What Are Your Talents?

To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. James 4:17 Many people today don’t know who they are. They haven’t found themselves. The key to realizing who you are is to discover your gifts – your talents. Then you will know the areas in which you need to grow and the areas in which you need to leverage your strengths. Your giftedness cannot be cloned. What do you like to do? What are you good at doing? We often (but not always) become good at what we like to do. Just liking something does not mean that you are guaranteed to be gifted at it. Conducting your own internal talent search involves identifying your personality characteristics, qualities, skills, interests, passions, longings, hopes, and achievements. Check your talent search against your Turning Points (see earlier blog). If you think you have a specific talent or passion, but it has never been used in your life experiences, it is doubtful you truly have that talent or passion. Take each of your top 5 talents (gifts/strengths), as well as your driving motivators, and apply each one of them to each of your life domains (see earlier blog). How do they apply and what action plans do you need to begin making? Create a matrix of the strengths and motivators applied to the 5 Life Domains in an action oriented way. Be specific! Translate this to an action plan. Is there training required or some other enabler necessary? Are there any barriers that must be overcome? Pursue mastery in your talents, but be flexible - mastery may follow different paths. Generally speaking, mastery is rooted in practice. To begin with, you have to believe you can become a master. There are four stages to mastery: Unconsciously incompetent; Consciously incompetent; Consciously competent; & Unconsciously competent. Mastery is a lifelong process. Evaluate your progress as you go. Your Responsibility to Your Talents. You are responsible for knowing and living out your talents. You are responsible for focusing the resources made available to you. You are responsible for the commitments you make. You are responsible for striving to be and to do your best. What is the most important step you can take immediately to develop your giftedness? What is the most important decision you can make right now related to the application of your giftedness? Truth@Life can help you, regardless of your location. Call 248-396-6255 or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com for a free consultation. If you receive value from these blogs, please consider donating to keep this blog site up and running. This ministry cannot continue without the generous donations of its readers. Just click on the "Donate" button in the upper right. For more info on help I can provide check out http://truthatlife.com/ or email me directly at curtis.songer@gmail.com