Talents and Abilities: What’s Your Gift?
We all have abilities, and each person can do something with these which enhances their own life. Take an inventory of your own personal skills and talents - think long and hard if you have to. They are there, I promise you. You might be surprised what you find if you take the time to really give this question your undivided attention.
This is a lot like the argument that a child has with his father when he can’t climb a tree. The father says, “Use your muscles”. The child says, “I just don’t have any muscles”. Of course he has muscles. They might not be developed enough to give him the strength to climb the tree, but he definitely has them. The same goes for our skills and talents. The problem lies in the fact that these abilities haven’t had time to thoroughly develop.
There are several items and methods on the market that are specifically used to assess our talents. Most of the time, after providing answers to a series of questions, an individual comes to realise the general area their particular talents and skills originate from. Maybe you have artistic capabilities or are good at organisation. Strangely enough; we rarely get the talents we believe we should have, but don’t let that insignificant detail bother you.
There is a distinct link between satisfaction and talent. For instance, if a person’s talents tend toward the creative, but they are working as an honest accountant, their life may not be as fulfilling as it could be. In this instance, this individual definitely isn’t playing off of their strengths. What is it that they say? “If you love what you do, then you don’t work a day in your life.”
Start with childhood. What did you like to do? It might be drawing, singing, playing a sport, or something totally different. Why does it really matter? It matters because our skills are learned. We learn to ride a bike. We learn to sew. We learn to play football. The talent comes into play when we have a natural inclination toward something in particular. If you are good with your hands, then once you learn to sew, you could easily create a wedding dress, a clothing line, etc. In these cases, this talent was nurtured and practised until it flourished.
All of us are quite a bit happier doing the things that we really enjoy doing, and a talent that is regularly encouraged invariably leads to a feeling of deep satisfaction in life. You don’t have to play basketball in the NBA or be the next Bill Gates, but using your talents in some way - each day, fulfils a deep need inside every one of us. If you love to draw, you could be an accountant by day and a sketch artist by night.
The feeling that comes to us when our abilities are allowed to express themselves in new career opportunities is priceless. This feeling shapes us and has a direct impact on those around us as well. You may not work at your talent full-time, but if you embrace it and make it a part of your life, your sense of self-worth will grow and grow. Find you talent, and that missing piece inside yourself will no longer be missing anymore. You’ll feel fulfilled.
Discover your own talents - take control! They may be hiding behind those skills that you seemed to learn so easily – so early on in life. If so, let them out and make them an integral part of your daily life.
Alan Gillies is the CEO of Learning 2 Live, a comprehensive online Lifestyles resource which delves deeply into business and pleasure, covering a wide variety of Lifestyle subjects such as Relationships, Health, Wellbeing, Career, Travel & Coaching, and many more. Alan has considerable personal experience throughout a number of business fields including Coaching and Mentoring, Change Management and Neuro Linguistic Programming.
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