Tag: skills

30 DAYS OF GRATITUDE DAY 30 – SKILLS AND TALENTS

What talent or skill do you have that you are grateful for? What a great question. We do not stop and think of all the things that we are amazing at enough. The world teaches us to be self-critical. It is important to, at the very least, balance that out with complimenting ourselves on what we do well. This would be a practice to keep doing regularly. Keeping a reserve of positive self-image will help us succeed and go farther in life that being overly critical of ourselves.

Talents and skills are often used interchangeably, but I feel there is a big difference. To me, talent is something you are born with or naturally good at. Skill, on the other hand, is something that takes hard work and practice to excel at. Can you think of examples of both in your own life? Are there things you are just naturally good at? What skill that you have worked hard to be good at can you be both proud and grateful for?

My own personal examples are a little fuzzy. There are talents I believe that I am naturally good at, yet I still have put in much effort to make the most of them. Take speaking to people. For whatever reason, the fear of speaking is something that I do not have. Using this gift, I have worked hard to become a better speaker with each opportunity. I have always been a inquisitive person, but have used that to learn as much as my brain will hold. One of my favorite skills I have developed is to see the good in as many people as I can. Gleefully, many people in my life are pretty easy to see the good in. It is more reminding them why they are so awesome. Some forget or may have never been told. Some people are more of a challenge to see the good in, but it is those folks who help you strengthen this skill the most.

How about you? Have you thought of what talents and skills you are good at? Everyone has some. What are yours? Have you reminded yourself how amazing you are and felt grateful for the talents and skills you have? If not, today would be a good time to start.

TAKE YOUR TIME

I recall a cousin of mine when I was young who was always frustrated at not being able to ride a bike. It seemed they had taken longer than the normal child would to master the skills of balance and coordination needed to go forward without the assistance of training wheels. Eventually, they learned and were able to harness the freedom a bicycle affords you when you are a child.

This would not have been able to happen without their parents there to refuse to allow them to give up and quit, which was a desire my cousin expressed many times. When we are children, if we are in a healthy family situation, there is always somebody encouraging and refusing to allow us to accept no for an answer. It could be a parent, a caring teacher or even an older sibling.

When we are adults this is often not the case. If an adult expresses the desire to give up because the results they are seeking seem just out of grasp who is to tell them no? If you need an example, look no further than me trying to operate with any sort of skill on the dance floor. Another thing we seem unwilling to do as adults is to move outside our comfort zones. Quite often we stay with just what we are good at. There is some wisdom to this. If there is something you enjoy and are naturally talented at, it would serve the world best if you were to focus on that.

If, however, like most adults, you have a yearning to master a skill you are not quite proficient at don’t let the speed of which those skills seem to be coming to you discourage you. It seems the fear of looking foolish, or even not talented in front of others is a fear most of us are unable to leave in childhood. Comparing yourself to others around you will rarely serve you. As a quick reminder, the harder you have to work at something, the greater the victory when you finally accomplish it. Keep going my friend.