There is this pithy phrase I started to use of late and that is: “if you think you don’t have a talent, learn a craft.”
I remember as a young girl growing up, I was frequently asked to identify what my talent was. I always came up with nothing. I mean, I had friends who could sing sonorously whereas I couldn’t hold a tone—that was a ‘no’ to singing. Acting was another option but I was always messing up the act—that became another ‘no’ for me. Oh! Drawing was yet another option, here I tried a bit; I could manage to replicate a drawing howbeit drudgingly but I couldn’t come up with anything original hence… another no. I remember now that I loved to scribble but I never considered writing a talent.
So, I grew up ‘the talent-less girl’. That wasn’t easy on me. Look, talent is considered a parting gift from God and I appeared to be the girl who didn’t get a proper send-off. Really, it appeared as if I was sent over here without any proper preparation. While my peers exercised their gifting, I bemoaned my fate.
Sad story, I know.
The beautiful thing is that in this present time and age, no child has to go through what I did. The horizon has been expanded and anyone knowledgeable is aware that singing, dancing, acting or even drawing doesn’t even begin to cover talents.
There’s in addition to the above:
– Public speaking (I don’t think that the ability to captivate an audience is something that comes easily to everyone. How’s your story-telling?)
– Critical thinking
– Accounting (I had a classmate who did large sums for fun. If you ask me, this could be an excellent choice of occupation.)
– Marketing (An area where a good hang on human relations is needed. How easily do you relate to people on a normal?)
– Writing
– Graphics
– Music
– Photography
– Planning
– Teaching (Do you have the passion to transfer knowledge no matter how little? The patience to wait till that is done? This might be it!)
– Typing
– Story telling (Like I mentioned in public speaking. Can you express your thoughts articulately and hold people sway whilst doing that?)
– Project management
– Risk management
– Athleticism
– And every other natural inclination you have.
If after you’ve exhausted the list and looked at
this too and there’s nothing you can relate to, don’t bemoan yourself. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt after these years, it’s that there is something everyone is good at. You just haven’t seen it.
As you go through life as an explorer, you begin to discover that there are skills you pick up easily, there are hobbies that stick, and you find yourself tilting towards a certain area of interest naturally. That could be a pointer.
Lastly, learn a craft if you feel that you don’t have a talent. Develop interest in something and learn it professionally. Programming seems to be making the waves right now, does ICT appeal to you? Learn something!
Contribute your quota to the world around you. Have something that occupies your free time—there could be a lot of those, you know?
Even those that have discovered their talents should know that the book title by John. C. Maxwell, “Talent is Never Enough”… is true. You can’t rest on your oars. Build on your area of gifting, expand your horizon, upgrade periodically.
It wasn’t until I got older that I realized that I was quite handy. I found it easy to do things with my hands. Any craft that involves the use of the fingers and by extension the hands, appeals to me. In a broad sense, I could say that making creative use of my hands is part of my talents.
The word talent has been used frequently in this post and for the sake of clarity I wish to give the meaning according to wikitionary: “a marked natural ability or skill; an inclination for something.”
The world is gradually tilting to that point where every human being and by extension, nations desire self-sustenance.
Let’s develop ourselves!
Let’s build entrepreneurship!
I await your response. Lots of love!😍😍
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