How To Identify Your Strengths
Everyone has a natural aptitude for something.
What are your strengths?
- Working with numbers
- Detail-oriented
- Drawing pictures
- Teaching children
- Growing plants
- Problem-solving
- Caring for those less fortunate than you
- Music
- Athletics
- Empathy
- Writing
- Working with your hands.
Identifying your greatest strengths and building your life based on them is essential for your overall happiness and success. Without knowing how to discover your strengths and maximize them, you may waste a lot of time doing the wrong things.
Can you imagine spending years of hard work only to realize at the end that you have poured your time and energy (not to mention money) into the wrong things?
Many people are not even aware of their strengths. So, the question is: How do you discover your natural talents?
Here are three easy steps to help you determine your natural aptitude
Step 1: Tasks that are easy
- Write down a list of those things that you do that seem easy for you.
- These are the things that you can do that seem almost effortless.
- Often, the tasks that are easy for us are those where we have a special aptitude.
Step 2: “Where did the time go?” tasks
- Make a list of those things you do where time just seems to fly by.
- When you are doing these activities, you may look up and realize that several hours have passed without you even realizing it.
- This is a good clue to activities where you have natural talent.
Step 3: Tasks that make you happy
- Finally, write all the activities that make you happy.
- These are things that make you smile.
- These are the tasks you would do just for yourself, with no promise of gain, just because they’re fun, interesting and fulfilling.
After writing out all three lists, find the common activities.
These are likely to be the areas of your natural aptitude and talent. These are the areas of greatest potential for you.
Imagine if you could spend most of your time developing and playing at something that makes you happy, where time flies and where it’s easy for you. Wow!
So, now that you know what your natural talent is, try to find or carve out a role that draws on these strengths every day. Organizing your life around your strengths will make your life more productive and fulfilled.
Not sure where your strengths and weaknesses lie in terms of your emotional intelligence? Try our free 15-question quiz to measure your level of emotional intelligence.
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