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ASSESSING HOW YOU SHOW UP

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Scott Krajca, CPC, CHT

ooking back on your life, what is it about you that perseveres? What tendencies do you have that seem to
Lalways create blocks in your life?

’What does this have to do with songwriting?’ you may be wondering. In the world of coaching, one of our
goals is to not only examine what your big dream or vision is, but to also be real about what personality issues
or learned behaviors may get in the way. Half of the journey to get to your goal is about building skills while
the other half are the mental (personality) aspects.

Getting Feedback
Let’s be honest. How you see yourself may not be how the rest of the world sees you. Which can be good and
bad. For example, if you know in your heart of hearts that you are going to be a successful artist, but you just
don’t have the skills right now (still learning), then listening to other people’s opinions at this stage would not
be helpful (aside from specifics on what skills to build on).

But even if you are still learning skills or developing yourself, you may want to ask trusted friends and family
members for feedback on questions like:
• What are my greatest strengths?
• When it comes to doing what I say I will do, how reliable am I?
• Where can I improve?

This is a very simple way to get feedback, but always take it with a grain of salt and definitely design how you
want the feedback (i.e. please do NOT be brutally honest but be honest with kindness).

Personality Assessments
I have learned (through personal experience) that understanding personality through assessments can be
very helpful. But I always caution some balance when getting assessment results. Personality assessments still
only shine a light on part of you. They can be really helpful in identifying behaviors that may be getting in
your way and how to address them. Below are a few personality assessments that I recommend if you want to
understand your natural strengths and weaknesses.

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