How To Discover Your Talent In Life With Ease

There is a popular saying that you can’t give what you don’t have. I’m going to add to that saying: “…and you can’t give what you don’t know you have even if you have it.” If you are yet to discover your talent, how can you know the talent you possess and how to use it? In this article, you will learn how to discover your talent in life because it is very important to discover your talent in life. I am about to teach you how to discover your talent in life so that you can profit from your talent. I will tell you 5 ways to help you discover your talent. You know, I won’t tell you general ways, but practical and proven ways that worked for me, and helped me to discover my talent.

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Before I start, let me share a true story about a young lady with you. The young lady was struggling with paying her one-bedroom apartment rent. She has 4 jobs in a day, yet the earnings weren’t enough to cater to her needs. The lady had been issued a quick notice and advice to vacant the residence within 7 working days. She was feeling frustrated, and hopeless. The young lady became an orphan at the age of 9 when her parents met with an accident that claimed their lives. So she grew up in different foster homes and when she was 18, she left to become independent. At 33, she felt like a failure, and a disappointed to life because she has nothing.

Her hope was dashed

She had thought that if only she could complete her education, her life would be better so she sponsored herself through college. However, she couldn’t secure a good job for herself after graduating from the university. Those with connections are the ones getting the jobs even though they aren’t competent enough. Her hope was dashed and was clueless of what next to do. She had struggled to give meaning to her life but it seems like her life is only meant to be meaningless. She thought to herself “after I gave it my all, it turned out that my life is worthless.” Nothing could console her aching heart and her sorrow has no vent in tears.

The young lady was lost in thought at one of her less paying jobs when she was suddenly informed that a young man was waiting at the reception to see her. That’s unusual, she thought. She met with the young man, and he delivered a letter to her, stating that it was from her relative. As far as she was concerned, she has no relative. She thought maybe it was a scam, but then again she mocked herself and said she would be bad luck to any scammer out there because she has nothing to offer. She opened the letter, and she was surprised. And she almost fainted.

Her status changed

She was informed that her unknown uncle, who died 2 months ago, left all his fortune to her since he has no children of his own. The inheritance estimated worth was $10, 000, 000. The deceased uncle was the only sibling of her mother.

She thought she had nothing because she wasn’t aware that she has been a millionaire for the past 2 months. This was a young lady struggling to pay $500 for her house rent and now turned out to become a millionaire. Imagine the letter hasn’t gotten to her; she would go about still feeling helpless and hopeless, without knowing that her status has changed.

The same applies to TALENT. We keep struggling in life, whereas we already have what we need to become successful in life. Our talent will help us to become successful, only if we use it. But if we are not aware of our talent, we cannot profit from it. That is why everyone needs to discover s/he talent so as to live a life of purpose.

Now, let me take you through the 5 PROVEN WAYS to discover your talent in life:

1. Nature

Your nature is like a compass that gives direction to how and where to discover your talent. Your nature is defined by your genetic makeup, behaviour, character, and instinct. For example, if a Lion should see grass, it will never eat the grass due to its nature. You will agree that if all that is left in the jungle are grasses, it means the Lion will die of hunger. Why? It is because the Lion cannot switch from being carnivorous to herbivore. What happens, if that Lion should see a Goat? Instinct will tell it to pursue after the goat because Lion’s nature is to eat flesh.

How does your nature direct you to discover your talent?

When a hungry Lion sees a goat, the Lion already knows its nature is to eat flesh. But will Lion’s nature bring the Goat to the Lion to eat? Hell no, the Lion will have to pursue after the Goat. In pursuing the Goat, the Lion’s HUNTING TALENT will be discovered.  In other words, Lion’s nature helps the Lion to discover its talent to hunt animals.

Likewise, you have to understand your nature. The understanding of your nature will lead you to discover your talent. Therefore, learn more about yourself. You don’t have to be in the field of science or psychology before knowing the science of your body and your nature. Understand why you act the way you do.  Know your emotions. Pay attention to your instinct.

In this digital age, there are personality tests you can take online to have a better understanding of yourself. You could take a free personality test like 16 personalities  You could also read about your Zodiac sign, your temperament and conduct a self-analysis. Also, read more about your personality, your genetic makeup, instinctive behaviour, the theory of human behaviour etc.

When you know your nature, it will help you to discover your talent in life. For example, if you are an introvert, you could realize that you are a deep thinker and give attention to details. Therefore, your nature could help you discover your analytical talent.

2. Change

It’s often said that change is a constant thing. As humans, we always desire a change. However, it could be a change in status, environment, character, or situation. Change is a desire and it has the ability to push us towards discovering our talent in life.

