do, when in fact your wishes and actual reactions were very different .
6. Check out the surprises and contradictions. Look at the different lists you have made. Pay attention to any surprises or contradictions you come across. Think about why you think some of the qualities and weaknesses you noticed are now turning out to be different. Could it be that you think you like certain things or that certain things motivate you when in reality you may not? These lists will help you find out.
   • Focus on the areas that are different from what you imagined and try to think of situations related to that area. For example, did you write down that you wanted to be a singer, when on the list of what you think your strengths are, you said that you are good at biology or medicine? Of course, a singing doctor could be something new, but the two professions are very different from each other. Try to determine for yourself which area really motivates you in the long run.
7. Ask your friends and family for their opinion. Ask a close friend or family member to give you constructive feedback. While self-examination will no doubt provide some answers, an outside opinion can either help you confirm your observations or make you poorer by a few illusions. Learning how to properly take up constructive criticism from others is an essential part of community life. It is important that you do not immediately become defensive or take the criticism as a personal attack just because someone suggests that you could improve in some area. Learning to deal with constructive criticism from others in a good way in daily life can be a strong quality in itself.
   • If you think someone in your own family can't be completely honest with you, choose someone who will tell you the truth and won't make your weaknesses more beautiful than they are. Find an outside neutral, preferably a classmate or mentor, and ask if they can give you honest and constructive comments.
   • Ask him or her to comment on your lists. Ask if the neutral person you've chosen can view and comment on your lists. Helpful comments and questions include: How come you think you cannot respond quickly in an emergency? Perhaps the neutral spectator can remember a time when you were the hero of the day during an emergency, when you may have already forgotten about it.
8. Get the help of a professional. If you're still struggling, or would prefer to get feedback from outside, ask a professional to help you identify your strengths and weaknesses. There are companies that can help you by drawing up a psychological profile. Such companies often work together with recruitment agencies.For a certain amount of money, psychologists employed by the company can draw up and analyze a personal and a professional profile for you.
   • These tests don't always give you the essence of your personality, but they can certainly serve as helpful starting points for thinking about your strengths and weaknesses.
   • Based on this, you must then try to find out what your strengths and weaknesses are according to the test. A good test is comprehensive enough to reflect the recurring aspects of your personality. After taking such a test, you should talk directly to the psychologist to determine what your weaknesses are and what strengths it shows.
   • There are online tests you can take to determine your strengths and weaknesses. When choosing a test, make sure that it is available on a trustworthy website and that it has been compiled by licensed psychologists or similarly qualified professionals. If you have to pay for the test, do some research on the company offering the test first to make sure you're getting value for money.
9. Think about what comes out of the test. After you identify your strengths and weaknesses, take a moment to soak up the results and determine how you feel about what you've discovered. Decide whether you should or want to work on one or more of your weaknesses and what you will need to do to address or change those weaknesses.
   • Sign up for a course or look for activities that can work on your weaknesses. For example, if you close completely when you are faced with a situation where you have to respond spontaneously, create situations for yourself where you have to be spontaneous. Examples are a theater group, a team sport or singing in a karaoke bar.
   • Consider seeking therapy or trying other ways to talk about your fears or doubts. If taking a class or joining a theater company doesn't seem to work, or if you have deep-seated fears or concerns that are holding you back, consider talking to a therapist.
10. Don't try to be a perfectionist. Be careful not to become completely obsessed with your weaknesses. Such a pattern can quickly lead to a non-constructive pattern of perfectionism, which can ultimately prevent you from being successful. It is better to start with what you do well within a certain set of skills, and then look for multiple ways to improve those skills and get better at them slowly and gradually.
    • For example, you want to improve your communication skills. After some self-reflection, you decide that you can actually listen quite well, which is your strong point. On the other hand, you close when it is your turn to talk, which is your weakness. You decide that you want to be able to express yourself better verbatim, so you work on adding a few sentences during a conversation from now on, intermittently.
    • From a perfectionist approach you could say that because you are not a good speaker at the moment, you don't even have to try to get better at it because you will make mistakes anyway. Recognize that mistakes are part of the learning and growth process and allow yourself to make them as you work on developing yourself.
11. Don't deny important moments in your life. Everyone excels at certain things in their life. Sometimes you do something that you have never done before, but somehow it clicks between you and that activity and you feel that you are just naturally good at it.
    • This could be a sport, something artistic or creative, dealing with animals, or taking in for someone who is absent and doing his or her job. Not everyone will experience the same great moments as you, but if you do, work with them to improve the quality of your life and get the most out of yourself.

