#172: Find Out Where Your Genius Lies

Introduction

In today's "People Skills" newsletter, we're once again going "off-piste" and showcasing one of our Worksheet collections in its entirety.

This collection is on "Maximising Your Potential" and there are 25 worksheets in the set. They cover every aspect of personal development, from what potential is, to how to discover your strengths, and how to live positively.

You can use these worksheets for your own self-paced reflection or as thought-and-discussion sessions on team meetings, workshops, and training courses.

At ManageTrainLearn, we've discovered that reflection is a key part of learning but is often omitted from formal learning events.

So, use these 25 worksheets to take the guesswork out of what you are good at and dive into a deeper understanding. Here we go...

Worksheet 01: What Is Potential?

Instructions: Complete the six boxes below in turn. They will give you a full 360-degree insight into the meaning of potential.

Worksheet 02: My Talents, My Genius

Instructions: We all have talents and we all have genius. The chart below gives you an insight to where those talents lie and what you can accomplish with them.

Worksheet 03: Are You a Genius?

Instructions: On the left below, you’ll see 14 of Tony Buzan’s qualities of genius. Tick those you believe you possess and, where you don’t tick, suggest how you can work towards them.

Worksheet 04: Who We Are

Instructions: Who we are is a mix of what we were born with, what we have learnt and what we have set our minds on becoming. Use the chart below to sort out what parts of your own skills and talents come from what parts of you.

Worksheet 05: From Survival to Growth

Instructions: Whether as individuals or as members of a team, we all experience periods when we are struggling to survive, periods when we can coast a bit and periods when we can grow. Jot down examples of such periods in your own life and your life as a member of a group or team that went through the same periods.

Worksheet 06: A Strengths Inventory

Instructions: We know our strengths from the yearnings we have to do well; from satisfying work; from rapid learning; and from moments of excellence. Use the chart below to find out your own strengths. Then decide how you can build on them.

Worksheet 07: Weaknesses

Instructions: We know our weaknesses from the tasks we dislike doing; from unsatisfying work; from areas of slow learning; and from repeated poor performance. Use the chart below to find out your own weaknesses. Then suggest how you can manage them.

Worksheet 08: Temperaments

Instructions: Look at the chart below and tick those characteristics that you see in yourself. Add the scores of each box to decide what your temperament is.

Worksheet 09: Yin Yang

Instructions: The Oriental philosophy of Yin-Yang can be used to detect imbalances in the way we are in life. Use the chart below to think about how strongly you identify currently with one characteristic against its opposite. Tick whether you are Yin or Yang for each feature and then count up the total to see if you are balanced overall.

Worksheet 10: The Centres of My Life

Instructions: The Life Centres are the areas in our life that are most important to us. Look at the list below and rate the importance of each life centre for you from 1 to 9, using each rating number only once. Check how this rating is reflected in your current life and how you would like it to change.

Worksheet 11: Goals

Instructions: Goal-setting is the defining activity of self-development. It is the one activity that sets us on the path to accomplishing what we are capable of. Use the chart below to brainstorm your current goals and check that they are defined in a way that makes them achievable.

Worksheet 12: Pitching Your Goals

Instructions: Pitching your goals right is part of the process of goal-setting. Use the chart below to consider three goals that you have at present. Play around with the goal to make it easily achievable, excessively difficult and just right. Notice how you feel about each one.

Worksheet 13: Affirmations

Instructions: Affirmations bring the future nearer. By being worded in the present, they link how we want to be to how we are now. Use the chart below to write affirmations for your own personal goals, your team's and the organisation's.

Worksheet 14: Programming

Instructions: Programming is one of the quickest ways to ensure we reach a goal we have set ourselves. Try out the techniques below for a goal you have set yourself.

Worksheet 15: Physical Energy

Instructions: Use the chart below to record your levels of exercise and what you eat on any normal day. Then decide whether you want to change these to give yourself more physical energy.

Worksheet 16: Mental Energy

Instructions: Think of occasions when you failed to achieve a desired goal because you didn't think you were up to it. The chances are you used one of the "chains of the past" or mental excuses. Jot down some of the mental energy blocks that you use and replace them with positive self-talk.

Worksheet 17: The Route to a Goal

Instructions: The route to achieving a much-desired goal is rarely smooth. We encounter heartache and disappointment; failure and setback. But we need to keep going. Think about any time that you set yourself a challenging goal. Jot down what it felt like at each of the stages from initial blip to success.

Worksheet 18: Teleological Growth

Instructions: Teleological growth is growth that works like a guided missile. The missile is aimed at our goals but it is guided by the feedback we get on the way. Think about any goal that you set yourself in the past. Jot down the evidence you needed and how you adjusted your course as you went.

Worksheet 19: Critical Incidents

Instructions: A critical incident is an event or experience in which your performance is key to achieving your personal goals. Examples of critical incidents are: exchanges with key people; the practice of a skill; doing something risky; taking on responsibility. Jot down how you handled one recent critical incident and what it meant to you.

Worksheet 20: My Life Chart

Instructions: Completing a Life Chart helps you put into focus the important events in your life and how the past links to the present and the future. Draw a line from age 12 to the present and project it into the future, illustrating negative and positive periods of your life by drawing either side of the line. Indicate what key events were.

Worksheet 21: I've Learnt That...

Instructions: Learning is something that happens all the time if we are open to experiences and feedback. Ask your friends to tell you what they've learnt recently. Then jot down anything you've learnt recently as well.

Worksheet 22: My Positivity Rating

Instructions: Positive thinking and positive behaviour are the keys to achieving challenging goals. The belief that we will reach the goals we set ourselves works like a magnet on us. Use the chart below to assess how well you rate yourself across a range of simple positivity measures. Then decide how you could do better.

Worksheet 23: Potential in Situations

Instructions: All situations, even the blackest, have some potential in them. This means that every situation offers us the opportunity to learn, to grow or to turn it to some kind of advantage for ourselves and others. Use the chart to recall a difficult time and its potential. Then think about now and its potential.

Worksheet 24: Mastery

Instructions: Use the chart below to describe your own "take" on the meaning of mastery at work.

Worksheet 25: Overcoming the Odds

Instructions: Examples of individuals who have overcome huge setbacks to achieve goals and potential are regularly reported on television and in the press. Jot down below examples that you have come across; or use an example known to you personally.

What Next?

Many psychologists now believe that self-awareness, self-analysis, and personal development are three of the most important keys to personal success in work and life.

That's why many people who don't do work on themselves often go through life without fulfilling their true potential.

It's also why we, at ManageTrainLearn, always include at least one worksheet exercise a day on our courses so that trainees can learn more about their strengths and abilities.

By using the worksheets in this newsletter, you can find out more about yourself and where you stand on the skills you need in your work.

After all, why would you guess when you could get it right?

Well done and good luck!