So many of us are born, we walk through the earth and we die, without exploiting a fraction of the greatness within us. In the parable of the talent in Mathew 25:13-40, the lesson is that if we don’t use our talents, the little we have will be taken away from us and given to those who already have more.
Seeing that God expects us to put our talent to the service of others, how then do we meet God’s expectations if we are unawares of what our talent(s) is?
This article aims to outline top tips on how to uncover what your god-given talent is, thus enabling you to put it to use for your good and the good of all mankind.
In my recent article about Stop Making Excuses about your Skin Colour or Circumstances. We can all be successful! discovering one’s talent was one of the main ingredients to success.
What’s a talent?
According to the oxford dictionary, talent can be referred to as a natural aptitude or skill, a touch or ability, a flair or technique that one has. It is that inner quality that emerges effortlessly. It can either be learned or inherited genetically.
I believe Hussein Bolt was born with an athletic talent which he of course fine-tuned through practice. Most people would agree that Whitney Houston was born to sing.
Unlock your talents with these tips
There’s no magic wand to discovering what one’s talent(s) is, but a couple of things can be done to improve the potential of discovering what we were put on earth to fulfil.
1. SWOT Analysis of your life
In management, SWOT stands for (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threats).
In the same way that a company is appraised using the SWOT analysis management technique, so can individuals be appraised. At this point, what you need is a piece of paper. Write down what you perceive to be your area of strength, what your weaknesses are, what opportunities you believe you can take advantage of, and finally, the things around you that seem like a threat.
What this exercise will do is that it will force you to get clear on where you currently are in life. You’ll receive clarity on several things that may have been smoke and mirrors to you.
Use figure 1 as a prototype as you figure out this exercise.
2. Where’s your money?
It’s not so hard to discover where our interests lie when we can place a finger on where a big chunk of our money goes to. The bible is as practical a book as it is spiritual, and in Mathew 6:21 the bible tells us that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
In my family, we somehow figured out instinctively that my younger brother had something for electronics because of his obsession with gadgets.
He spent a lot of his cash buying all sorts of electrical equipment on a very regular basis. There was a time when his room could be mistaken for a mini electrical repair shop. Could it, therefore, be concluded that his passion for these gadgets could be a revelation of his talent? I guess we shall find out in the next point.
If you want to unlock your talent using this tip, I recommend using the best financial tracker app of 2022.
3. Probe Your Childhood and teenage years
When we look at the brilliance and precision with which some people display their act or accomplish a task, we can’t help but agree that they were born talented! I’ve heard two very successful and wealthy motivational speakers say that they often ran into trouble as kids from talking too much, and today they get paid millions of dollars for talking.
Mr Brown, the best motivational speaker of all time recounted that as a kid, his teacher often put him in the naughty corner in class because he just won’t stop talking. Today he earns $70,000 an hour to speak.
In the case of my younger brother, he would dismantle his Christmas electronic toys and rebuild them to a working state. And as we grew up, he became the family’s handyman, and all the petty stuff that needed a quick fix were naturally deferred to him, which he thoroughly enjoyed working on.
If you’re in doubt of what caught your fancy or got you lit as a child, perhaps asking your parents or older relatives some stories about your childhood would be a step in the right direction. This will definitely help towards piecing your life’s puzzle.
4. Ask your friends and colleagues
Oftentimes, others may see in us what we don’t see in ourselves.
Have you ever walked out of the house wearing your shirt inside out, despite having looked into a mirror before stepping out? That situation can be likened to this whole thing about talents.
Sometimes we may take them for granted and not make anything of them, but others look up to us with admiration and awe.
Ask your friends, neighbors and colleagues on an individual level to please tell you what they think you are good at. Ask them something like this; ” Hey X, have you by any chance noticed anything about me that seems too cool to be ignored?”
Ask as many people as possible and write down their responses. At the end of this exercise, determine which skill(s) was mostly attributed to your persona. There you have it… your talent!
5.Take a Personality Test
Taking a personality test can be the ultimate key that leads to the discovery of your talent(s).
Although it’s mostly used by recruiters to determine if a potential employee will be a good fit for their organisation or not, in this instance, an individual can decide to take the test to assess their persona and discover their strong areas of interest.
This will often lead to the discovery of traits or characteristics that can be used to describe them, determine if they are introverts or extroverts, risk-takers or risk-averse, adventurous or cautious, music lovers are haters, food lovers or haters and much more.
This test can be taken online and often comes in a Q&A format. Try out this free-personality test.
Conclusion
In conclusion, every one of us was sent to earth with a unique edge over our fellow human being. Discovering that talent will give us a headway and set us up for life, as long as we work at it, perfect it, use it to add value to people’s lives, and eventually get paid for the value we bring.
Parents play a vital role in guiding their offspring towards the path of self-discovery. We live in a day and age where documenting our children’s interests is easier than not. More so, providing the necessary guidance as the child grows up will act like a lead towards that one thing that give a competitive advantage in the world.
Dr Myles Monroe says we should “rob the cemetery of our gifts” by living a life of purpose and ensuring that our lives outlive us.
