There are many reasons why you need to know your talents but these are the main ones I would like to share with you.
1, Energy
It’s very simple. Your talents give you energy, mental energy. When you are doing something where you use your talents, you will feel invigorated, mentally alert and energized. You might feel physically tired but you will still deliver.
Can you remember an occasion when, despite a bad night’s sleep, you not only enjoyed and had fun doing but you delivered? You were definitely using some of your talents!
2, Excellence
When you love doing something, excellence comes easily. And when you excel, success follows. Although you may achieve success, even when you don’t work with your talents, due to hard work, luck or circumstances, success comes more easily when you do use your talents.
If you love sales for instance, you will stand out compared to anyone who doesn’t really love (read: have the talent for) it.
3, Satisfaction
Excellence combined with (mental) energy, leads to satisfaction. As mentioned earlier, success can result from hard work and a combination of circumstances, but if it is driven by using your talents, you will get more energy from the activity, which will lead to satisfaction.
Just think of it the other way – can you recall receiving a compliment for work done amazingly well, but feeling non-pulsed by it? I bet you had not enjoyed doing the work. Now think of a compliment received for work you enjoyed doing. I bet it left you feeling satisfied.
4, Craft your job/life
Once you know the things you love doing, and the things you don’t, you can craft your job and tweak your tasks and activities accordingly. You can take on more of what you love doing, and become an expert in your area or a reference for your colleagues. You can also delegate the things you don’t enjoy or outsource them. And if you can’t, I guarantee that being aware of your set of talents, will change the way you look at these activities.
5, Easier to make choices
When you know what fires you, what you do and don’t love doing, making choices becomes easier. From this clarity, you will choose to do more of the things you love and less of the things you don’t. You won’t have that lingering doubt ‘maybe I should make more of an effort’, ‘if he can do it, no reason why I can’t’. Choices are made not according to what you or others think should drive you but by really drives you. And those choices are made with confidence.
Quite simply, don’t waste your talents! Discover your talents and use them. Start today.
To help you discover your talents you could use the agenda exercise which you can find here. Have fun!
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me.