Part 6 of 6: Using your skills during a job interview

1. Consider how relevant your strengths and weaknesses are. You can use everything you've learned about yourself to help you during job interviews. Think about how your strengths and weaknesses are relevant to the specific job you are applying for. In preparation, think about what tasks you may need to complete for the job you are applying for, and try to think of any occasions in your life where you have faced similar tasks. Which of your personal traits appeared to be strengths or weaknesses while performing those tasks?
   • For example, if you are applying for a job as a computer programmer, talk about your strengths in computing or problem solving. It is less relevant to talk extensively during that conversation about how you excel at table tennis, unless your employer just happens to be interested in it.
2. Demonstrate honesty and trust. When they ask you questions about these qualities during a job interview, be honest in describing your strengths. When interviewers ask you about your strengths and weaknesses, they are not only interested in your skills, but also want to know how well you can talk about yourself. Social skills and the art of selling yourself is becoming one of the most important skill sets for most jobs in the job market. For an interviewer, this starts with the question of how well the applicant is able to describe his or her strengths and weaknesses and to what extent he or she feels comfortable doing so.
3. Practice your interview skills. To help you feel more comfortable doing this, it's a good idea to practice interviewing someone else. Ask a friend to interview you and practice describing yourself to him or her. Do this as often as possible, with as many different people as possible, until you start to feel more comfortable describing your strengths and weaknesses to someone else. At first it may seem like you're reading a script, but after a while it should feel more and more natural.
   • Before going to the interview, try to think of as many concrete moments as possible that you can talk about and that show your personal strengths. Interviewers not only want to hear what you think your strengths are, but they will likely ask you to name concrete situations where your personal strengths were essential to the way you dealt with the problem or obstacle that arose, whatever that was. , handled. Think about that and try to write down as many examples as possible, so that you are well prepared for the interview.
   • Instead of saying, "One of my strengths is that I have a great eye for detail," for example, give a concrete example: "In my previous job, I was responsible for checking all the amounts in the monthly budgets. I have discovered errors several times that would have cost our company a lot of money. This attention to detail will certainly help me in this role within your company. "
4. Don't try to force it. Potential employers are not stupid, and they immediately see through such a cliché. Sometimes they interview hundreds of candidates for a particular position, and instinctively most people take advantage of what they think is a strong trait by presenting it as a weakness. But what you see as strengths are sometimes not at all for an employer. Employers are often looking for employees who value things like flexibility and the ability to work as a team. These kinds of answers can often make it seem like you are not self-aware enough. Commonly used forced responses include:
   • "I'm a perfectionist and can't stand it when I do something wrong." Perfectionism does not come across as a strong trait to most employers because it suggests that you set unreasonably high standards for yourself and others, and perhaps procrastinate.
   • "I am very stubborn and don't condone anything." This could indicate that you are not very flexible and difficult to adapt.
   • "I find it difficult to find a good balance between my work and my private life because I work so hard." This could give the impression that you are unable to take good care of yourself and that you are more likely to experience burnout or become a cranky coworker.
5. Be honest about your weaknesses. If the interviewer asks you a question about your weaknesses, answer honestly. There would be no point in asking the question if you gave the interviewer nothing more than some sort of standard answer about how great you are. The interviewer is not waiting for that. He or she wants to create a genuine discussion about things you can work on and is looking for signs of self-knowledge. Real weaknesses to work on are, for example:
   • Being overly critical
   • Be suspicious of your supervisors or your colleagues
   • Being too demanding
   • Exhibiting procrastination
   • Talking too much
   • Being too sensitive
