Introduction
In order to establish my strengths and weaknesses, I first rated myself, naming certain traits I liked, and some I didn't. Afterward, I asked a select number of friends and family to gather their opinion of my strengths and weaknesses, documenting everything they said. Afterward, I constructed the lists, and compared them.Strengths
When I picked out my strengths, I thought I was hardworking, committed, and logical. I come up with these based on what I see myself doing. Day in, day out, I will go to the gym, lift, swim, and keep myself in good shape. Even on days where my head is crying for more sleep, I would drag myself to the gym. I don't like to take days off, because I dislike the feeling of inactiveness. This is how I drew my first two strengths, hardworking and committed. Not only do I have the capacity to go months at a time without breaking routine, I am committed to what I do. When I accept a task, I have to commit and see it all the way through. If I know there is an inkling that I am incapable of accomplishing the task at hand, I would not accept the task in the first place. When I join my organizations, the Illini Swim Club, the Illini Union Board, I take positions when I see I have the capability of carrying out my duties. Hence why I only hold an exec position with the Illini Union Board but not with the Illini Swim Club. I do not let my duties from one position interfere with the duties of another. I fully commit to both organizations, but understand how much I may cost them if I bite off more than what I can chew. My last strength, is based on my ability to see reason. I often find myself capable of taking in reason. When my friends present a decision they want my input in, I ask them the reason and train of thought that lead them to their decision or conclusion. If it seems like a certain step came out of place, I apply my own logical reasoning to supplement their decision.
When I asked my friends and family for their input, a wide range of my perceived strengths were social. A lot of responses geared toward my approachability, that I was easy to talk to. These were my close friends and family, so they talk to me a lot, which probably contributed to this strength. However, I think I lack that feature to some extent because I struggle get initiative to strike conversation with people I don't know. Only when they begin conversating I find it easy to talk. Another strength they perceived was my self-control. Some said I could refrain myself from doing everything if I wanted to, and some said I had a very structured personality; it would be very hard break out of the routines and rules I set for myself. I find this true, I don't find the urge to go around partying every night or go eating a bag of chips every time I see one. I see many people struggle to combat this yet for me, when I say I need to diet, I hit that diet hard until I say the diet is over. Finally, another trait people pointed out was my strong decision making, that I made reasoned decisions. Some may not seem logical to them, but I ultimately follow a path of reasoned thought when making decisions.
So I think that I am hardworking and committed, others think I am a likeable, easygoing guy, but we agree that I like reasoned, well-informed decisions.
Weaknesses
One of the weaknesses I think I have is failure to listen properly. I would completely zone out when a friend was describing a story, but halfway through I would come back and say "what?", and ask them to backtrack. This happens way too frequently, and even my parents are on my case, often at the dinner table. So this weakness is not only perceived by me, but told to me by everyone around me to listen. I also think that I am not creative. I lack creativity and ideas in general. I love to pull other peoples' ideas to help formulate mine. I find it seriously difficult to draw up something original. Even jokes I use are recycled from others or from movies I found. I guess this stems from the structure I keep myself contained in. I will never be able to free my mind if I keep myself grounded, but when I am grounded I feel like I am chugging along perfectly. However, this is something none of my friends mentioned when I asked about perceived flaws.
One weakness they saw that I didn't see was my inability to make quick decisions. A lot of friends said I take too long to pull the trigger, especially for purchasing decisions. I have to agree, when I make purchasing decisions, I like to follow my train of reasoned thought before I make the conclusion. Sometimes this takes me a whole day or a week, where I just think about the decision the whole day weighing the pros and cons. However, many of them said this actually played into my strength, that I am incapable of making impulse decisions, decisions that may cost me later down the road. Despite this, I have to agree my weakness is the delay in my decisions.
Some people cited my stubbornness as partially responsible to quickly adapt and change routines. I didn't see this, but I agree where they come from. When I am told to change my answer, or change the routine, I often question the reasoning behind the change. I dislike being told my logical reasoning was incorrect, but I don't need a whole force of voices telling me I was incorrect. If someone tells me I am wrong, and supplies an ample explanation of why I was wrong, I will change my course of action. However, people love to just tell me I am wrong and leave it at that, which is why I question and challenge back, which gives off stubbornness.
Those are the main weaknesses my friends and family pointed out, and some in a less serious note point out I bandwagon too much. I don't know if bandwagoning is a weakness per say, but it may be. In my defense, I hop on bandwagons when I don't have a particular team to like. The team I bandwagon on also cannot be reigning champions, but the underdogs. I never liked Golden State, or Lebron's Cavs, or any of that sort. The only team I bandwagoned on recently was the Bears when they made the playoffs. I still can't explain if bandwagoning is truely a weakness, I'll let you know tomorrow when I decide.
Summary
Looking at the results, it seems there is some congruence. I think I am logical, other see that I am logical. I can tell that I don't listen, and others pick up on that. I struggle to make decisions on the fly, and can be very stubborn when not provided adequate reasoning. People see that I am easy to talk to and likeable guy, while I see myself as a quieter guy that keeps his head down. It's not too bad for me to think I struggle to communicate when others think that I communicate perfectly around them. I think I am perfectly happy to accept that the world sees me as an easy-going, approachable guy. I will have to fix my stubbornness and work on my decision making, but my tendency to make clear, well-informed decisions will be an important balance. The two I named, but not named by anyone, hardworking and committed, will come to light. I am sure of it. I don't like to showboat, so I often just present the finished product, and not display everything I am doing to achieve it. Like Under Armour said, it's what you do in the dark that puts you in the light.
My Feature Benefit
Everybody nowadays loves to make purchases on Amazon, buy things they don't need or can't even afford. People just want to get the end results and not see the path you need to get there. If you do that, you are missing what life is about. Life is a grind, and you will never be free of it. You need to keep a clear mind, tackle one thing at a time, think things through. That's what I do. I will keep everything clear, work hard and get the job done the right way. I will always keep things logical, and you won't be disappointed. I may be stubborn at times and take too long to decide, but with all this time I have left on Earth, it's not so bad to slow down and take it easy.
