15 years ago I was faced with a problem - I didn’t know what talents I had and couldn’t understand what kind of work I needed to do in order to realize myself, get decent money, enjoy my work and receive gratitude from people.
Spoiler: I succeeded, I was able to build my 3rd career, I earn x10 from my previous income level and get a lot of energy from the business and gratitude from people.
My path took me where I wanted to go.
I tried many different methods myself and I want to share with you the most effective and fastest ways to discover your talents (I tried all these methods on myself, having invested several years and about 200,000 rubles in total).
- Ask yourself
- Ask your surroundings
- Take a career aptitude test
- Visit a career consultant
- Work with a psychologist
- Read human design
- Pass special tests
- Take the Gallup StrengthsFinder Test
All of these methods work, but none of them alone will get you where you want to go. Each of these methods gives you another look at yourself and after a certain number of methods you will be able to pick up repeated meanings and notice glimpses of talent.
Ask yourself what talents you notice in yourself.
I run Talent Marathons (this is a program that allows you to quickly recognize, accept, develop and apply your talents to achieve professional and personal goals) and this method is the very first one from which the work of finding your talents begins. Often people find it difficult to write even 5 of their talents or they try to describe the same talent in different words.
- My talents (example from homework for the Talent Marathon):
Talent 1: I am able to formulate thoughts (conclusions, results of the analysis) orally and in writing so that the presentation is clear and the style matches the task and the addressee
Talent 2: I know how to find a common language with different people, including experience in working effectively with “difficult” people with whom no one has managed to work well before me
Talent 3: Friendly attitude towards people and colleagues in particular, willingness to help, share experience, spend your time teaching others
Talent 4: Attention to detail and the ability to conduct in-depth analysis of a situation
Talent 5: Outlook. They say that it is interesting to communicate with me on various topics that go beyond work issues. I myself like it when communication is not limited solely to work issues; I love and know how to maintain such communication with colleagues.
This is a very good example of independent work, but much more often I see modestly and one word at a time) most often the problem lies either in low awareness, or in the inability to notice, or there are some psychological aspects that prevent you from looking at yourself with a loving/supportive, and not a critical point of view.
Efficiency: 5/10
My experience
What did I like to do as a child? Play musical instruments (in the end, my parents sent me to a music school to study piano), sing, dance, write poems and fables, perform on stage or be the center of attention at home, make crafts (origami, applique, embroidery, knitting, sewing etc.), parody other people.
I also liked solving puzzles, reading, analyzing, solving riddles, and participating in quizzes. It turns out that these are artistic, literary, theoretical, musical and creative abilities.
Was I able to develop any of this to the level of talent? I find it difficult to answer. I think I chose the direction of literary, theoretical and social skills. In my opinion, they make themselves felt in the work of a copywriter. However, I cannot say that I have reached the level of talent. There is still something to strive for.
What happened to the other abilities? Sometimes I sit down at an instrument or do some handicrafts. But this remains at the level of a hobby. Most of the effort is spent on developing literary and theoretical abilities.
Ask those around you what talents they notice in you
Oh, this is actually a super tool - I assure you, you can usually hear so many good things about yourself at the same time only on your birthday) People really like to give feedback to others - from the outside they know better!
Take care to get feedback from different layers of your environment and limit the flight of fancy of your friends to the direction of your talents and personality, otherwise you risk finding out how beautiful, curly and a drinker you are, which, of course, is also not bad, but you won’t know anything about your talents will tell.
I talk in detail about how to work with such feedback correctly at my Talent Marathon.
Efficiency: 6/10
Expand your worldview.
Sometimes it is difficult for people to recognize their abilities because they simply do not know where to apply them. How to find your talent if you don’t even know where to look?
For example, will someone understand that he has good inclinations to play golf if he has never heard of this sport in his life? The broader a person’s worldview, the greater his knowledge base, the easier it is for him to recognize his skills and find application for them.
Traditionally, knowledge is associated with reading books, but scientific and technological progress does not stand still. And even those who are too lazy to read can get the necessary information thanks to educational videos or infographics. There are also audiobooks, audio lessons and many other ways to become smarter while remaining just as lazy.
Take the Career Guidance and Talent Identification Test
I took various career guidance tests, but each time it seemed to me that the machine processing the results thought exactly like my parents.
Based on the criteria of “fashionable” and “now prestigious,” I was given socially approved roles. The tests were paid and free. Paid ones cost from 2,500 to 15,000 rubles and differed in the number of questions and the breadth of areas studied about me. The most expensive career guidance test took into account my physical abilities, planned age of active work, current financial situation, and really gave some valuable advice on critical aspects of my career.
