Raw Talent

Raw talent is one of our largest untapped resources.
Everyone has raw talent: abilities and interests that remain
undeveloped and unexpressed. By discovering-or rediscovering-your
unused raw talents, you can bring more balance to your life,
revive a job or lifestyle that has grown unsatisfying, or
develop a new engine of income.

Many people stop developing their raw talent once
they become embedded in the workforce. Mistake! In today's
job market, we have to be flexible, ready to move to new areas,
within a company or outside of it. Also, people are demanding
higher levels of fulfillment, which requires investment of
personal and career growth. Or perhaps the career you thought
you wanted-or were told you wanted-is no longer for you. This
is where your raw talent can be your strongest asset.

Let your preferences lead you. We all excel at what
arouses our interest or passion. The energy you feel when
yelling for your favorite team can be focused into commitment
to developing an area of raw talent.

Revive past interests, such as hang gliding, a daily
walk at sunset with your partner, painting, or writing.
Nurture underused skills, such as public speaking, animal
breeding, mentoring, or a flair for research. Keep in mind the
raw talent that you begin with may lead you to the raw talent
you really want to build on. You have to start somewhere.
Another indication of raw talent is hearing others talk about
some activity and wishing you could try it. You can!
Be honest with yourself. Ask yourself where you will be in
ten years, if you stay with the same job. Look around at
co-workers who have already achieved those ten years-do they
seem happy? Finally, would you advise younger people you care
about to follow your exact life?

If the answers are negative, you may be ready to make
new choices. Think of the feelings of freedom and possibility
you had at college graduation. Think what it would be like to
again experience that excitement, learning, and growth.

Just an hour a day can do it. Add just one hour per day
pursuing a talent or interest you currently ignore. Enjoyable
in itself, this time can improve your attitude all day long.
Developing your awareness of what attracts you and spending time
with these activities can also help you understand what you want
in other areas of life.

Daily structure keeps you moving forward. There are
many ways to add structure: keep a daily log, join a self-help
group, find a mentor or role model, or read motivational books.
Structure is what life-coaching is all about, helping to pull
you forward when you are not strong or disciplined enough on
your own. Invest in yourself and in your raw talent; I use the
rule of spending up to 10% of my income to invest in my career
and personal self-development.

Weekly goals make you show up. Weekly goals bring
instant results that add up quickly over a period of months.
Yes, many times I wait until the end of the week to dig in, and
sometimes I don't fully meet my weekly goals, but even that is
more than I would have done had I not made the commitment.

Develop your insights. Insights can open up all areas
of your life, from what you wear to whom you love. Learning to
act on these insights produces self-awareness, a major part of
designing the lives we want to live. Combining our insights and
our raw talents with actions can bring experiences that we have
only observed or read about.

Clear out tolerations and distractions. Two basic
problems can interfere with our progress. Tolerations are
those things we no longer enjoy, but which we put up with out
of habit, fear, or not wanting to make waves. As a coach, I
help clients clear out these bottlenecks in three areas:
living space, personal life, and career.

Once you are no longer dragged down by what you have been
tolerating, you have time and energy to develop raw talent.
Distractions are usually genuinely enjoyable, but still
interfere with what is even more important to us. Not everyone
needs to throw out their TV, as I did, but you do need to
honestly face what is distracting you from living the life
you want to live.

Which makes more sense: wasting time and money to
distract yourself from your dissatisfaction, or investing in
your own raw talent, building a life you are satisfied with?