A lot of people out there are looking for their talent. Maybe you are one of those people? You feel that you don’t know exactly what you are good at, or if you do, how you can use it in your daily life.
Moving countries is taken by some people as the best opportunity to change their career and look for something or some professional role that can give them a more fulfilling sensation, meaning and even happiness! The quote is old but it still makes people dream: “Do what you love and you will never work in your life!” This is very powerful and makes lots of people imagine about having this passion and happy work. But it also creates lots of pressure, because they believe this passion needs to be “the one”.
Well, along the way you will find that “the one” doesn’t really exist. It is just like a romantic couple: you will always found out something, even if it something little, that doesn’t fit your expectations or dreams.
Talent doesn’t come in a box and it is not something that you do. Rather, it is something that you are. Being good doing something doesn’t necessarily mean that it will make you happier doing it.
“I’m good at sales, but it doesn’t make me happy being focused on sales and having that as a role in a company.” Ligia “I’m very good at playing my bass guitar, but it doesn’t mean that I would be happy doing that professionally.” Peter
If you want to know and use your talent you need to know yourself. And that is already a great talent!
The first step is to recognize what is important to you. A great way to do this is to list your values: say what is important for you, and what makes you feel that you are in the right place.
The second step is: Identify how you use each one of these values. Example: value is growth. How I do it: I study. I buy books. I do different trainings and workshops. I look for mentors and people from whom I can learn.
The third step is: Recognize what you need to live each value fully. Example: value is growth. I need self-esteem. I need variety in tasks. I need new knowledge. I need intellectual challenge. I need space to be creative. I need time to organize thoughts and solutions. I need autonomy.
The fourth step is to reply to the question: What can I do to fulfil my needs? Maybe for this step you need to go out of your comfort zone. What we see a lot in our coaching practice is that people stay in the same peer group, and so encounter the same stories and examples.
For you to find yourself, you need to explore, to have different stories and different influences. Otherwise you will stay in the same place that you are now. One thing people forget is that individuals are a mix of all the people that they meet. The beliefs, the ideas and the possibilities that you see will be very much influenced by the people that you have around you. So make sure you have the most eclectic group that you can imagine.
When you are applying for a job or thinking about creating one for yourself, use all the things that you have learned about yourself. Ask all the questions in the interview or create a daily life in which you live your most important values. Make yourself happy!
Peter Koijen and Ligia Ramos, in2motivation