They say that the best way to find a job you are passionate about is to figure out what you are good at and what you love to do.

 

Strengths are a combination of:

  1. Talent – Natural ability. A recurring thought or behavior that can be applied in a productive manner. Often, our talents come so natural to us that we don’t recognize or label them as talents. We don’t realize how much effort other people have to apply to do the same things we do.
  2. Knowledge – Facts or experience acquired by a person. This can be acquired in the classroom, by reading, or through lessons we learn from our experiences.
  3. Skills – The ability to do something well. Expert knowledge about the steps one must take to complete a task.

 

According to Tom Rath, author of Strengths Finder 2.0,  “The key to building a strength is to first identify your dominant talents, then refine them with knowledge and skills.” Tom advises that people focus on developing their strengths rather than their weaknesses. In fact he believes that “focusing only on weaknesses will only help us prevent failure. It will not help us reach excellence.”

 

But there is a problem, many of us do not know what our strengths are. A lot of us need

help determining what we are good at.

 

One way to point you in the right direction listen to the feedback from the people closest to you. I don’t mean by asking them necessarily. (Sometimes, people aren’t great at answering this question head on). I mean, start paying attention to the feedback you get indirectly from your social circle. For example, what do most people thank you for? What subjects do people come to you about for advice?

 

When people ask you for advice, they are essentially complimenting you. It is like they are saying I think you’re an expert in “x,y,z”. It gives you an idea of where you’re effortlessly thriving.

 

Chances are there are ton of interests/skills you have that you don’t even realize you have.

 

Do your friends ask you for advice about beauty, relationships, career, entertainment, or travel?

 

What do these interests reveal? For example if your friends come to you for relationship advice maybe they believe that one of your strengths is communication. If they believe you are good at makeup, maybe one of your strengths is that you pay attention to detail.

 

Try to get in the habit of noticing which topic comes up the most from friends and family.

 

This works best when multiple sources three or four people are coming to us to ask for advice or guidance on a particular guidance. I wouldn’t consider yourself the relationship guru if one of your best friends is always asking you for relationship advice as it is pretty common for good friends to confide in one another and it has less do with your skills and more to do with the nature of your relationship.

 

If multiple people are thanking you or asking for your help, chances are you are skilled in this area. Also, most of the time, if you are skilled in this area, it’s probably because you really like this activity.

 

Your superpower may be a strength you are completely overlooking so let those close to you help shine the light on them!

 

Hope this is helpful. Leave me a comment if you have more questions about this topic or if you have any feedback!!