DISCOVER YOUR TALENTS
DISCOVER YOUR TALENTS
By Akanimo Inim
“If you discover your talents, choose a field that uses those talents appropriately; you will rise to the top of your field”.
-BEN CARSON
“I do not want to die until I have faithfully made the most of my talent and cultivated the seed that was place in me”
- Kathe Kell Witz (1867-1945)
“If a man has talent and cannot use it, he has failed, if he has a talent and uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he has talent and learns some how to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded, and won a satisfaction and a triumph few men will ever know”.
-Thomas Wolfe.
According to the Oxford Learners Dictionary, to discover, means to be the first person to become aware that a particular place or thing exists. Example the singer was discovered while still at school.
“There is no one who cannot find a place for himself in our kind of world. Each of us has some unique capacity waiting for realization. Every person is valuable in his own existence-for himself alone. In our communities, in our circle of family and friends, each of us can bring to friction these innate God-given activities” 1.
Talent is defined as a special ability and strength. Oxford Advanced Learners dictionary put it this way: a natural ability to do something well.
We are all different and we all have special abilities. Sometime it is not easy to know what we have a gift for, but once we know, life becomes exciting. We just have to discover what talents we have.
“Gifts and talents are really God’s deposits in our personal accounts, but we determine the interest on them. The greater the amount of interest and attention we give to them, the greater their value becomes. God’s gifts are never loans; they are always deposits” 2.
Never underestimate the power of the gifts that are within you. Gifts and talents are given to us not only so that we can fulfill to the fullest the call in our own lives, but also so that we can reach the souls who are attached to those gifts.
Many people are born with natural talents but unfortunately, many have not come to realize this and that is why there is so much confusion. They have not come to understand the immense and unquantifiable value of their natural talents.
“The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success. Talent is only a starting point in this business. You have to keep on working on that talent. Someday I will reach for it and it won’t be there” 3.
The rich discover, and develop their God given talents in creative and productive ways. The rich recognize the fact that we all are blessed with certain talents and abilities.
The few heroes in the society are those who either by omission or by commission move in the direction of their talent and turned out to be extremely successful while we watch them as losers not knowing that all of us are geniuses but in different area.
Until you discover, you cannot recover. That is to say until you discover your talents, you cannot recover your life.
Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God. Your duty is to discover God’s purpose for your life and to act on it. You are the steward of your talents. Your assignment in life is to discover, develop and deploy whatever God has given you to provide solutions for those around you.
Everyone has a talent. Everyone. And most talents can be monetized. The key is to find your talent and then turn it into a scalable business. Too bad many folks get stuck on the “finding the talent” part.
The following tips are pointers to your talent.
You have it! Now find it.
How do we know what talents we have?
The key is paying attention to our passions. Start observing the world around. What attracts you? What matters to you? Make a list of every activity that makes you happy. Nothing is insignificant. If you like to create jokes, talk about the gospel, designs, etc. list them.
Your gift is what excites you. Your gift is your passion. Example, passion to commit yourself to reading and sourcing for information through learning opportunities, love and passion for learning new languages, passion to save lives and help people.
Your talents are expressed in form of natural interest, desires tendencies and the things that attack you.
Your attractions are what you are passionate about. An interest is something that captures your attention. Discovery of your interests will connect you to your talents. Your interest could be objects information or people related.
· What you learn easily What did you always dream about doing or becoming? What did you dream about doing when you were a kid? What kind of success in other people’s lives make you the most jealous or uncomfortable with your life when you see it? (even if it’s in a movie, song, book, or real life).
- What one particular thing do you do very well with effortless ease? You might not even realize you’re doing it because of how well you do it!
- Whenever you are unconsciously doing it, you feel happy, at ease, peaceful, secure and comfortable with yourself, that moment, and that thing that you’re doing
We all think that the things we are good at are easy, so we tent to discount their value. Conversely, we value things that we find difficult which other people find easy.
If something comes easily to you, chances are you’re good at it too- and often the people for whom it is not easy will pay you to do it. In order to find yourself spot, or your unique gift, think of those things that come easy to you. To you it is no big deal, but to other, it’s incredible. What are those things that others come to you for that for you, it’s as easy as breathing and you do for fun whether you were paid or not? When your operating out of your sweet, your true talent will shine! We are all good at something. For me, this is writing, reading, organizing, teaching, training and coaching etc. This is the result of me looking at what I’m good at. Myles Munroe says “When I am not speaking to people about leadership, writing about it, I am under stress. This is home for me. My enjoyment of life comes from being in my leadership spot” 5.
Somebody asked Tiger woods, “What is your hobby? He said, “Golf. The interviewer asked,” what do you enjoy? Golf”. “When are you the happiest? “He was asked next. “when I’m play golf” it makes him happy, he looks happy doing it, he enjoys doing it and he has passion for it, and companies pay him millions of dollars because people have pleasure watching him play golf. He has discovered and maximizes his talent.
