Stephen Scoggins walks through exercises to find your strengths and blind spots. Ask trusted people what you're naturally good at and where you miss things about yourself. Then look for patterns and find partners to cover your weak spots.
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Alright, guys, welcome back to Q and A with Journey Principles. How do I get clear on what's important to me? I think the interesting thing is I like to take this particular thing and actually flip it on its head. And here's what I mean. I like to start with a process of elimination.
Process of elimination of what's not important to me first. So if I have a list of 10 or 15 things that I think should be done, what I'll typically do first is I'll actually start from the bottom and work my way backwards. Okay. And then I'll take those remaining items and I'll actually prioritize those in such a way that allows me to get action based on the following criteria. Whichever one is going to get me the greatest lift first typically is my first priority. Okay. Meaning that whatever one, whichever one is going to allow me to either get more time, more resources, or more influence, I will probably spend most of my time there because it allows me to help the most people. Okay. You can easily do the same thing. Very easily do the same thing. So step one is always going to be start with what can be eliminated first or set aside first. Okay. And then look at the things that are basically the most important based on the amount of lift you get. Okay. You can also go back to some of our other lessons on YouTube where in whiteboard lessons and Face to Face, we also talk about proper time and priority management and that'll help you also win the day.
Okay. Our next question is how do I identify my strengths? I'm going to attack this particular question this time from a natural standpoint, meaning without having to take a personality assessment or some other gifts or strengths finder kind of thing. And here's what I mean. One of the ways that you can really uncover your strengths is go to a trusted friend, family member or ally and simply with a pen and pad, sit with them and say, would you mind sharing with me the five or six things that you think I do really, really well that maybe I don't give myself credit for? Would you show me the things that you think I'm most gifted at and tell me and then explain to me why? Okay. The next step after that is I would also, maybe even while they're doing it, I would make a separate list of the things that you do well. Now I will tell you it's more difficult. Many times people will chew themselves apart long before they give themselves credit for the things they're good at. Which is another reason why I recommend talking to a friend or family member. That you can trust and rely on maybe a trusted mentor for that matter. Okay. It's because we're often blinded by our strengths, but we pay close attention to our blind spots or our struggles. This particular exercise of having a friend or family member tell you what they think you are naturally gifted in, meaning the things that come natural, it's easy for you. Okay? I've never been a great basketball player, and not just because I'm short. I'm just not good at that sport. However, put a slap a set of ice skates on me, that's a totally different story. Okay? That's a natural ability that comes with time. Let your friends and your family members help influence those things. Once you've got five or six things that they believe that you're naturally gifted at, reflect on those things and maybe look at the top three. The top three that you yourself would not only agree with them on, but be super passionate about. And then what I would do is I would spend time leaning into those, amplifying those and seeing if you can put those strengths to work for you to better your life.
All right, so this question is very similar to the last question we just did, which is, how do I identify my blind spots? Take the first example I just gave you, where you go to a friend or family member that's a trusted ally. Now ask them, what are things that you think catch me off guard? What are things that you feel like hold me back, and what are things that you feel like that maybe if I had a better understanding of a better mentorship around that, it would help me move forward. All right, do the same thing, obviously, with yourself, and do the same exercise. Don't be surprised if you came up with a list of four things, four or five things you had good strengths in, and you came up with with like 15 things that maybe you're not so good in. That's normal. Because we over. We're often over critical of ourselves. This process will teach you something different. This process will teach you how to amplify your strengths. But when you go to discover your blind spots through this process, what's going to happen is, is you're going to have great visibility, okay, into the areas that they think you can work on. Now the next step is take those same areas and see if you can see a reoccurring theme. Okay. For example, well, if you didn't spend as much money, that would be helpful. Okay, Check. All right. If maybe you could spend some time saving more money. Check. All right. Maybe you could spend some more Time raising your income check. All right? That would tell you that the running theme behind a blind spot that you have would be financial money management. And then you just partner with somebody who's really awesome in finance to help overcome that blind spot. Or in my case, I'm really good at big vision. I'm really good at strategic thinking, but I'm not so great about organizing the details, always in a clear fashion. Okay. I'm really good at the big picture in philosophy and theology, if you will. But I have to support myself with a team because I'm not good with spelling and grammar due to the dyslexia. Those are all different ways in which you can optimize or actually identify. Not optimize, but identify your blind spots, and then you backfill those. So let your friends and your family member, people that you trust help you understand what you're not good at. Explore it. Don't get defensive, don't take it personally, but keep it real. All right? And if you'll do that, you can identify those, overcome them, and keep moving forward, which is the important thing.
Okay, our final question for today is how do I find what makes me unique? Well, the good news is you've already started the process in discovering your strengths and blind spots. Okay. The next step is write down five or six things that you're deeply passionate about. Okay. Write down five or six things that you deeply value, like trust or character or things of that nature. Write down the things that you value most. So anytime someone crosses that line, you know that you've got something to work on. All right? A lot of times what people do is they'll focus only on what's on the surface. What you're looking to do is find the underlying root that brings that particular trait to the service. Okay. One of the easiest ways to do that is to actually go to JourneyPrinciples.com resources and download the free ebook what Drives you. Inside of that, you're going to find a free $100 assessment in order for you to actually get a personality assessment that will allow you to dig deep into your strengths, your struggles, your blind spots. You'll have a better understanding of how you communicate, how you learn, and. And how you can actually help yourself become more impactful, more of a connector, and then start winning and winning big. So those are the things that I think would help you uncover your uniqueness. Why? Because every avenue of that is a complete and utter fingerprint of a different personality style, a different value system, a different level of emotional intelligence, a different level of guilt gifting and skillset, which you can only discover by actually digging a little deeper.
Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed this week's Life Mastery Q and A Video. We're doing a new Q and A Video every single Monday, and if you have questions you'd like answered, simply leave a comment with your question below this video or email us@questionsuryprinciples.com and if we use your question, we'll send you a free gift just to say thank you.
