Deb MilesTo conjure up our strengths is not a road we often follow. But what if that road did not have to be an uphill slog. What if that road was like walking through a park filled with colourful flowers, birds singing and fragrances of sweet nectar?
Who am I kidding? Looking to your strengths is nothing like that. Seeking your strengths is like a mirror shattering. Not the one that is accidental and brings seven years bad luck kind of shattering, but more like a I am intentionally breaking this mirror and reversing all those weaknesses I see when I look in the mirror and discovering a new destiny for myself kind of shattering.
This is the true work of owning and leveraging your strengths.
Leveraging your strengths in business will help bring you greater satisfaction, build confidence and help you see more opportunities. But how do we do that when the weaknesses are so loud?
Practice yoga. Seriously, practice yoga.
As a yoga teacher, I loved taking core strengthening classes simply because they are nothing that any of my clients ever expected. When you hold a yoga pose, you don’t think about how weak your core is, at least not in the classes I teach. Instead, I invite you to focus on your breathing. Through the breath, you bypass the weak areas and go straight to the strength.
And this is where you start to build new levels of strength that let you see opportunity. What you move through is determination of the mind, centeredness of your emotions, flow of your prana and eventually a strong physical core. The loudness of those weak areas starts to quieten. Opportunities arise to try something you wouldn’t have normally done.
Not only does this work on the yoga mat but it also works in business.
In business, we call this kind of asana a SWOT. SWOT looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within your business and the environment you work. It is like performing a series of yoga posture to work your way towards an outcome that can define a business strategy.
What many marketing people don’t tell you is that secondary and probably more importantly is another aspect of this analysis known as a TOWS. Same letters, same meaning but it is more the leverage part. The taking a breath in the asana and bypassing the weaknesses. It’s the part where you turn the challenges into what will drive your business to success. You look at your strengths and you use them to overcome the weaknesses. You take the threats and you see opportunities.
I propose to take this one step further and guide you to look at your strengths through a different lens so as to build the business (and life) you have been dreaming about. Let’s turn your strengths into actionable strategies and move from the space of your heart as you do that.
If you would like to practice some business yoga asana in the form of a SWOT analysis sign up to my marketing news list and I will send you a free analysis sheet along with tips on how to convert your SWOT into TOWS. Next article I will go into more details of turning your strengths into actionable strategies.
Dr Elaine Cebuliak
Reena Terreping
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