How do you discover and develop talents and abilities?

I have been thinking about this one all week. There is a lot of information out there I have heard over the years about developing your talents; everything from religious viewpoints on talent to advice from self help gurus. I have seen a lot of it over the years. 

I believe the key to discovering your talents is being open to trying new things and not immediately giving up. If you have an opportunity to try something new or approach something in a different manner, give it a few tries before you call it quits. This applies not only to activities but also skill sets you think would be great to have. I think when a lot of people think about developing talents they consider things like learning a new instrument or taking up some new sporting activity. There is so much more out there in the realm of talents and abilities to consider working on. 

A great way to find traits or skill sets you would like to develop is to look at people you admire, both living and not. Learn about these people and find out why they were so successful and what qualities they had that you admire. How did they develop those qualities? I personally am a big fan of Benjamin Franklin as well as John Huntsman, Sr. 

How do you go about developing new talents and abilities? Once you have decided what you want to do or work on, decide what the end goal would be. Work backwards from there and figure out what activities and decisions would take you toward that goal. Find things that you can do on a daily basis to work towards it. In my study of Franklin and Huntsman I have compiled a list of attributes that they embody I want to emulate. When I was younger I played the trombone. The only way to learn and get better at it was to practice every day. When I started I would practice for 4 hours per week. I know it doesn’t seem like a lot, but spread across 6 days that worked out to 40 minutes per day. For a kid that is quite a time commitment. 

I think the most important things to consider when finding talents and abilities to develop are: 

How does this improve upon me as a person? How will it increase the quality of my life and of those around me? 

Do I enjoy it? If you try an activity a few times and you don’t like it, you gave it a good shot but don’t kill yourself. 

What kinds of costs are associated with it? If there are some activities that you are truly passionate about, I believe you will find a way to finance what it is you love. Just remember to not kill yourself financially in the process. 

Above all, use the development of talents and abilities as a way to further your passion for life.

Increasing ability through developing character traits

The two major cornerstones of what I have dubbed “Individualbility” are individual ability and individual responsibility. This week I want to look at individual ability and how it can be increased by developing character traits.

 Improving your character is a great way to improve individual ability to achieve success in anything that you do. There are a plethora of character traits one can look at improving upon or acquiring. On our site we mention five off the top.

•  Integrity
• Courage
• Persistence
• Faith
• Vision 

There are also many others that people would argue you can work on. Our site includes even more, including those things that Benjamin Franklin picked to work on. Franklin made a conscience effort to work on what he dubbed 13 virtues. He would pick one to work on every week and then rotate through them continually. Looking back at his life I would say that he did very well at developing those character traits and is a great example of increasing your chances at success by building your character. 

I personally decided to start working on a character trait every week. Last week was my first week working on this and decided to focus on integrity. My focus was not only on being completely honest with those I interacted with but being honest with myself and work to cut out the little internal lies we tell ourselves. It made for a very interesting and eye opening week. 

There is one example that really stands out in my mind. I was chatting with some coworkers about midweek and the subject of getting in shape came up. I was comparing notes with a couple people and one of the ladies mentioned that she likes playing the Zumba dance game on the Nintendo Wii. I mentioned that we had a Kinect for our Xbox 360 and loved the dance central game. I was about to say, “I usually play it about once a week, but I want to play it more often.” Well, although it would only be known to me it would be a blatant lie. I haven’t played that game in at least 2 months.  Some people would say, that wouldn’t harm anybody because how would they know anyway. As I caught myself and refrained from making that false statement, I thought about my integrity. If it is ok to tell one little lie like that, then where does that lead to? 

I do not share the above story to brag, but to illustrate a real life example of making an effort to focus on that weekly character trait. If my focus on developing the character trait of integrity had not been at the forefront of my mind, I probably would have made the statement without thinking about it. 

We all have things that we want to improve on and do better in our lives. I firmly believe that by focusing on developing good character traits, those other areas of our lives will start to fall in line. Our personal character really does determine our path. The type of individual we focus on becoming will bring those types of individuals and opportunities into our lives. 

As I move on each week focusing on a different character trait, I will post my progress on my personal blog. For a great discussion of integrity, I suggest John Huntsman Sr’s book Winners Never Cheat.

What character traits do you think are the most important develop? Why?