What are you good at and in what areas could you improve yourself? The answers to these questions are essential if you want to work on your personal development. By placing your strengths and weaknesses in a personal SWOT analysis, you immediately know where opportunities lie in your self-development. But what exactly is a personal SWOT analysis and how do you do a SWOT analysis of yourself? We have listed the definition, a short step-by-step plan, and several personal SWOT analysis examples for you so that you can get the most out of your personal development.
What is a personal SWOT analysis?
The letters in SWOT stand for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT analysis is a common marketing tool, used by companies to investigate where potential opportunities lie. But what is a personal SWOT analysis? A personal SWOT analysis is also called a personal strengths and weaknesses analysis. In this analysis, you look at the extent to which you master certain skills and in what areas you have room for improvement. By completing this analysis, your future opportunities (and threats) become clear in an instant.
Why should I do a personal SWOT analysis?
You now know what a SWOT analysis is and what the four letters stand for, but why would you do a personal SWOT analysis? The personal SWOT analysis is the ideal tool for working on your personal development. Thinking about both your strengths and weaknesses beforehand will give you a realistic self-image. Doing a personal SWOT analysis is also a good way to find out exactly where your ambitions lie.
In addition, in many cases your personal SWOT analysis is the starting point of your personal development plan: after completing it, you will know exactly where opportunities lie to grow, where you have already reached more or less maximum growth, or where any pitfalls lie. Doing a personal SWOT analysis thus helps you detect opportunities and then seize them with both hands.
How to do a SWOT analysis of yourself?
Now you know all the ins and outs of a SWOT analysis, it's time to do a SWOT analysis of yourself. You start your personal SWOT analysis by creating a matrix:
![](https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/blogs-user-bucket-sk4wis3jjhbc/content_com/2023/03/image-1.png)
The next step is to fill in the matrix. For each box, you could think of a number of things to fill in:
![](https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/blogs-user-bucket-sk4wis3jjhbc/content_com/2023/03/image-2.png)
Personal SWOT analysis: examples
Want to know what a completed personal SWOT analysis looks like? We have several personal SWOT analysis examples for you. Please read on!
SWOT analysis example work
![](https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/blogs-user-bucket-sk4wis3jjhbc/content_com/2023/03/image-6.png)
SWOT analysis example student
![](https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/blogs-user-bucket-sk4wis3jjhbc/content_com/2023/03/image-8.png)
Does your personal SWOT analysis include writing the best summaries and essays as your strengths? Then don't wait any longer and start selling your study documents. That way, you will not only help your fellow students but also earn some extra money yourself.