Personal SWOT Analysis | SWOT analysis of a person

Self-analysis plays an essential role in all walks of our lives. We often think that we know ourselves and there is no special need to actually jot down our strong and weak points. Wrong!

Committing such a mistake leaves us with nothing but regret in the end. Pre-planning your career goals, clearly analyzing your interests, and understanding yourself is the key to success. Actually, the key to survival!

Now you may have two critical questions in your mind ‘Why’ and ‘How.’ So, let’s get straight to the topic and discuss the importance of personal SWOT analysis and how you can create your own. The same approach can be used to develop a SWOT analysis of any person or an individual.

Table of Contents

Why’ Do You Need To Perform Personal SWOT Analysis?

“Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.”

Ramana Maharshi

A SWOT analysis is usually developed in business organizations to critically understand the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. However, many business leaders, scholars, and famous entrepreneurs have suggested that performing a ‘personal’ SWOT analysis yields outstanding benefits for personal growth.

Have you ever wondered that why only a few people are so successful in the world while others aren’t? The only difference between commoners and successful people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos is that they know themselves.

Self-awareness enlightens you, helps you to make right decisions in your life, and leads you to achieve your goals. But, how can you know your goals? How can you prioritize the important ones among them?

There is no better way to explore and figure out your crucial goals than performing a personal SWOT analysis.

What are the benefits of Personal SWOT analysis?

There are many benefits of personal SWOT analysis. We have given a few here:

Improves self-awareness and enhances your understanding of your likes and dislikes
Helps you to know and prioritize your important goals
Provides you strong personal feedback so you can think about over your capabilities, qualities, weaknesses, and potential
Helps you in examining your weaknesses and how to convert them into strengths
Helps you to comprehend your core values, farsighted vision, and life purposes.
Illuminates you to see existing opportunities and how to avail them
Uncovers the hidden pitfalls and how to prevent yourself from them
Keeps you on track and helps you manage your time efficiently

If you haven’t thought of performing a SWOT analysis of yourself before, this is a perfect time. Develop your own mission and vision statement (what do you want to do in your life?). Know your core values and purposes (what’s more important to you and why?)

Grab a pen and paper or turn on your computer. We are here to support you develop your personal SWOT analysis.

‘How’ to Develop Personal SWOT Analysis

Moving to the creation of personal SWOT analysis, you need to ask several questions in the entire creation phase.

Personal Strengths

Everyone is blessed with some gifts and talents. But it takes brutal judgment to know them correctly, and then elevate them in the best possible way.

Highlight those areas where you are actually better than others. Write down your unique qualities and skills. Ask yourself following questions that will help you in analyzing your strengths:

What are the things I can do best?
Where am I better than others?
What are my innate talents?
What unique skills and capabilities I have built till now?
Do I have some advantages that others don’t have? (like qualification, certificates, awards or social contacts)
What are my qualities which are often admired by others?
What have I achieved till now and what achievements I am really proud of?
Do I have some specific resources that I can utilize for my benefit?
What expertise has pleased my boss or teachers yet?
What are the core values that I believe that others fail to exhibit?

Personal Weaknesses

Here’s the part where you have to see yourself from a critical eye. No one’s perfect after-all! However, the good news is you can always improve. The phase of improvement starts when you get to know your weaknesses.

Besides, it’s in your power to turn your negatives into positives. Knowing your weaknesses also help you to avoid choosing some fields or career paths in which you are not good.

Figure them out with the following questions:

What are the things I can’t do better?
What are my bad habits and negative personality traits?
Which areas need improvement? (like in education, training, skills, and knowledge)
What my boss, friends, and colleagues see as my weaknesses?
What tasks I usually avoid to do because I don’t like them or I don’t feel confident doing them?
Do I have some undesirable work habits? (For instance, I am disorganized, I am not punctual, I can’t handle stress, I have a short temper, )

What are my fears that hold me back in my career? (Like fear of public speaking, fear of risks, etc.)

Personal Opportunities

Opportunities always exist for people who are willing to grow. Know the external factors and growing trends to determine how you can use them advantageously.

For example, when technological developments became accessible, many smart individuals entered the field, learned the techniques, and achieved a competitive edge over their peers.

Following questions can help you to know your opportunities:

What career paths, educational fields, and industries are growing at a fast pace?
What new technology or innovation can bring me benefits in my career?
How can I take advantage of the current business scenario and latest trends?
Is my industry growing or do I have an opportunity in other industry?
Am I facing some issues in my career or company? What are the possible ways to remove them?
Is there any gap available in the market which I can fill?
Do I have a network of social and strategic contacts or do I need to build them to gain business advantages?
Are my competitors failing to do something that I can capitalize?

Personal Threats

Threats are those external elements which we can’t control. Like a sudden financial loss due to economic recession or any natural disaster like an earthquake.

However, we can still anticipate the coming threats by evaluating the current situation and making proactive decisions. But the most crucial thing is to recognize the threat and handle it with efficiency and composure.

You need to consider following questions here:

What hinders my progress at work or in my training?
What are the external factors that can affect my goals?
Do business and technological changes threaten my current position?
Are my colleagues competing with me for positions or projects?
How intense is the competition in my job market?
Are the demands for my job or industry changing?
Could any of my weaknesses result in a threat?

Example

An example of personal SWOT analysis is given below:

Conclusion and Recommendations

We recommend you to bear the following things in your mind when you are performing your SWOT analysis:

Be honest to yourself – Introspect correctly and properly. Write your strengths and weaknesses with absolute honesty.
Be focused and take time – This process needs your complete attention. So, if you perform your SWOT analysis in a hurry, there is no use of it. Take the time out to focus on your self-analysis.
Think and think again – We instantly decide a few things about ourselves without much contemplation. As this process is all about thinking deeply, you need to keep analyzing until you are completely sure about yourself.
Ask your family members, friends and colleagues – This is really a helpful technique to examine your skills and personality traits thoroughly. Take help from your parents, siblings, colleagues, and friends by asking them about your core strengths and weaknesses. You will be surprised hearing their opinions about you.

Once you are done with the SWOT analysis, the final step is to take action. Reinforce your strengths, so you get the most out of them.

Start working on your weaknesses and try your best to overcome them. Don’t hesitate in taking any opportunity that comes your way. Be cautious about threats but believe in your capabilities.

Remember, self-awareness is about creating balance in your life and gradually achieving your goals. Now that you have discovered yourself, you have made it halfway through your journey.