It's time to rethink your talent. Talent may be artistic or technical, mental or physical, personal or social. You can be a gifted introvert or extrovert. Your talents need not be profitable, useful, or conventional, but they are always yours, part of what makes you. Learning to find your talents in the right places and building those talents into abilities and skills may take time, but doing it creatively can allow you to explore your natural abilities and discover your hidden talents.
Step
Part 1 of 3: Finding Talent
Step 1. Stop waiting for your talent to show up
You can't tell if you have a talent for playing the guitar if you've never tried playing the guitar. Ditto didgeridoo, knitting, badminton and Tuvan throat singing. Find a talent that looks cool and learn everything about it. Find what it takes and see what you have. If you never try, you'll never know. You will not discover a talent without trying. You can only discover your natural abilities, skills, and talents when you are testing your mettle and actively seeking new experiences. Face adversity and seek challenges to see hidden skills and abilities that may be hidden.
- Make it a goal to try something new every week. You may not discover your extraordinary talent, but maybe one day you try playing guitar and find you are comfortable doing it and decide to learn more. Maybe you've discovered a skill to connect with the animals in the shelter, something you've never experienced before. You may find that you're really good at playing the Start Trek: The Next Generation pinball machine in the washing machine. That's the beginning of a talent.
- Go outside and explore. Go on an adventure and experience the world and its natural habitats. Try a variety of sports, outdoor hobbies like fishing, hiking, and rock climbing to see if you have the untouched nature or instinct to do it.
Step 2. Try something easy
What feels natural to you? What do you do without thinking? What do you like? Look at your obsessions and your interest in these potential talents. If you like to spend all day drawing, reading, or dancing, then there's no point in wasting your time wishing you had a talent for baking. Focus on the talents you have by focusing on what is easiest for you.
- If you were at school, what was the easiest homework for you? What worries you the least? It may give you clues about your natural talents.
- Pay attention to what other people usually remember about you. Usually other people know your skills better than you do yourself. Ask your family, friends, and teachers to help find what seems easy for you to do.
Step 3. Try to do the hard things
Does performing on stage or public speaking scare you? Write a story and finish it? Grab a microphone or start writing. Do what scares you. What is the talent you desire? What would you like to be able to do naturally, without much effort? Face big challenges and find out what you have to do to be good at them.
- Start learning anything about the various talents to uncover the process. Playing a guitar like Jimi Hendrix may seem impossible, but if you don't know how to play the G chord by strumming it, you'll never know how difficult it is to play.
- James Earl Jones, voice of Darth Vader and famous Shakespearean opera actor with a voice that boomed like a god, had a severe stutter as a child. He is very afraid to speak in front of the class and can only learn to speak fluently by facing his fear. Today, he is widely recognized as one of the best voice actors in the world.
Step 4. Follow your obsession
What are you always talking about that tire others out? What's something you can't get your attention on? Use them to discover skills and talents that may be hidden.
Even if you're obsessed with something that might be hard to attribute to talent, like watching television or movies, take that into account. Maybe you have a talent for storytelling, or analyzing narratives. Maybe you have a knack for recognizing camera angles. Every film critic begins the same way. Channel that obsession by studying the history of film and learning how films were made
Step 5. Record even the smallest successes
If you feel talentless, it may be because you missed out on your success. Try to pay more attention to those successes, both big and small, to identify things that might be your natural talents. Think creatively how small successes might connect with other, more significant talents and skills.
Maybe you just had a successful party. It may not sound like a talent, but if you have the skills to interact with people, plan and organize to have it, celebrate it as a success. Perhaps you have leadership talents and organizational skills that will be useful in your life journey
Step 6. Ignore your television
Shows like “America's Got Talent” have a very narrow definition of talent. If you are not an attractive young person with a sad life story and a loud singing voice that tends to show off, this show makes people believe they are not talented. This is not true. Talent doesn't mean being famous, attractive, or being a performer. It means dedication, creative thinking, and paying attention to the little things. It also means that you are always curious to develop your hidden skills or abilities. You just have to find it.