How can desire for a change push you towards discovering your talent?

I grew up in Africa. The people practice a culture that underestimates the values and potentials of women/ girls. When I was a child, I hate it whenever I see people discriminate between male and female. I so much hate the culture against female child/ women because I strongly believe God gave all of us valuable talents regardless of our gender.

The sentence that arouses my anger then wasn’t far fetch. Just at the hearing of “you are just a girl, you can’t do it”, makes me become so angry and this makes me do everything to prove them wrong. I hate it when people determine my strength, ability and intelligence by my gender and not my capability. Just because I was told, “you are just a girl, you can’t do it”, I will take up that thing and give it my all so as to prove them wrong.

However, due to stereotype, when they see that I have proven them wrong, then they will start saying that I am a boy because I had a low haircut then. But nothing makes me happier to publicly declare to them that I am a girl because I get to see the shock and the look of surprise on their faces. Some of them called me rebellious and stubborn because I refused to accept their societal limitation. I don’t care about whatever name they choose to call me because I know who I am. I wouldn’t back off until I prove their sentence wrong. As far as I am concerned, I won’t let anyone one or anything limit my potentials in life. Though I was just a child, but I already knew that one’s gender doesn’t determine your capacity, talent and potential in life.

My desire for a change helped me to unveil my talent

Little did I know that my hatred for the culture against women and my desire for a change was pushing me gradually to discover my purpose and to unveil my talent. As a little girl, I wanted people to understand that gender is not a limitation to achieve greatness in life. In other words, I believe that if you can envision your future, then you will get it.

My desire for a change in the way women/girls are being treated in society, lead me to discover my talent and to find my purpose in life. Currently, I am the Founder and CEO of YGEM (YES to Gender Equality Movement). YGEM is a social enterprise focused on achieving gender equality globally.

Your purpose is the essence for your talent, and your talent is the ability given to you to lead that purpose.

What change do you desire?  When do you desire a change? How much change do you want to see? Why is it important?  Your desire for a change will surely lead you to discover your talent.

Also see:
Are You Ignorant Of The Power Of Your Potential?
Life Coaching

3. Inner child

Despite our transition to adulthood, the Inner child is very much alive within us. People always say “do away with childish things and assume your adulthood life,” forgetting that Adulthood is not psychologically defined in age, body features and stature but in the ability to understand oneself, associate with oneself, and ability to connect with both the inner child and the inner adult.

The truth is that when you connect with both your inner child and inner adult, it will lead you to discover your talent. Most so-called adults are not even aware of their inner being, they are not aware of what they are made-up of. Without knowing what you are made up of, you won’t be able to discover your talent. All you will be doing is a trial and error method to guess your talent which will eventually lead you to frustration.

Therefore, you don’t have to dabble in every business or practice in every area of specialization before you can say for sure that this is what I want to do.  You don’t have to try everything before you can discover your talent and know what you are born to do in life. What you should do is to connect with your inner child, and you will easily discover your talent.

Stop doing a trial and error method to guess your talent because it will lead to bitterness and award you with frustration! Sit down, relax and enjoy your journey of discovering your talent. Learn to take your time to understand who you are, what you are made-up off and connect your inner child and inner adult.

Nothing is as beautiful as functioning in your purpose and exhibiting your talent. It gives you the definition of your REAL YOU (originality).

How can you connect your inner child to your inner adult?

Look back at your past and think of when you were just a child. Try to remember what makes you sad, happy or angry. Now, think of what you always give excuses for not doing and what you enjoy doing without hesitation.

Our inner-child represent our child-like capacity for innocence, joy, sensitivity, truthfulness, creativity, openness and playfulness but it also holds our accumulated childhood hurts, traumas, fears, disappointments, pain, rejection, loneliness, and anger. Therefore connecting with your inner child will help you create a balance between your inner child and inner adult.

A well-renounced engineer was interviewed; he was asked how he discovered his talent. He said, “When I was just 4-year-old, I go around picking up electronic components of spoilt radio, television, etc. That was my toy back then. I don’t know why, but I love keeping anything electronics around me.”

Most times, what you love doing as a child or what you desire most or what you were denied as a child, is a pointer that leads to discovering your talent. Therefore, don’t ignore your inner child, commune with it even as an adult. Understand what you crave for the most as a child. You know what? It is easy to understand your craving now because your level of reasoning, experience and exposure is better than when you were a child.

Understand the circumstances that made you feel neglected, disparaged, abandoned or rejected. Understanding and connecting with your inner child will guide your present behaviour and predict future outcomes. Hence, it will lead you to discover your talent.

