YOU are special!

Most people do not realize the potential of their talents! Indeed, many folks deny they have any at all! There is this sense that anything that comes easily to us is not valuable, special or unique. Think about people you know who can do something effortlessly and wonderfully and yet, when you compliment them they shrug like it’s "no big deal"? My son, for example, hears music in his mind at will. He can "call up" a piece of music he’s heard and sing the harmony part, effortlessly. He can play "the drums" on a chair arm or do air guitar while the tune plays in his head. He said he always has music playing if not externally, internally. To me that is quite extraordinary! My son assumed everyone could do this—it never occurred to him that it might be a special ability or gift. (Whether this talent becomes a career direction is yet to be determined --you get the idea.)

A client of mine, "Sam", was an account manager for an insurance firm and anticipated that he might be fired. He told me his "heart" just wasn’t into being a sales person and as a result he struggled to meet his monthly quotas. I asked him a question; "What were you doing when you were so engaged in something that you totally lost track of time?" Ironically, he was fixing a Grandfather clock. He’d gone with his girlfriend to visit her grandmother and while in the foyer, noticed the clock-- It seems he can "hear" when the ticking is "off". Curious, he took the innards out, fixed the problem, put the clock back together again (while girlfriend and Grandmother visited) and the entire day had passed by. Instead of being tired from the hours of tedious "bench work" Sam reported that he was exhilarated! He’d never done anything like that before. I don’t know about you but I’d surely say he has a talent for troubleshooting timepieces.

Does this mean he should go into clock repair work? Not necessarily. Identifying a talent doesn’t imply you have to utilize it a particular type of work or even in an income producing activity. Sam was not interested in being an employee in a clock repair shop or setting up a retail business. So where else could this "gift" be utilized?

Our talents enable us to pursue a multitude of potential career and life paths. To get a bigger picture on how this newly acknowledged "gift" might relate to a career, Sam opted first to take an assessment. The results validated that he had strong mechanical and engineering aptitudes and suggested occupations that might be great "fits" for him. The second step in the "career fitting process" is to identify people and places involved in your potential vocation and get in contact. Sam is currently networking* and information interviewing* with people in several of the occupations he has chosen to explore. (*more on these topics in a later edition.) He is excited about his future and is targeting in on a path to more fulfilling work.

YOU have talent!

Ask yourself the question I put to Sam; "What were you doing when you were so engaged in something that you totally lost track of time?" Write it down, ponder all parts of it. Query your friends, family and co-workers to things they perceive that you do well. You may be pleasantly surprised at their answers. Things that come easily and effortlessly to us are often our talents being expressed…our gifts. Know them, grow them!

Want some help defining them? Contact me for a free 20 minute "tune into your talents!" session. dee@careerlifecoaching.com or call: (608) 513-9675

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