Have you hit the job market in search of an exciting career, or are you just seeking to boost your confidence? No matter your reasoning, it’s always important to appreciate your strengths. Each person has impressive qualities that make them unique, and you also have some challenges and character flaws to overcome.
Strengths and weaknesses define you, but you need to showcase your assets when it comes to impressing prospective employers. When you’re faced with 100s of other applicants, you need to sell yourself to the hiring manager. Unless you’re a trained sales professional, then it might seem like a daunting task to put yourself on the market.
You want to let the world around you know about your strengths, but you don’t want to come off as someone conceited or narcissistic either. You get one chance to make a first impression, so you don’t want to mess it up.
Twelve Excellent Ways to Consider Your Accomplishments
Do you know your strengths, or are you modest and don’t like to focus on your assets? Here are some ways that you learn to appreciate your strengths and use them for growth and development.
1. Let the Negative Go
Being positive is the key to getting wherever you want to go in life. There will always be opposing forces that come against you and try to make you fail. However, you have the power to control these destructive powers.
Recognizing your strengths means that you can identify the good and bad things in your life. Those who will go far are the ones who learn to keep things into perspective and not let the complainers of the world cause them to lose focus.
2. Learn to Promote Yourself
There’s a fine line between self-promotion and being self-absorbed. You should be proud of your accomplishments, but you don’t want to brag. The key is to state the facts but not to dwell too heavily on them.
If a prospective employer asks you what you must bring to the table should they hire you, then they’re permitting you to praise yourself a bit. You don’t want to ramble on once this section of the interview is done. Please answer the questions asked in the best way possible and try not to overdo it.
3. Be Proud of What You’ve Accomplished
As you prepare for an interview or another engagement, be proud of all that you’ve accomplished. It’s 100 percent okay to pat yourself on the back. If you’ve got a good education, worked hard to build your rapport in the business world, and helped others along the way, then there’s nothing wrong with being gratified.
The difference between a person with good self-esteem and a poor one is knowing your worth.
4. Don’t Settle for Less
If you know that you can demand a salary of $100k a year based on your experience, then don’t settle for a job for $50k. While the job market in some areas isn’t as good as others, you don’t have to settle.
Even when it comes to matters of the heart, many people settle because they don’t feel they can get any better. They may preoccupy their time with Mr. Wrong because they think Mr. Right will never come along.
When you learn that you don’t have to settle, it changes your whole perception of life. Knowing your worth is important because it means that you won’t ever let anyone devalue your achievements.
5. Never Let Anyone Tear You Down
When you learn to appreciate your strengths, you won’t let others tear you down. Assume you’ve been in a corporate office for several years. You long to move up the ladder and get that coveted office on the corner.
You learn that the person in that office is retiring, and they’re looking for someone to fill her shoes. Instantly, you want to apply as you’ve been there for a decade, just waiting for a spot to move up in the company. Sadly, you’re not the only one that applies for the job.
There are other applicants, and one of these people is an arch-nemesis. You know they won’t play fair, and they will do anything in their power to destroy you. First, you must learn that you are stronger and better than these powerplays.
It’s okay to put people in their place on occasion. You can be professional and a bit ruthless at the same time. Let them know that you will fight fair but that you will fight.
If someone is standing in your way, excuse yourself and walk right past them. You have every right to move up the corporate ladder just like anyone else who has worked hard.
6. Don’t Worry About What Others Think
Your journey to find yourself and appreciate your strengths will be eye-opening. Everyone has an opinion, and you don’t need to be concerned about all of them. Some people in your life that their view counts, such as your spouse, kids, parents, and employer.
However, you will get all sorts of unsolicited advice from random people, but you need to let it roll off your back. Sometimes what’s meant as constructive criticism is only direct criticism, and you don’t need it. Stop trying to please everyone else or listening to the opinion of others.
At the end of the day, if you and your family are happy, then there’s no reason to do anything different.
7. Welcome Growth
When you were a baby learning to walk, you fell many times before you got the hang of things. Your adult life can be a similar parallel. Learning to appreciate your strengths means that you also realize that it’s okay to fail on occasion.
Failure is what drives you to improve and to make changes. Rock bottom is a place of deep deliberation where you can consider things you never would if you were on top of the world. Embrace the dark spots, for they will help you grow into a better human being.
8. Never Stop Being A Student
The day you stop learning is the day you die. Whether you’re 20 years old or 78 years of age, you’re still learning. Appreciating your strengths means that you understand that you don’t know everything.
You still have much to focus on and learn about. Life is every changing and constantly shifting, and you’re just along for the ride.
9. Learn to Face Your Fears
While you’re considering all the good in you, it’s also essential to identify your fears. Are you afraid of losing your spouse, getting fired from your job, or not being able to pay your bills? Your worries can cripple you if you allow them.
While you appreciate your strengths, you must also tackle those fears. Anxiety often plays a significant role in why people never go further in life. It would help if you learned to kick angst to the curb so that you can continue to accomplish things.
10. Move to The Edge of Your Comfort Zone
Extend yourself and go to the furthest boundary of your comfort zone. It’s okay for you to be uncomfortable, as you want to try new things, engage with new folks, and handle situations in unconventional methods. Self-confidence starts on the edge of your comfort area.
11. Make a List
Lists are great ways to put things into black and white for you to see. Part of appreciating your accomplishments is to view them in written form. If you need to boost your esteem before an extensive job interview or date, then why not write down all the reasons why you are so fabulous?
It will keep things fresh so that you don’t miss anything important when you need to highlight your achievements.
12. Channel Your Inner Rockstar
You may be an excellent cook, but your math skills may be lackluster. The good news is neither one of these abilities defines your core value. When you feel like a failure, you need to remind yourself of all the things that you conquer with ease.
Appreciate you for what you can do, and don’t beat yourself up over the things that you can’t. No one can master everything, and that’s okay.
Final Thoughts on Learning to Appreciate Your Strengths
Why is it that folks are so eager to call out their weaknesses, but they are apprehensive when it comes time to recognize your strengths? Part of building your self-esteem is to realize that you have worth and value. Not only do you have value as a person in the job market, but you also have worth as a parent, relative, spouse, and human being.
Everyone has a narrative or a story that they tell others about themselves. However, your book is not finished. You have the power to alter the chapters and change the outcome. When you learn to appreciate your strengths and all the gifts you’ve been given, you won’t let anyone tell you anything different.
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