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Tag: talents

  • Recognizing Your Skills and Talents

    Recognizing Your Skills and Talents

    In every family, school, club, workplace or association there are always those people who excel at something ridiculously hard, leaving you scratching your head wondering, “How are they so good at that?” For those people, it’s as simple as recognizing their talents and using them effectively.

    Most of us are more skilled then we realize, and unfortunately for us we do not use our skills and abilities to our advantage. This could be because we don’t know what they are or simply undervalue them. In our society, a blatant boisterous skill is most valued; this makes it hard sometimes to discern our skills and talents. The underestimated value of our talents is why so many feel so generic, desperately wanting to be a name brand.

    The drive to be great and be acknowledged as such resides strongly within us. The only problem with this is that most of us have no clue how to accomplish that. Surprisingly enough, the first steps to becoming great aren’t all that hard. It really boils down to recognizing your skills and talents and then finding the best way to utilize them. This can be accomplished by following four steps:

    Step 1. Take a few minutes to think about and then write down the things that you and other people have told you that you are really good at. Just to be clear, it doesn’t have to be something that people would necessarily consider a positive thing. For example, you may be really good at talking yourself out of trouble. Many wouldn’t consider your silver tongue and the way that you wield it to be a skill, but a judge might. That quick wit could make you the perfect candidate for law school. If possible, get someone else to look over this list as well – they may recognize skills that you have that you haven’t considered.

    Step 2. Generate a top ten list of activities that you frequently engage in, or would like to frequently engage in, that make you happy.

    Step 3. Look at your activities list and go through each activity considering what type of skills it would take to excel in each one. If you were honest with yourself, you will find that you have the necessary skills to excel in at least one of these activities.

    Step 4. Now that you are able to recognize your skills and talents and how best to utilize them, get to it. In order for a skill to be recognized as a talent you need to engage in it regularly. That old adage “practice makes perfect” doesn’t exist for nothing. Let the next “how are they so good at that?” be about you. Bask in someone else’s praises about how skilled and talented you are and show the world the glory that is you.

  • Discovering Your Skills and Talents

    Discovering Your Skills and Talents

    Everyone has skills and talents. You may not have figured out what your particular set of skills and talents are (yet), but you definitely have them.

    But let’s back-track for a second. What is a skill or talent? A skill or talent is something that you are good at. For instance, you could be skilled at cooking up a gourmet meal or fixing cars. Sometimes a skill could be a particular quality or set of qualities you possess, such as talking, listening, negotiating, planning, organizing, typing or analyzing.

    For some people, figuring out their skills is simple. They seem to have been born with it.  For instance, I have a friend who is talented at playing the piano. She has always been talented at the piano since the time she was a child. Other people acquire their skills over the years. I have another friend who is skilled at making beautiful cakes. She wasn’t born with this ability, but learned it after years and years of practice.

    It doesn’t matter whether you are born with a skill or have developed it over time, what matters is that you figure out what your skills are and use them. Figuring out your skills might seem hard at first, especially if there are no obvious signs to point you in the right direction. Pay attention, then, to what others notice about you. Often times, your friends, family and colleagues may recognize a particular skill or talent you have before you do. In fact, it might help to ask those around you what your skills are. A few years ago, I e-mailed my family and friends and asked them, “Are there any skills or interests that you see in me, that perhaps I am not aware of?” The answers I received were eye-opening. I never knew I possessed certain skills and talents until those around me told me I did!

    Interestingly enough, I discovered that many of my skills and talents were in areas I was interested in.  For instance, I am skilled at writing and research – and I also happen to enjoy doing both! It’s no coincidence that this happens. You tend to spend more time doing things that interest you, and when you spend more time doing something, you inevitably get better at it. (Practice makes perfect, right?)

    So do yourself a favour. Figure out your skills and talents (either by observing your own behaviour or by asking others) and then use these skills and talents. You will be a much happier person for doing so. The majority of the time, what you are good at also happens to be what you are passionate about!