First take an inventory of your skills — all of them.     Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle.  On the left-hand side title it “Hard Skills”; on the right-hand side title it “Soft Skills.”  Both are important aspects of your overall value in the marketplace.  Hard skills represent easily transferable, tangible, and technical skills.  For example, your education, computer skills, certifications, designations, mathematical ability, software skills, statistical analysis, sales forecasting etc.  Soft skills are equally important but harder to measure because they are intangible and subjective such as being a leader, dependable, optimistic, patient, methodical, collaborative, persistent, diligent, competitive, honest, etc.

So now without censoring yourself write down what all of your skills are.

Next make a separate list of who you respect and admire.  They can be from the present or the past, from your family or from history.  This helps you understand who you are and  the traits you admire in yourself.

Once you determine whatand who you value, I want you to spend some time asking yourself why?  Work through this question and you’ll be surprised at what comes to the surface.

You need to be able to define your value for yourself and embrace it before you can market yourself to others.