Right from my school days, I have had my parents, relatives and teachers tell me that I was an extremely talented kid. I took pride in that comment but little did I know that it was all but just a sham. Recognizing or identifying one’s talent is a really tough job and a rather important one. As per Gallup Organization – a reputed research firm, talent can be defined as ‘your naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling and behaviour’. By the very definition, your natural talents are an innate part of your personality and identity. In other words, it is what defines who you are and play a very important role as far as life successes; be it in academic, professional, social or any other sphere of life.
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Despite it being one of the biggest success mantras in life, not many people are actually aware of their talents. One of the key reasons behind the lack of awareness about talents is that not many people actually know the process or steps to actually identify and groom their talents. They either accept what others deem as their talents or are completely unaware of them.
Below, we shall try to discuss key steps, tips and processes through which you can not only identify but groom your talents and use them to achieve success in your daily life.
1. Ask the right questions
The first step that you should take in order to recognize your hidden talent is to ask the right questions and majority of them are addressed to yourself. The first and foremost question that you should ask yourself is about the most memorable from your childhood. As children, we are exposed to numerous things at the same time, but as per experts, the ones for which we have natural born talents leave a deep impact on our psyche. In other words, if you can remember something from your childhood that you use to enjoy that in all probability is your talent.
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The second and even more important question that you should ask yourself is that from the several things that you enjoyed as a child, what you enjoy doing even today. What is it that drives you even today, which is the activity or skill that you would like to do not to achieve a goal or achieve something but just because you enjoy doing it. If you can ask these questions and find the right answers to them, you have in all probability found out your hidden talent.
2. Differentiate between your Skills and Talents
Talents are an integral part of our personality and therefore at times they become part of our identity even without us realizing its worth or importance. At times, we consider these vital talents as one of the many skills that we posses. While, skills are very important in our life, but they are cultivated and achieved over the period of time. On the other hand, talents are something that we are born with and they form a natural part of our personality.
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Therefore, the latter requires a more concentrated approach when it comes grooming and development. Once you have differentiated between the skills that you have acquired with the help of training and your natural born talents, you can employ dedicated tactics to develop both independently in a way that they support each other.
3. Focus on the compliments and feedback
While a majority of us are used to not paying much heed to the compliments we receive, they have a hidden message for us. One of the simplest and most effective ways to identify your talents is to focus on the feedback and compliments that you receive. The feedback you get from your peers, friends, family, teachers and even remote strangers play a vital role in identifying the real talents or hidden talents in your personality.
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For instance, if you have the hidden talent for negotiations or talking your way out of tricky situations, your peers will be the best people to point that out. Similarly, if you think you are good at playing the guitar, but in reality you are just average, your better half or family members will be about to point that out to you. So, take every compliment and feedback that you receive very seriously, evaluate its authenticity and try and understand if it does hint at a real hidden talent in you.
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4. Avoid going over-board – start easy and simple
In our pursuit to find or recognize that one talent that will propel us towards success, we put too much pressure upon ourselves. I have seen people take up multiple things and put on extreme efforts on activities which they have never tried in their life and never even shown any remote interest in. Remember, talents are a natural part of your identity and personality, therefore they do not need to be forced upon, in fact they will come naturally to you.
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So, I advise readers to start something simple and easy and focus only on one or maximum two things, activities at the same time and devotee enough time, energy and enthusiasm to actually ignite that spark in you.
5. Don’t limit yourself to your comfort zone
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While it is important to avoid going overboard while trying to identify your talents, it is also equally important to break out of your comfort zone. Just because you have a talent, doesn’t mean you would be able to use it to the best of your ability. While having a talent is natural, grooming it to extract the best out of it something that needs hard work and dedication. Therefore, it is important for people to get out of their comfort zone and groom their talents in order to achieve success.
6. Stop thinking and start doing
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Now, that you have come all the here, its time you stop thinking about talents and start doing things that will actually help you identify and groom them. Until and unless you pick up that guitar that you have always loved, it is never going to come and tell you to do so. If you are highly competitive and love watching football, you will never realize that you are even good on the field until you decide to enter the field yourself. In other words, you have to not only pick the right activity or talent but also to do things that actually support and groom your talent. As the old adage goes, ‘we only regret the things that we didn’t do’.