4. Struggle

Without struggle, you won’t know the level of your strength. From where I come from, my people call it hustling. If everything is all smooth, and rosy, most people won’t feel the need to discover their talent. Therefore, they won’t have anything to struggle for; no dream to fight for, no purpose to fulfil, no goal to achieve. However, life always has a way of teaching us lessons; obtaining experience and correcting our mistakes makes us a better person in life.

The basic principle of life is: work for what you deserve or take anything that comes your way. Struggling is our way of getting what we deserve. The more you struggle, the more you realize how far you can go and how close you get to achieving your dream. Life struggles make us realize our initial limit point, and then help us to stretch the limit point and build resilience in us.

When life hits you so hard, and you feel like you’ve got the worst life on earth, as long as you keep your struggling spirit alive, it will lead you to discover your talent.

How can your struggle help you discover your talent?

J.K Rowling story

This woman needs no introduction. Her books have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide. But there was a time in her life when she was diagnosed with clinical depression and contemplated suicide. Her marriage had failed, and she was jobless with a dependent child.

So she signed up for government aid (she was so poor, she could not afford to support herself and her daughter), describing her economic status as being “poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.”

In 1990, while she was on a four-hour-delayed train trip from Manchester to London, the idea for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry “came fully formed” into her mind. In 1995, she finished the manuscript of her first book on an old manual typewriter.

The book was submitted to twelve publishing houses, all of which rejected the manuscript. Editor Barry Cunningham from Bloomsbury advised her to get a day job since she had little chance of making money from writing children’s books.

Today, she is United Kingdom’s best-selling living author, with an estimated fortune of £600 million, ranking her as the thirteenth richest woman in the UK. She is none other than J.K Rowling – the creator of the HARRY POTTER SERIES. Saying that the Harry Potter franchise was and is a success would be an understatement.

(Source: Famous people, Wikipedia, J.K Rowling )

Her struggles prompted her to unveil her writing talent and she wrote a book. It doesn’t matter what you are going through in life, don’t give up. Your struggles will help you discover your talent and lead you to success.

Further reading: How to be successful in life: 10 easy steps

5. Helping others

There is a saying “what goes around, comes around.” Helping others is not just about you meeting the needs of others because, in the process of helping others, you meet your needs as well. Helping others gives meaning to your life and existence. When you have the spirit of helping others, you constantly think of people’s problem and how to solve it. In the process to solve people’s problem, your talent will be unveiled.

Every great business wo(man) got the idea for their business because they wanted to solve a particular problem and in return, they profit from it as well. However, you might not have a business idea or an entrepreneurship spirit. That’s fine, helping other people will help you to build your capacity, make you relevant and help you to unleash your potentials.

Sometimes, you are not even aware of how good you are in something. Unconsciously, you tend to under-appreciate your skills. When you help others, people will point out those areas you are good at, to you. Most times, you don’t consider those areas you are good in as anything meaningful until they start throwing praises at you and elaborate the importance of that area.

Sometimes, even the people you help will unconsciously give you direction to your life path. They could say “Hey, thanks for teaching me English. You are a good teacher, why not establish a language school.” There you go… your talent of teaching has been unveiled as a result of helping others. And you’ve been given ideas on what to do with the talent you just unveiled (that is, establish a language school).

How can helping others help you to discover your talent?

I started my life coaching career with my friends and family. They always run to me for sound advice, and guidance and then come back to praise me. They are like “Ayobami, do you know the techniques you taught me helped me to solve my issues?” “Ayobami, I got the job, thanks for your advice.” “Ayobami, I feel alive again.” “Ayobami, I am inspired to start studying again and I won’t give up this time.” and so on.

Whenever I hear those words, I always feel like the happiest person on earth. Soon enough, they came to me again and said “Ayobami, why not put the techniques you taught me into writing so that others could learn from it?” “Ayobami, you are very energetic and you know the right words to say to motivate people, why not be a motivational speaker?”…  Motivational speaker? Yeah, I discovered my purpose as a result of helping others.

Helping others has a limit

Don’t ever try to help everyone. You might be wondering why I said so, considering the fact that I just encourage you to help others. The truth is that there is a limit to helping others. Therefore, make sure you know the extent (limit) you can go in helping others because helping others at your own expense is self-destructive.

You can’t please everybody because you are not an ice-cream. Therefore offer the help you can and move on. Don’t stay committed to helping others when your life also needs help; therefore learn to balance it and live a balanced life.

Conclusion

Discovering your talent in life is as important as breathing. Your talent will help you to fulfill your destiny. You can discover your talent by having a better understanding of your nature and connecting with your inner child. You can also discover your talent through your desire for a change, your struggles, and when you help others.

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Copyright by Ayobami Abiodun