Zelfs apen vallen uit bomen
Even those who excel at something sometimes stumble upon unexpected obstacles or hit a seeming performance limit. Challenges at the workplace, or any aspect of daily life for that matter, don’t seem to stop surprising us.
Sitting on the sofa watching the film running doesn’t appear to help. If we stay put or don’t understand what’s going on, we’ll become trapped in what may be named the garden swing syndrome: moving back and forth at an increasingly slower pace until we eventually stop.
Getting stuck isn’t a brilliant situation, is it? In most cases, we fail because we couldn’t anticipate the evolution of things or rode off for a battle without the proper gear. Furthermore, decision-making is often unable to deal with other cognitions and emotions (such as attention, anxiety, motivation, love and so on).
What to do? In the first place, some battles are not worth fighting, since the energy and risk they require are too big for the payoff. Besides, they just might not be our cup of tea, anyway. Secondly, we must assess our strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats present in the environment.
We must love whatever we intend to engage in. But is what we are and what we know is enough to make things work? And if not, can we upgrade ourselves to fit for the purpose?
Do existing opportunities (and threats that can hinder access to them) justify the undertaking? All the questions above – and a couple more – must be answered upfront. From there on we can decide what to do and the way we should do it. If strengths are incompatible with our target or weaknesses can’t overtake threats, it’s better to change course and look elsewhere.
SWOT matrix is a well-known strategic planning tool used in Marketing that comes in very handy in listing, organising and evaluating those issues.
We can help you perform a bespoke P-SWOT assessment, proposing strategies to be more successful in dealing with your personal and professional challenges. We offer separate programs tailored to businesses and individuals.