One day I was watching Discovery channel with my daughter on TV. The program was about marine life. Every species of a fish was looking for the prey and suddenly the school of big fish came and ate the entire tiny marine life. My daughter immediately said Wow! What a powerful fish! Really do we need to be powerful in our life also?
Her simple question ignited me to introspect and the answer came positive. Now the challenge was how to become powerful? How one can define power entirely depends upon one’s thinking, attitude, values. In school no one teaches us how to introspect? Or what is the need of introspection? After learning Psychology I realized that introspection is the way which leads to self-discovery. In Psychological counseling the principle remains same.
Self-Discovery is the process which helps us to reach out small goals. In this journey we learn to evaluate ourselves open mindedly. Insight about our strengths and weaknesses is the biggest capital that we have with us. In Psychology principle we named it as SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis.
For eg. If as a student if I want to apply for the music competition, then I should know my strengths or positive points in the field of music, I should have good quality voice, ability to understand musical notes and scales, basic knowledge of Taal etc. At the same time I should also be aware about my weaknesses, so that I can convert them into positive mode. If my voice is not appropriate for singing particular genre then I should avoid it. I will look for the opportunity to sing that specific type in the appropriate competition. Though I have done this analysis I should also make myself aware about the possible threats at the time of competition.
At any age we can indulge in this analysis. If we work on this then we can definitely reach our goals in life. If we start discussing this with our children then they will develop the habit of using this. Once the habit always the habit.
I remember Swami Vivekanand’s saying, “The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength. Teach men of strength that is already within them”.
Before the board exams we do counseling to the students and their parents about this technique. SWOT is very common, but if we start applying it in our day to day living then we can get maximum benefits out of it. We can rediscover ourselves with this technique again and again. I think this will also give us the motivation and spirit for living this beautiful mankind.
~ Dr. Manasee Deshmukh