Brace yourself—this next task may make you feel vulnerable because it explores whether how you see yourself is similar to how other people see you. Write down the five words that you think best describe you. Then ask ten of your closest family members and friends to give you five words that they would use to describe you. Take those 50 words and look for the ones that show up most often. Are they on your own list of five? When I did this, the top word that came from my squad was generous. It’s a self-identifier for me, so it validated how I view myself. Now begin to mine your top words. How do you turn them into action? It will give you the fuel to move from being stuck to deciding what’s next. For me, it included launching a foundation that was based in generosity, as well as getting involved with philanthropy, mentoring, and several nonprofits. While I didn’t ask everyone to give me five negative things, that’s a good exercise, too. I would have to include impatient, rigid at times, and possessive. Having insights on how to move forward from those traits has also helped me get unstuck, particularly in my personal relationships.
Real Life of an MSW 
Sounds like a really helpful task to uncover self perception
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Thank you. I believe this is a wonderful exercise that we should all do as it can often be very insightful.
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This is a good exercise. I’ve tried it before, though, and other people made me sound like this perfect creature, whereas my own perception of me is more flawed. It bothers me to think that anyone would view me as perfect or even close to it. No one can live up to such an image. 😕
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This is wonderful exercise. The issue with the huma mind is like Teflon for positive information and Velcro for negative information. The brain has a strong negativity bias, meaning we pay much more attention to what is wrong with us. We take for granted those things that we’re doing well because we don’t need to do anything to fix them, and instead focus on areas of needed improvement. While it’s understandable why we do this, it means our view of ourselves is very distorted. Your friends are viewing you through their lens, so embrace the words they shower upon you, and practice self-appreciation. It helps when we don’t take our good qualities so personally. In other words, remember that we developed our strengths with a lot of help.
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