   • Not being assertive enough
   • Lacking social tact
6. Recognize the bad sides of the challenges you have to work on. You will have to work on certain parts of these weaknesses and talk about how they could affect your performance. It can be quite overwhelming to talk about how your weakness has affected or could possibly affect your performance professionally. It shows insight and honesty, although you will still need to be tactical about what you say.
   • For example, you could say, "Right now, I tend to put things off. I am aware that this will affect the amount of work I could get done, and possibly the job as well. that my colleagues could do within a certain amount of time. At university I always managed to get out of it because I knew the system, found a way to make fun of it and still get my work done on time. this will not work in a professional context, because it is definitely not an optimal way of working, nor to achieve my goals and get things done. "
7. Show the interviewer how you strive to overcome your weaknesses. Again, it is better to be practical than idealistic. If you give the idealistic answer, you could come across as unrealistic and it could seem like you're trying to pretend to be better than you are.
   • For example, say to the interviewer, "I am taking serious steps to address my procrastination. For example, I set myself artificial deadlines and reward myself when I meet those deadlines. This has helped me a lot so far. solve my problem. "
8. Talk confidently about your strengths. You are supposed to sound confident, but not arrogant. Try to be sure of yourself while at the same time being humble about your skills and your achievements. Obviously, you must truthfully choose things that you are good at that could be aligned with the person, company, or organization you are applying to. Real strengths can be divided into three main categories:
   • Skills based on knowledge, such as computer skills, language skills or technical knowledge
   • Transferable skills, such as communication, leadership, or problem-solving skills
   • Personal characteristics, such as social skills, confidence or punctuality
9. When you talk about one of your strengths, give concrete examples. It's great when you say you can get along so well with people, but it's much better if you can show it too. Illustrate what your strengths look like in real life by providing examples, either from your personal contacts with people or from your work history. For instance:
   • "I am good at communicating. I choose my words carefully and make sure that I am not ambiguous as I speak. I am not afraid to ask questions of someone in a higher position if I do not understand them. It costs me. time before you realize how different people can interpret questions or statements in different ways. "
   • You can also show your strengths and skills by sharing what went well in the past and areas where you achieved what you wanted with your efforts.
   • If you've ever won awards for something, or received a special award or recognition, you can call it that too.

Tips

• When determining your wishes, make sure you do not add false wishes. False wishes are those that stem from a false belief that you would be destined to work at the State Department because you would then live in Paris, London and Rio de Janeiro, or that you would like to become a movie star so that you can attend glamorous parties and meet a rich man. Those are no wish because in the end they are just fantasies and they are not the substantial element of doing something with your life that gives you satisfaction. Make sure you understand the difference, otherwise you could make a big mistake and build a career based on fantasy rather than the strengths you naturally have and your sense of purpose.
• Changing your weaknesses takes time, so give yourself a break if you can't get by all at once. Also, don't spend all your time turning a weak into a strong trait. Try to find other solutions first, such as working on your skills, because you can change them. Then you can look for ways to keep working on your strengths. That is where you want to excel the most, because they are naturally in you.

Warnings

• During an interview, never boast about your strengths or complain about your weaknesses. Try to be direct and suggest ways to improve on those things that would be your weaknesses. As for your strengths, keep them realistic and be modest enough to avoid blowing too high off the tower.
• Make no mistake in thinking that as long as you have not only strong qualities and no weaknesses at all, you are doomed to fail. Everyone has to face certain challenges in life. Imagine being a journalist and try to think about how you would feel if the person opposite you only bragged about how perfect he or she is ...