The second step you need to take is to take inventory on your personal empowerment level. You need to know where you stand in standing up for yourself.
At a basic level, the term 'empowerment' simply means 'becoming powerful'. Personal empowerment therefore means taking control of your own life, and not allowing others to control it for you.
Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/personal-empowerment.html
The SWOT Method:
In order to become self-empowered, it’s important to take stock on several areas first. You want to make sure that you are safe. Therefore, there is the SWOT method that you can use to access your situation. It looks like this:
It is important to be as specific as possible. Be clear about timing, that is, when you want to achieve your goal, and also how you will know that you have achieved it (your success criteria). If you have not yet identified any goals, you may find it helpful to read the page on Setting Personal Goals. Thinking specifically about that goal:
Ex: You want to speak up about being abused. You will know you achieved it when you have spoken to someone about it.
It is often helpful to consider knowledge, skills, experience, resources and support that you have available. If you list these headings separately, you will remember to consider them all. These areas are generally internal, that is, they relate to you personally, and the resources and skills that are available to you. They are, therefore, things that are generally under your control.
Ex: Knowledge, Skills, Experience (3 Headings of Strengths) Weakness: Questions that arise in your head about what others may thing about you...
Opportunities are generally external, relating to the environment and those around you, rather than you yourself. They include things like:
In identifying opportunities that might open up as a result of achieving your goal, consider both short- and long-term benefits.
These are external things and events that are worrying you, or that might happen and prevent you from either achieving your goals, or taking advantage of the benefits.
Finally, as always with development activities, and anything that looks like strategic thinking, it is a good idea to review your analysis. Ask yourself:
And finally:
Try to highlight one, or at most two, things from each of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that you think will be most important in achieving (or preventing you from achieving) your goal. Those areas will be your priorities for action.
Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/personal-swot-analysis.html