My profession is talent development coach. Of course, I communicate with clients on social networks and develop an online community about talent, but this does not bring me much energy and rather takes away resources than gives them.
The free tests were not very useful and their results were suitable for making a final diagnosis on VKontakte, but I would not risk building my career on such data.
Efficiency: 4/10
Visit a career consultant
A career consultant is least interested in discovering your talents; her task (in 99% of cases, a career consultant is a woman) is to employ you and receive your success fee (an agreed upon rate that you can pay if the employment occurred through the mediation of this consultant).
The consultant works to make your resume look beautiful and believable, removes rough edges (about work without labor, about cases when you were fired, and so on). A consultant helps build your career trajectory from the position you are in now to the position/position of your dreams.
A significant resource of a career consultant is the presence of extensive connections in the HR industry, which helps you quickly find a job and helps other HR companies fill burning vacancies.
In general, this story is less about “how to recognize your talents” and more about how to quickly find a job or change your existing level of income.
Efficiency: 2/10
In conclusion
Talent is like a torch that illuminates our existence, because the work in which we are talented will always bring pleasure and true joy. Unfortunately, life circumstances sometimes force you to turn away from this light, but, what’s even worse, over time it can fade away. So remember, you can always rekindle that fire. The main thing is to be able to see it. Then it will warm your existence and illuminate the paths of life.
We wish you good luck!
We also recommend reading:
- Storytelling
- Exercises for self-development
- 5 ways to develop a talent for happiness
- Two Ways of Thinking by Carol Dweck
- The Myth of Genius
- 5 Ways of Thinking
- Questions to Find Meaning and Happiness
- Vitality Quotient VQ: What is it and why is it important?
- Fixed Mindset
- Empathetic intelligence
- Talent vs ability. What's more important?
Key words: 1LLL, 1Self-knowledge
Work with a psychologist
A psychologist will not help you identify your talents, but they can greatly help you gain self-confidence and realize, first of all, your self-worth.
which includes talents. For many who are trying to understand/know their talents and undergo numerous tests, the acceptance of talents does not happen immediately. A good psychologist is able to notice this and help you accept your talents without unnecessary modesty and shyness. To teach you to accept feedback and praise with an awareness of exactly what manifestations it is presented to you for.
I recommend it as a necessary supporting element in the context of accepting your talents.
Efficiency: 4/10
Read Human Design, work with a numerologist and astrologer
My friend suggested that I read my Human Design card and I can confidently say that it was one of the best investments in the amount of 5,000 rubles. Somehow, in clear and understandable words, I was told about my talents (not all of them, but those that were least obvious to me). I also received some valuable advice regarding my talent-money relationship. The talents that I was told about are now working for me, I was able to understand after consultation that I should learn to develop them and apply them in my activities.
Numerology and astrology have also brought to my attention (each in their own words and through different images) the manifestation of my talents related to communication and influencing the lives of others. This is exactly what my profession is now - as a coach, I interact with a very large number of people who want to change their lives.
Efficiency: 6/10
Remember your childhood interests.
The most sincere period of a person’s life is childhood. When we have not yet had time to join the race for fashion, stereotypes and public recognition. What aroused interest in childhood is most likely a clue to the question “how to find your talent.” At a certain period of life, a person integrates into the system, for him the prestige of the profession arises, the desire to meet someone’s expectations, etc. Gradually he forgets about his childhood dreams and becomes a different person. But will he be happy? Sometimes - very much so. Then he has no time for introspection.
In another case, a person always feels that he is not at ease. Thoughts arise about how to recognize your talent. If so, then you need to clear your consciousness and revive in it a child who will definitely not lie to himself.
Take a character test
Take special tests to determine your talents and strengths
I tried many tests to determine talents and here are their results:
Consider whether you can understand what talents you have after these test results:
You will be able to reveal your talent in activities that require endurance, perseverance and calmness, self-control...as well as imagination
Translator from English? journalist? smmschik? Are you seriously? OMG
Efficiency: 4/10
Here, too, there was no increase in knowledge about my talents.
Efficiency: 2/10
Do some self-analysis.
The best way to find talent is to analyze your inner world, your real desires and needs. A good assistant in this matter can be a sheet of white paper, on which you should place yourself in the very center, and then, like the branches of a tree, schematically draw the directions that interest you in different directions.
The next stage will be to cross out those “branches” in which it is not possible to achieve good results, because success accompanies talent. For example, someone likes skiing, boxing and origami. How to find talent in this case? Weigh the pros and cons of each option. A broken nose and broken lips strongly suggest that this person has a talent for origami.
