Do you ever wonder why you make certain choices? Why do you do what you do? Why you like certain things? Why you are better at some things than others? There’s a reason. It’s your talents.
I am a certified Gallup strength coach and from this perspective, talent is described as “a natural way of thinking, feeling or behaving.”
If you take this further I would say the greater the intensity of the talent, the greater its power, and the greater your opportunity for success.
Examples of talent themes are things like naturally sparking a conversation with someone you meet for the first time, strategising the best way to get to the outcome or seeing the risks in the task ahead.
Understanding our unique talents gives us the ability to consciously apply them in our lives everyday, aimed clearly and strongly towards what matters most to us, be it at home with our family, at work with our colleagues or in society with our neighbours and community.
I love the quote “use it or lose it”.
What this quote means to me is that we have a choice and control over a lot of things in our lives to make it better. For example, if we don’t exercise we will lose the much desired muscles in our body to be able to do the physical things we enjoy or need in life such as playing with our kids or having fun playing football with our friends. Or if we don’t exercise our brain we will lose the memory or sharpness in resolving much needed challenges in life such as sharing what we have learnt about on a course or creating new ideas in expanding your business.
Building our talents into real strengths requires practice and hard work, much like developing physical strength.
Talents are the same in that when we actively and consciously aim them towards our desired outcomes we have the best chance of creating success over time.
This is done by investing in our talent by practice using or developing new learning (knowledge) through formal and informal education and skills by formal or informal training.
Building our talents into real strengths requires practice and hard work, much like developing physical strength. We move from talents to skills, knowledge and practice to strength – the ability to consistently produce a specific positive outcome.
We live once and to live it fully requires the decision – the absolute desire – to take action towards things that mean most to us. We know that time is most important commodity in life so by knowing and directing our talents towards strengths will serve us well and will also add massive value to those we want to influence, support and be with.