Your talent provides easy learning. Your talent area will always provide easy learning. Any thing or area you struggle to learn, is simply not your talent. You don’t have business struggling to learn anything related to your talent. What do you learn ease?
The kind of books and magazines in your library reveals your talent. What you love to read and study about is a clue to your talents.
What you can do excellently well
Your talent is tied to what or the things you do excellently well when opportunity present itself. Examples includes-teaching, preaching, dancing, cooking, cracking jokes, designing etc. Don’t despise anything you do and people commend and applaud you for doing it the way you did it. Look at what you have done well in the past; things you did well and were rewarded with awards and praise.
Your talent is want you could do without pay 24/7 for 365 days of the year. What do you even without pay and you are happy doing do it is your talent
Your talent is in the Newspaper & Magazines
Another way to discover your talents is to start with a pile of Newspapers & Magazines. Place them on the table with a large sheet of paper, glue or tape, and scissors. Quickly scan the magazines tearing out any pictures or words appealing and exciting you. Glue the pictures or word according to their areas. Take note of the consistencies. It could be repetition of people, places, colours, words, or designs.
There is a clue to what excites you. What section of the newspaper or magazines do you go to first? Move reviews, travel, sports, health, religion, local politics? Your hidden talent may lie in this area.
Family
Listen to people that know you. You may not be that aware of the things you do best but people who know you do. Listen to people when they say, “have you ever thought of doing________________________?” or “you are really good at________________________”.
Next time someone says something to you - don’t blow it off, follow up instead. Being open to other people’s experience of you can expand your ideas of yourself!
Sometimes, I think our hidden talents aren’t really hidden-more like repressed or discounted and ignored. Be especially aware of what people “see” in you that you may or not validate or give much attention to your self. I did an exercise called special abilities where I sent out a questionnaire to friends, family members, business associates asking them what makes me special. Most people responded, and I compiled all the responses. Then I found my talents. Use people you know to help you unveil your hidden talent, which may not be so hidden but you will get feed back.
Play chess? Create Music? Design things? Do you like watching attorneys litigate? Do you like to teach or train people? Make a list of the things you enjoy doing that spring to your mind immediately.
Engage people who have known you for a long time like spouse, relatives, friends and colleagues in the exercise and ask for their inputs. Take note of their contributions but you have the final decision to make.
You should be able to identify the things you like doing, not because of the financial benefits involved but because of the inner joy, and a sense of fulfillment you derive in doing them.
Ask your family to make a list of things they notice about you. You’ll be surprised to find that they see attributes that you may not see.
In order to find your hidden talent you should ask others what you are great at? The talent is hidden because you have not found it on your own. An excellent way to find out is to ask your FAMILY, F is for Friends, A is for Associates, M is for Ministry I is for inspiration (Mentor), L is for learning classmates), and Y is for You as sometimes after leaving what they have to say you have to see what they say about yourself.
What makes you Happy
Make a list of all the jobs you’ve had, in your whole life, no matter whether they were paid or not. The jobs that you had during the happiest times of our life were ones where you were using your hidden talent.
Once you know what gives you fulfillment, enjoyment and happiness, hone that skill. It’s your talent. “Each person can do something better than 10,000 other people. The key to success is for individuals to discover what that something is, then do it”. 4
Find out those situations you can handle better than others.
In trying to discover your talent, ask the following questions:
What do in do well? What are my strengths? What is my giftedness?
What is the talent, the uniqueness that sets me apart from everybody else?
Solve mathematical problems? Play chess? Sing?
Create Music? Build Things? Paint? Speak? Write Etc.
· What keeps you awake till late in the night.
· What you do and when people passes by you don’t notice
· An area that you are better than 90% of people in that area.
· What you find fun doing.
· What do you do with such concentration that time passes by without knowing? That thing that while you’re doing it, time freezes and hours slip by without you even knowing is your talent.
· What do you do with ease and produce more results than all the people you know?
· Something you do all day and night and you will never be tired.
· What you do for a very long hours without remembering food.
· What makes you different from your peers, friends, colleagues, associates etc.
· Fix your frustration
Ask yourself: what frustrates me? Can I fit it? If I can, why has no one fixed it, yet? It may be because fixing your source of frustration is your hidden talent, or a strength that differentiates you from ‘the rest of us’. The problems you think about that others over looked are clue to your talent.
· Get out of your Zone –Take a class or select a hobby that’s completely out of your comfort (and possibly interest) zone if you’re not sure what to select, ask your friends, family, and business associates for their suggestions. Dive in –no fear! Adopt the mindset of an explorer, filled with excitement and possibility, and you just may unearth some inner treasures.
· What makes your heart dance and your eyes light up? What are the things you’re doing when you lose track of time or that you can talk about for hours? You may not consider them to be gifts or talents, but if you enjoy them that much, chances are there is something there that could lead you to your gifts. Think about the subjects and activities you are most comfortable discussing and decide whether there is a market for them. Everything around that hidden talent automatically interest you. Every conversation spikes your interest
Get a notebook and find a quiet place. Write down the earliest memory from childhood of a time that you were full of joy, and happiness, a time when you were given praise and applause.