Part 2 of 3: Be Creative
Step 1. Take a personality quiz
Personality quizzes are commonly used by employment agencies to try to discover your natural skills. The same goes for talent. Learning more about your natural inclination toward a thought, behavior, and character can help you discover more about your talents. These tests don't immediately show aptitudes, but they can provide knowledge that can aid in their discovery.
- The Myers-Briggs test is perhaps the best-known personality quiz, separating people into sixteen personality types based on answers to a number of questions and research conducted by Carl Jung.
- The Keirsey Temperament Sorter divides people into a number of different temperaments, which are identified by your response to a variety of scenarios and questions. It is available online.
Step 2. Talk to family and friends
One of the best ways to discover your hidden talents is to talk about them with the people who know you best. We tend to look down on our skills and cover up our abilities, missing out on many of the things that show our greatness. If you're lucky enough to find friends and family who care about you, they won't hesitate to show it to you.
Step 3. Look at your strengths and weaknesses to discover your potential talents
One way to find talent is to find a natural ability to do things, to make this look easy. Another way is to find it as the ability to face adversity. Did Blind Willie Johnson become more talented at playing the guitar because of his blindness? Did James Earl Jones become a better actor because he stuttered? Did Michael Jordan become a better basketball player because he was dropped from the team?
Don't let challenges or adversity keep you from trying and developing your talents. Look at things that other people might find challenging in your personality or abilities. If you were a shy person, would it be more impressive if you were a rock 'n roll singer? If you are short, can you become a great basketball player?
Step 4. Define talent for yourself
Some people think Jimi Hendrix is the greatest guitar player of all time, but he wouldn't be able to play classical music on his guitar to save himself, because he couldn't read scores. He might, if he tried, but classical musicians would consider Hendrix a talentless man. Don't let other people tell you that being an expert Razor scooter rider isn't a “genuine” talent, or that the ability to make great-tasting cheese toast can't count.
Part 3 of 3: Building Talent
Step 1. Commit to building your talent into a skill
Ryan Leaf should be a huge success in the future. He is an accomplished quarterback in American football, finalist for the Heisman award, second-choice player on the NFL roster. A few years later, Leaf became one of the all-time failures, failing to make it to a higher level. Having a natural talent for the game of American football is meaningless if you are not committed to developing it into a skill.
When you discover your talent, think of it as the seed you plant. You're off to a good start, but you'll still need to water, fertilize, and weed the edges to make sure your seeds grow into big plants. This takes effort
Step 2. Find other talented people
As iron sharpens iron, so one gifted person will sharpen another. If you have a talent, even if you only hope to develop talent in an area, surround yourself with other talented people and model their behavior, practice routine and disposition towards their talents. Learn everything from a talented person.
Find a mentor who is willing to coach you and guide you in developing your skills. Growing guitar players need a good teacher more than just YouTube. Growing singers need someone else to play their music
Step 3. Appreciate the complexity of your talents
Developing talents into abilities and abilities into skills will not be easy. The more you learn about a subject, task, or skill, the more complicated the path becomes. Commit to learning everything in your field and challenge yourself to become proficient. Make your talent something special. Make your talents come true.
Playing chess may still not be easy for Magnus Carlsen, simply because he is a phenomenal player. Now he understood how complicated the game was. The more things you learn about a game, skill, or field, the more you have to learn. It has never been easier
Step 4. Practice
Even if you don't have a knack for playing the guitar, practicing two hours a day will guarantee you get better. A person who practices, whether in sports, the arts, or any other field, will always be more talented than someone who has never touched his instrument, his painting, or someone who has never practiced. Effort will always exceed capabilities.
Tips
- Never give up, even if you fail!
- Three P's in life…. Take “Opportunities” to make “Choices” that bring “Change” in your life.
- Be patient, too. It may take a lot of time and the wrong start to find your best spot.
- Be open-minded about your talents. Maybe not what you expect.
- Try to do a lot of different things and read a lot of other things. If something doesn't match, switch; if it fits, learn more.
