The MEAPA Way:

Personal Assessment of Traits and Habits (PATH)

Since habits shape 45% of the choices people make each day, there is a tremendous need for people to increase the few formal moments of self-appraisal that they have and make a life-long commitment to  self-awareness and learning.  Doing so allows individuals a chance to identify personal traits and habits they can either leverage or enhance in order to achieve a higher level of professional development.  To help individuals assess their traits and habits MEAPA created the Personal Assessment of Traits and Habits (PATH). 

• PATH is applicable for anyone, regardless of background, level of education, industry, geographical location, employment status or age. 
• PATH consists of the following 20 traits/habits commonly found among successful people.  Not every successful professional always practices every trait/habit but they do practice one or more of them frequently.
• PATH asks you to define how frequently you practice each trait/habit using the following Likert scale:
  

Never • Infrequently • Often • Always

• We use the word practice with PATH instead of strengths and weaknesses because PATH is a practice and not a muscle group. By defining the frequency of how often a trait or habit is used, one leaves the door open for making even the smallest of steps in a daily practice of traveling further down their PATH.  
  
• As one attendee said following a PATH workshop: "MEAPA's PATH gave me the knowledge of a daily exercise that will change the direction of my own life's journey.  Thank you!"
  
• MEAPA has also published the Your PATH Series of publications that includes a wide variety of topics relevant for personal, professional and organizational development.
• Link to PATH article on MindBodyGreen: Your Guide to Wellness
  

The 20 Traits and Habits of PATH:

1. Believe you create your own life – The influence of other people and circumstances are all around us, but you need to believe that you can make an impact on them if you want to achieve your goals. 
   
   • To better understand if you believe you create your own life complete MEAPA's 3 Steps to Creating Your Belief Statement exercise.
     
2. Create a vision for your life – Know where you are going, where you need to turn, and what resources you need along the way so you can live with intention.
3. Define a specific goal – It is impossible to work toward something if you do not know exactly what it is you are trying to achieve.
4. Exercise self-discipline – Once you have clearly identified a vision and goals, it requires inner drive and deliberate effort over an extended period of time to achieve them. 
5. Deal with change – The world is in constant motion and people that live with intention and work with purpose have to deal with change on a constant basis. 
6. Rebound from failure – Nobody is successful all the time with everything they try to do. If we give up after a failure or two we will fall short of achieving the life we envision.
7. Believe in yourself when others do not – Your goals and desires are uniquely yours and may not be shared by anyone else. To achieve them you must retain self confidence in what you are doing despite what others say. 
8. Exhibit courageous behavior – Courage is facing situations that scare us but demand our attention if we want to take the required action to achieve a difficult goal.
9. Get comfortable being uncomfortable – Many things in life makes us uncomfortable so we must routinely practice getting comfortable in uncomfortable situations, both personally and professionally.
10. Persevere through a difficult situation – Reaching any goal requires you to keep moving forward no matter what the obstacle or how difficult the situation.
11. Be more resourceful – Be aware that other resources or people might exist to help you answer a question, address an issue, or resolve a problem. 
12. Prioritize your to-do list – There are many things we have to do, but not all things are necessary for us to meet our timelines and accomplish our goals. 
13. Collaborate with others – Working with others can make you more effective by exponentially increasing your capabilities.
14. Differentiate yourself – Examine your traits and skills so you can identify what makes you unique and valuable to others in a specific situation.
15. Communicate your value – Present a compelling story about yourself so that others can better understand how you differentiate and offer value to them.
16. Understand events and people more clearly – Assumptions and misunderstandings block communication, hurt collaboration, and derail action.
17. Respect and discuss new ideas – Growth comes from inviting, processing and implementing new ideas without judging the validity of those ideas before thinking about them. New perspectives can help you become more creative and open opportunities. 
18. Take calculated risks – To live with intention is to move forward without a guaranteed outcome because one or more of the variables are unknown or difficult to ascertain.
19. Ask yourself empowering questions – Question what is happening around you to deepen your understanding. Instead of lamenting when something occurs, you can ask 'what is life trying to teach me at this very moment?' 
20. Practice self-improvement – The more you intentionally improve the other traits and habits the more effective you become in other areas of your life.

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"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind.  To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives."

Henry David Thoreau