My take on a question in Quora:

"SWOT analysis is a tool used in the business world, but can it also be very useful in your personal life? Using the tool, write your own personal SWOT analysis."

Yes! You can use SWOT to analyse and evaluate your personal life.

SWOT is basically a four-box matrix, graphically in quite similar fashion to the famed Nine Block Matrix, developed by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for the Big Boys.

As it stands, with the four boxes, SWOT stands for "Strengths", "Weaknesses", "Opportunities" and "Threats".

It's a powerful tool for exploring and asssesing your "vulnerabilities" within a personal context.

As an analytical tool, there are actually three levels of intellectual processing, so to speak:

- first level, you single out the dominant factors in each box;

- second level, you think of strategies and/or tactics to build on and/amplify your "Strengths"; eliminate or minimise your "Weaknesses"; maixmise and/or leverage on your "Opportunities"; contain or mitigate your "Threats", prevaling or emerging;

- third and final level, you think of strategies and/or tactics to use your "Strengths" to exploit "Opportunities"; overcome your "Weaknesses" to take advantage of "Opportunities"; overcome your "Weaknesses" to avoid "Threats" becoming a reality; use your "Strengths" to reduce the likelihood nad impact of "Threats"; combine your "Strengths" and "Opportunities" to deal with "Weaknesses" and/or "Threats", etc.,

Appended below is a sample SWOT Analysis Grid:

In a nut shell, it's not the tool per se; it's all the hard thinking that goes behind it in developing a personal strategic fit among the combinatorial play of S.W.O.T.! Godspeed to you!