Everybody in this life has a unique talent, a special combination of features and characteristics that all mesh to make you the miracle that is you. Some people choose to push away and ignore their talents, rejecting opportunities to realize their dreams and cultivate their talents because of some deeply ingrained fear inside of us that we all have to face eventually. Yet everyone has a unique gift and vast wells of untapped potential inside them.
What separates the greats, the heroes, the legends of our times who have attained their dreams from common people that may have just as much talent as these pioneers of our planet? It has to do with a few important abilities that must be mastered before we can explore the depths of our talents and power and live out our dreams.
Self Awareness
Time and time again, visionaries and business executives, actors and artists have constantly reinforced that self-awareness is one of the most critical aspects to master on the road to fully realizing your talent. What is “Self Awareness”? It’s a commonly used buzzword that is tossed around at business conferences and self-help seminars, yet so few truly grasp the enormous capabilities that self-awareness can unlock.
Self Awareness is the ability to understand who you truly are and what your strengths and weaknesses are, comprehending and controlling your emotions while being able to study them and why they occur, and constantly learning from your mistakes and thoughts to advance yourself.
Being self-aware is like a running on anever-endingg improvement treadmill. But in this case, the treadmill is actually fun after you realize that you’re building on being a better person each day. You’re investing in yourself and compounding on your learning again and again and advancing forward constantly.
The perfect case study is actors or musicians. Almost every actor or musician you see today is viciously, unapologetically self aware. It’s the only way they could rise to the top in a massively overcrowded field. By staying true to their distinctive skills and understanding all of the features that make them unique. Why do you think so many actors seem insane? They’ve harnessed every characteristic that makes them special and doubled down on it day after day. They’re larger than life, and I think most of us admire the authentic nature of their personalities.
Hard Work
Hard work is vital. There are truly no shortcuts to getting to the place you want to be. If you take a shortcut, you miss out on the lessons and sacrifices that are necessary to forge you into what you want to become. It’s going to be hard. People are often scared of committing and working hard at something because they think it’s too much work, or that it will be wasted time because they’ll end up short of where they want to be. There’s a huge secret that anyone who has achieved their dream will tell you. It’s all a mind game. It’s actually exhilarating to dig into the process of growth and learning while constructing the skill set that will take you where you’re meant to go. You’ll learn exponentially more about yourself through struggles, challenges, and roadblocks than if you stayed exactly where you are. All this time you’ll be watering your talent garden and learning new things about yourself that you would never have if you didn’t start down the path.
“What if I waste all this time working hard and don’t end up where I want to be?”. If you’re on this page, I’m positive you believe in self-improvement and learning as much as you can in this wonderfully short life we have. If you pursue something you believe you want wholeheartedly, the lessons and knowledge you gain about yourself and your place in the world on your journey will pay you back enormously and touch every area of your life. The Universe will move out of your way and guide you along. Maybe you’ll find out that you want something different than what you first thought. None of this can happen if you don’t take the first step down that path. Keep walking and you’ll experience the excitement and momentum of working extraordinarily hard on your talents and dreams. Hard work becomes intensely gratifying.
Persistence- You’ve read all of the classic examples before. Michael Jordan getting cut from his high school basketball team. Steve Jobs being fired from his own company. J.K. Rowling being turned down by countless publishers. But it’s not just this type of persistence of character that is essential to making the most of your life.
It’s the persistence to keep learning and expanding your mind. It’s the persistence to be self-aware and grow a little bit each and every day. You must innovate and learn all the time. You have the miracle of your life and the endless opportunities that it provides. Combining the persistence to deal with rejection from other people with the tenacity to continue learning and working hard forms you into a weapon of self improvement.
Keep persisting and growing a little bit every day and see what you turn into in a month. A year. 5 years. You’ll be shocked. I promise.
Find out what makes you special, what you’re truly talented at. Incorporate these traits into your life immediately and work at them. Start to notice the beautiful changes and the positivity that comes with them. Enjoy every moment of the process. You deserve the life you envision. You’re a miracle.
Search Yourself. Work Hard. Be Persistent. Your dreams won’t be dreams for long if you stay the course. Go out there and change everything.