Chapter 2: You and Your Education
10 Your Strengths and Weaknesses
To set yourself up for success in your academic and non-academic life at college, self-awareness and knowing your strengths and obstacles can give you a great head start! Introspection may not come easily to all, but it is a key element to success.
Now, let’s consider how best to apply everything you have come to learn about yourself. Based on the self-discovery quizzes and self-reflection activities you completed, consider recording your strengths, challenges, opportunities, and threats (SWOT).
What is a SWOT Analysis?
Video: How to Carry Out a Personal SWOT Analysis
Watch the video ” How to Carry Out a Personal SWOT Analysis” [2:20].
Note: While this video has a career focus, it also applies to you and your education.
Activity: Reflecting on Your Strengths
Answer the question about your strengths in the space provided.
Taking Advantage of Your Strengths
Read the article from psychology today on 4 Tips for Maximizing Your Strengths: Maximizing Your Strengths
Video: How Our Weaknesses Can Become Our Strengths
Now that you’ve spent time identifying your strengths and barriers, watch the TED talk “How Our Weaknesses Can Become Our Strengths” [10:44] about taking advantage of your strengths.
I’ve Reflected. Now What?
Play to Your Strengths
- Pursue a program and take courses that align with your strengths and are of interest to you. For example, if you enjoy written assignments but frequently experience test anxiety, guided by your program’s requirements, try taking courses that ask you to prepare a paper or oral presentation instead of a final exam if possible.
- Study according to your preferences and what works best for you. Feel free to experiment with this! Determining what works best for you is not an overnight process; allow yourself time to do so.
- Get involved with extracurricular activities that will allow your strengths to flourish. The opportunities are limitless!
Seek Support Wherever It May Be Helpful
Throughout this course, we will be introducing you to the abundance of services and supports that exist at Cambrian. You may need all of them, some of them, or none of them, but knowing that they are available for you is important. Know your needs and the resources/campus organizations that might be useful for you. Seek out any and all supports that will be helpful for you academically and/or personally. There is absolutely no shame in doing so. Instead, you will be making smart use of the offerings available to you (you pay for these supports in your student fees), and you will be helping yourself succeed.
If you are taking courses that you know may pose a challenge for you, set aside extra time from the beginning of the term so that you can give extra attention to those subjects. Reach out for extra academic support early, because those appointments tend to fill up fast.
