The Empowerment And Vulnerabilities Of One's Self

Identifying strengths and weaknesses can be very difficult for an individual to determine. In order to establish these areas we must examine our character. It is our character which delineates our characteristics. Becoming aware of your own identity is the basis for such accountability and perception. The key to understanding the identification of these characteristics begin with self-awareness and self-development. However, undermining these qualities can be a manifestation of ignorance. Therefore, I would like to start by changing the term "weakness" to "areas of improvement". Continuing to label our personal traits by such name will only describe an imperfection of character that can never be changed. Yet, it is by those same areas of improvement that we can achieve our strengths.

There are three basic categories of qualities individuals possess. These categories are broken down by personal, knowledge-based, and transferable qualities. The personal qualities are unique individual traits defined for example as dependability, flexibility, hard working and expressive. The knowledge-based qualities are skills we acquire through education. The skills we learn from our teachers, parents, and others in charge. The transferable qualities are the mobile skills we take from job to job. The experiences acquired from our previous work history.

Determination comes to mind when I think of my personal strengths. Overall, I believe myself to be a hard worker with outstanding communications skills. My ability to deal with people is very well documented in my performance evaluations at my workplace. I also believe that I possess excellent computer skills. My computer experience is mostly seen in the Microsoft Suite. I can prepare documents in Word, spreadsheets in Excel, presentations in PowerPoint and work breakdown schedules in Project. I am very familiar with the e-mail and calendar features in Outlook as well. I also hold basic expertise in Access and Visio. I will explain that I was not trained on the Access or Visio programs. The little knowledge I possess in both Access and Visio is self taught. The lack of experience is due to the fact that I do not work with these programs as much as I do with the others. With that in mind, you have to recognize the "take-charge attitude", organizational skills, dedication and motivation in me. I am able to learn a new set of skills by choice, need or simply for the fun of it. It is my willingness to learn which substantiates the experience I desire for myself.

There are also areas of improvement that