How to Find Your Talent

Don’t keep waiting for talent to show itself. You don’t know you’re good at playing the guitar if you’ve never tried it. This is similar to playing the flute, crocheting, playing badminton and singing in unison. Pick a talent that seems interesting and learn all about it. Discover what it entails and what qualities you already have. If you’ve never tried it, you won’t know. How can you discover your talent if you don’t try? You can only discover your natural abilities, talents, and gifts when you challenge yourself and actively seek out new experiences. Take on obstacles and seek challenges to see the natural talents and qualities that may be hidden within you.

• Set a goal each week to try something new. You may not find an area where you’re “super good,” but one day you feel comfortable holding the guitar in your hand, and then you decide to dig deeper into it. Maybe you discover you have the ability to connect with animals when you visit an animal shelter, an experience you have never had in your life? Who knows, you could easily get an excellent score in a day of trying out Star Trek at a game store? These experiences are the starting point of talent. ^[1]
• Step out and experiment. Be adventurous and experience the world around you in a natural environment. Try out a variety of sports, engage in outdoor hobbies such as fishing, hiking, or mountain climbing to discover your untapped natural or inborn talent.

Try doing easy things. What comes naturally to you? What can you do without thinking? What activities do you love? Reflect on your passions and obsessions to find your hidden talents. If you like to spend your day engrossed in indeterminate drawings, engrossed in the pages of a book, or engrossed in dance, then don’t waste time wishing you had a talent for baking. Discover the talents you have by focusing on what comes to you most easily.

• When going to school, what homework do you find easiest? Which subject worries you the least? That can be a clue to help you find your natural talent.
• Notice what other people recognize about you. Often outsiders will be more observant than you in this regard. You can ask family, friends, and teachers what they find you doing that seems easy.

Try difficult areas. Are you afraid of the stage, afraid to speak in front of the crowd? Or are you afraid to write and finish a storybook? Take the microphone and put the pen on the paper. Do things that scare you. What’s your wish list? What do you wish you could do well without difficulty? Take on big challenges and find out what you need to do to be good at it.

• Start to learn all about different talents to understand its whole journey. Practicing to play an electric guitar like Hendrix can seem like an impossible task, but if you don’t know where the sp major chord is, you won’t know how difficult it is.
• James Earl Jones, who voices Darth Vader and is best known for his roles in Shakespeare plays, has a deep, divine voice who suffered from stuttering as a child. When he was in school, he was afraid to speak in front of the class, and he only learned how to speak properly by facing his fear. Now he is recognized as one of the most talented voice actors in the world.

Pursue your obsessions. What do you often talk about so passionately that the listener gets bored? What makes it difficult for you to get out? Think about the things that fascinate you to discover the talents and abilities that may be hidden deep within you.

• Even if you’re passionate about something that seems hard to associate with talent, like watching television or movies, keep that in mind. Maybe you have a talent for storytelling or analyzing stories. Maybe you are very good at judging camera angles. Every film critic starts out the same way. Direct that passion into the study of film history and filmmaking.

Acknowledge small successes. If you feel you have no talent, it may be because you have overlooked your own successes. Pay attention to the things you’ve accomplished, big or small, to find out what you’re good at. Be creative when you associate those small accomplishments with larger talents.

• Maybe you just threw a great party. It may sound like it has nothing to do with talent, but if you have the communication skills and the ability to plan and organize to get the job done, then celebrate it as a success. Maybe you have leadership and management skills, which will come in handy later on.

Don’t care about TV shows. Programs like “Musical Idol” or “Asian Talent” have a very narrow connotation of talent. If you are not a young and attractive person with a slick story and an ostentatious voice, such shows will lead audiences to believe that they themselves have no talent. The truth is not so. Talent doesn’t have to be synonymous with popularity, attractiveness, or something to perform. Talent is dedication, creative thinking and attention to detail. Talent is an endless curiosity to develop one’s innate abilities into skills. Your job is just to find it.