SWOT Analysis - Guard Against the Internal Enemy

In this podcast, I explore the ideas in my book, Blooming Through Chaotic Times—a practical map for navigating complexity, turbulence, and change.Buy my Book Here, or connect with me to find out more:LinkedInYouTubeXYou can also see my full engagements on my website

By a combination of SMART, PESTEL and SWOT techniques, we can gain a better understanding of our external and internal environment and develop a more effective plan to better prevent chaos from happening to us through the gradual implementation of these techniques in risk control processes. In the likelihood of a threat, one can be better prepared to manage risks by setting out plans to either avoid, reduce, Transfer, Share, or accept the Risks.

Using these tools helps us to understand where we are in our Journey Back. But we also have an internal enemy, which is ourselves. So, another useful tool, accredited to a number of business gurus in the 1960s, called SWOT analysis, could assist self-reflection and awareness and enable us to better prepare against the tides of time.The acronym SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This acronym is used in problem-solving and decision-making and works towards mapping out the best and most practicable path of survival and thriving.

Chaos usually happens when we let down our guard against risk. A simple way of determining what sort of personal or organizational risk to guard against is to analyse where the risk comes from. Francis Aguilar, a professor in strategic planning, used the acronym of PESTEL as a method where we can identify and prepare against external risks.The acronym PESTEL stands for Political, Economic, Sociocultural, Technological, Environmental, and Legal. We can use it to reduce risk while working through the ordeals of life.Here’s a brief explanation of each factor:Political: This refers to government policies and regulations.Economic: This factor looks at the overall economic conditions and trends such as inflation, interest rates, exchange rates and economic growth.Sociocultural: This factor considers the social and cultural factors including lifestyle trends which may create dysfunction.Technological: This factor examines the technological advancements that could impact a day to day living.Environmental: This factor considers how the natural environment can impact our lifestyle and includes factors such as climate change and natural disasters.Legal: This factor examines the laws and regulations which impact our lives, such as health and safety regulations, labour laws, etc.By analysing each of these factors, we can gain a better understanding of the external environment and make informed decisions about our lives.

What are your goals this year ? It's already past the mid-year . Have you achieved these goals ?Don't just ruminate about your goals , you have to articulate them. You have to be SMART about achieving your goals.Rather than betting against the fragility of existence by a misconstrued assumption of an easy-go-get-lucky safety based on a false reliance of the System, it is safer and more reasonable to take responsibility to safeguard oneself against life’s changes.It is not just necessary to have a broad plan and a mental overview of achieving them. It is important to break the process down in chunks to enable its implementation in a non overwhelming manner.

Everything is in a state of flux, including the status quo! We live in a complex and unpredictable world.In this podcast, I demonstrate how the best means of tackling life's fragility is to be proactively and purposefully prepared against its unpredictability.

I am an author, a community organiser and a life trainer. My mission is rooted in the belief that awareness, relationship and career progressions are essential to personal and professional success, and my goal is to bring passion into living through the perpetuation of this awareness, relationship and career by supporting individuals in building confidence, improving relationships and achieving economic stability.This podcast is my approach to helping people find meaning in existence by resolving life's difficult questions, from a discourse of science, philosophy, the reasonability of faith and the perspective of our lived spiritual and cultural experience.I am a culture-conscious builder of community who believes transformation begins with honest connection — with yourself, your purpose, and your environmentI help people to build meaningful relationships and foster a sense of shared direction, which realigns their values with collective well-being.This Podcast is about building trust, nurturing talents, and strengthening the bonds that hold our communities together.

This was culled from my Advent Spiritual Exercises in 2014