Describe fully what you were doing, where you where, and who you were with in addition, write down a vivid dream you had of your future, as a grow up person.
Remember what you imagined or pretended when you were playing by yourself as a child, under the age seven. This will key you into your soul’s purpose. Were you of teacher, did you build things, make clothes for your dolls, heal your pets? It is important to remember what you imagined when you were alone, and therefore un-influenced by other people, and under the age of seven when the “inner self” is more pronounced than the conscious mind and conscious ego. Remember those simple things that made you incredibly happy as a child? Our hidden talents are often buried in our past, but haven’t resurfaced in our adult life. Keep a story journal to trigger your memory of the times you felt ‘happiest’ and start to infuse those instances into your present life. You may discover or re-discover, your hidden talents!
· Think about the things that you do naturally that others say “I wish I could do that (fill in the blank) as good as you do” and you say “whatever, no big deal, that’s nothing, etc”.
· One key to discovering a hidden talent is to remain open and receptive to new ideas no matter how crazy they may seem. For many years my friends, employers and clients regularly told me that I would make a good motivational teacher. I never took the idea seriously because I could never see my self being comfortable in a conventional classroom environment. In 2004 I discovered a subject I am passionate about-Talent-and now I love teaching it because it’s fun, not work.
· Go with your Gut
Whatever gives you the must personal satisfaction is more that likely your hidden talent. What do you do that makes you burst into a genuinely happy smile? Do that!
· Do what you love
The best way to discover a hidden is to think about what you love to do. What have you always wanted to try but haven’t yet? What do you see others doing that you wish you were doing? The best tip for discovering your hidden talent is simply to think about. What you love to do! The best way to uncover your hidden talent is to tune into yourself. Our talents are all there but can sometimes get masked by taking other jobs just to make money. Instead, think about what you love doing. For example, I was always a very strong writer but never thought to make a career out of it. After I realized that my talent and strength was writing, I started pursuing my writing career, my computer science background notwithstanding.
I will advice that you look deep within you and write down all the things that you are good at or you love doing. Do you like writing, sewing, cooking, fashion, painting, meeting people, singing, socializing, dancing, building things, doing numbers, speaking to people, organizing, decorating or managing? Is your mind technical athletic or scientific? What do you like doing, write it down now! What thing on this list are you really very good at? It doesn’t matter what it is. What are you really, really good at?
Sometimes we have to ask ourselves while trying to discover our natural talent, skills and abilities what these things we do are that we can effortlessly and people marvel at. I think that is where we should begin our search. When you discover it, name it and start using it deliberately, you will be on your way to become rich. That thing you do very well is your dominant gift. I will like you to hold on to it, cherish it, love it, honor it, and develop it.
But before what you love begins to attract riches into your life, I will suggest that you get a job, any job to make sure that there is food on your table, clothes on your back and money in your pocket. You must be prepared and ready to do any job that comes your way as long as it offers quality service to your community. You may not like working at that company but the truth is that you need the money to survive. Be a positive force around your workplace. And value to the company. Work there to learn and not to earn.
· Try everything! Try everything!
By trying everything, whatever your hidden talent will shine through as you’ll be mediocre (or completely suck) at everything else. The trick is to quickly realize what you’re not good at.
· Break out of your comfort zone
The best way to explore hidden talents is to try completely now “scary” things for yourself. Skydive, sing at a singing competition, visit a local church you know nothing about, volunteer for a crisis centre, join a club, study something completely foreign to you. Break out of your comfort zone and you might be surprised what gets walked up in you.
Do something that scares you everyday. This will help you find your hidden talents.
My advice to you is that you should not jump into anything you see, there is something that God has purposed for us to do, go ahead and do it and affect the world positively with it.
I want you to become a master at using this gift, develop this gift into world class level. Develop this gift to the point that people will bring millions to you to help them out with your gift. Build a business around it.
Highlight these talents and try to proffer ways they talents could be productively applied to enhance your livelihood, his would be your destiny.
Think of possible ways these talents could be used to solve economic, social and cultural problem within immediate environment.
PARENTS AS AGENT OF DISCOVERY
As a parent, you need to observe and focus on what your children does, like doing their area of strength, abilities and skills. This will form the basis and guide to what they will eventually study in school. Apart from acknowledging, and identifying your child’s strength, it is of interest and also imperative to aid groom, nurture and grow that talent. Never get angry or discourage or disappointed when your child does not know you think he/she should know and never discourage them from pursuing their innate abilities.
Tiger Woods (international golfer) was born thirty five (35) ago in Cypress , California
His father has never denied that he devoted his energies to developing his son’s talent and furthering his career as a golfer. This is the singular reason parents should acknowledge and pay deep attention to their kid’s God given talent because every kid/child has a talent deposited in him/her by God.
I am one of the Advocates that parents should take ample time and study their children determine to discover their natural skill, and abilities. This will aid us in guiding our children aright.
Culled From Akanimo Inim's Book
Titled:Make News with your Talents
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