If you want to have more success in any area of your life, it’s helpful to understand your own strengths and weaknesses.
In general, your biggest gains will come from leveraging your greatest strengths.
The better you understand these superpowers, the more effectively you can strategically use those skills to advance your career, and help more people.
😕 But there’s a problem…
Most people can list what they struggle with. Most can even name a few things they are good at.
What most people can’t do is name their most impactful strengths, their most unique abilities, or their most outstanding gifts.
When it comes to looking inward for the uncanny, most come up empty.
“What are your superpowers?”
I’ve helped a lot of people figure out what they’re uniquely good at. It’s a fascination of mine.
What I’ve found is that directly asking people about their superpowers, tends to result in a particular form of paralysis. It turns out that a surprising number of people are reluctant to take pride in their abilities, or simply have a difficult time even recognizing it.
In both cases, it typically stems from taking for granted something that comes easily.
As a result, they struggle to answer the question at all.
“How do you ___ so well?”
While everyone has gifts, those skills are often the most difficult to recognize, appreciate, or explain.
- Ask the chess prodigy how they play so well, and they’ll often come across with the same confusion, explaining that they can “just see the board.”
- Ask a world class sprinter how they run so fast, and they’ll tell you about their practice regimen, but still can’t explain the elusive “it” that gives them the edge.
- Ask Ava, your junior membership coordinator how she manages to build a genuine connection with every single member within minutes, and she’ll probably shrug and say “I dunno, I just listen to people. Isn’t that just basic hospitality?”
It’s easy to apply a heavy discount to the things that we enjoy, or that come more easily than the things we struggle with. But maybe we shouldn’t.
Follow the Clues
When someone points out one of your skills to you, but you feel the urge to casually dismiss it because it’s too easy, or you think “everyone can do that,” I want you to pause. What you’ve stumbled onto may be a clue that you’ve found one of your superpowers.
When it comes easily to you, and others want to know how to do it, don’t take it for granted.
There’s magic in there.
Try to figure out how you think about it. What is your process? Which parts seem obvious to you, that others might miss? Why do you do it the way you do?
Somewhere in there, is your secret sauce.
Don’t forget to look nearby…
You may even find that it’s not the ability that is your superpower, but rather some part of your approach.
- Maybe your superpower isn’t your speed, it’s your discipline.
- Maybe your superpower isn’t strategy, it’s curiosity.
- Maybe your superpower isn’t networking, its empathy.
Sometimes it’s not what you do, but how you do it.
So, the next time someone asks you how you do ___ so well, take a moment before you brush it off. Say this instead…
“You know, I’m not sure, but now that you mention it, I’m going to look into it.”
I hope you enjoyed this post!
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