Seven ways to maximize your talent

Everyone has talent but what makes a successful person is to realize the talent and develop it.

All around us, there are many talented people that are poor. This is not because they are totally clueless of their natural abilities (talent) but they have not built on it.

John C. Maxwell in his book ‘Talent is never enough’ said that “people spend majority of their time focused on strengthening their weakness when they should be maximizing their strength”.

According to Maxwell, if you are on an average level on what you can do with ease there is a very high tendency for you to improve on it to become above average, which is doing better than most people.

So here are ways to maximize your talent and be successful at it;

• Follow your passion

Go after anything that concerns your area of practice and continue. Find ways to establish it and don’t let limitations and barriers obstruct you. For instance, if you don’t have a computer or you can’t operate one, go to the extent of borrowing or using a café where you pay per time and get the opportunity to watch others operate the computer. Never trying something you love is the worst thing ever, because you will never get to know how good you are. Undiscovered talent is like an unidentified legend.

• Believe in yourself

Lack of trust in yourself and what you can do is the first limitation to your talent and success in life. This is because the belief you have in yourself will help you to make new improvements and reach greater heights in your area of focus. You need to see yourself as a person full of potential, have a ‘can do’ spirit and constantly try new things and expand your capacity. When you believe in yourself, it releases a positive energy that makes others confident in your abilities too.

• Be creative

Creativity, they say is life. Be committed to expressing your talent in divers’ ways not only to suit your taste alone or follow the trend but to make a new trend and be the topic. George Washington Carver said; “When you can do a common thing in an uncommon way; you will command the attention of the world”. Basically, norms are boring so try as much as possible to be unique because that is the only leverage you have as one in millions of people with the same skill.

• Focus on your talent

Build your strengths perfectly to be above other competitors than to be an average in so many areas just as the saying goes ‘jack of all trades, master of none’. Keep practicing to achieve excellence.

Challenge yourself and follow up with results. Be persistent, don’t take no for an answer. Always keep your eyes on the ball.

• Prepare for challenges

Determination will help you to persevere as you face ups and downs. Don’t give up until it is done. Some have the lifestyle of giving up, some believe that life is easy and back out when it gets though. Life is tough, only legends make it through life, so don’t go dying on little confrontations. Pen down your vision, as this will give you direction when you are about to sway. Stop excuses.

• Learn new things

Furnish your skills, don’t be a mediocre because you will need to be able to handle a lot more when people begin to pay attention to your stuff. You need to be capable and people need to see that before buying into your idea. You might be able to draw attention to yourself but how will you keep it? So be teachable and have the passion to know more and go extra length to get things done (don’t go illegal).

• Build relationships

Don’t build skills alone, build character. When customers lose their temper you make yours stable because people are the key to success. Many treat people badly and pray to God for a supernatural turn around in their business, God uses people to bless not animals. Your talent is a piece of dung if you don’t have the character to sell it and make profit there in.

In conclusion Irving Berlin’s words, “the toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success. Talent is only a starting point” Think about this.