Everyone has a natural gift or talent- something they are good at that comes easily to them while perhaps difficult for others to do. Take the artist who can sit down and with the stroke of her brush create a painting that makes chills run up and down your spine. What about the friend who has an unusual knack for fashion, styles everyone before hitting the city for a girl’s night out and can spot trends before they hit?
Take a minute and consider your natural talent or gift…that one thing people comment on that you do so effortlessly. Whether it’s cooking, interior design, organizing or photography; there is something you do that if given the opportunity you would do it every day because you love it. My next question is do you use this natural talent or gift in your career? If not, perhaps you should consider doing so.
I’ve been speaking nationally to women in business for close to twenty years and have found that people are most successful when doing what they love and what comes natural for them. They are far happier, make more money and think of their work almost as if it were play. I went for a walk with my son Noah last night who is eight and shared a story with him about the time I got a spanking in fourth grade, with a paddle- for talking in class! Can you imagine that happening today? The truth is every report card I took home had comments from my teachers that said, “Traci talks too much!”
I was energized about life even as a child- I loved to talk and as an adult, I turned that passion or gift into a business. Today, as a professional speaker, I get paid a lot of money to talk at business conferences. Imagine if I had listened to those comments and ignored my gift of gab- I would have missed my calling! So what about you? What is that one thing that if given the chance, you would do every day? Start to consider how you can parlay that into a career and ignore the temptation to immediately respond with sabotaging thoughts like “Well that’s not possible!” because the fact- is it is possible.
Consider the artist- while her day job might be as a trader, she could begin to strategize selling her paintings to interior designers or even holding a show of her own to see how people respond to her art. The friend with a knack for fashion could become a personal shopper for busy women or even begin to sketch her own fashion line. In both cases these women could keep their day jobs while exploring opportunities to leverage their talent and turn gifts into income and a life of passion, adventure and fun!
Look, life is too short to spend half of it at a job that drains your soul. Take the time to explore your gifts, play with ideas as to how you might convert them into income and imagine a future where you get paid to do what you love!
To download the first chapter of my forthcoming book, Get Your Girl Back, visit http://gygb.com/the-book/
