What is your superpower?
What do you do naturally, just as a part of your personality that is amazing? What do you do that you get compliments on? What do you accomplish easily that cause your friends to stress out?
Marcus Buckingham, author of “First, Break all the Rules” and “Now Discover Your Strengths” describes strengths as:
A strength is “an activity that makes you feel strong.” It is an activity where the doing of it invigorates you. Before you do it, you find yourself instinctively looking forward to it. While you are doing it you don’t struggle to concentrate, but instead, you become so immersed that time speeds up and you lose yourself in the present moment. And after you are finished doing it, you feel authentic, connected to the best parts of who you really are.
One of my superpowers is that I am good at puzzles. I can look at a situation and in my mind, it breaks down into its individual components. Very quickly, I can see how it fits together and how the different component inter-relate.
I was probably 40 before I realized that most people don’t think this way. I would struggle watching someone because they were doing something in a very difficult way. When I would get up the courage to ask them why they didn’t to it this other way. I often get a shocked look and a comment of” Well, I never thought of that.” Sometimes I would offend people but often we would just laugh at the moment.
Identify your Superpower
I think each of us has something we can do easily and with excellence. Something we feel energized to do and true to ourselves when we are done. Our superpower. Are you good at:
Music
Artistic Flair
Decorating
Cooking
Entertaining
Photography
Drawing
Writing
Creative Thinking
Jokes/humor
Foreign language
Money Management
Organization
Leadership
Teaching
Encourager
Planning
Events
Negotiating
Listening
Noticing
Perseverance
Intuition
Storytelling
Making friends
Empathy
Our culture tells us we should be good at everything. That we should be well rounded. That we should fix our weak areas and if we can’t fix them, then hide them. Don’t ever let them see you cry!
Well, that’s a lot of ‘shoulds’!!
I think we are better off maximizing our strengths. While we need to be aware of our weaknesses. It is often better to offset our weaknesses rather than to try and fix or eliminate them. By knowing our tendencies we can put systems in place to overcome them.
If you are a terrible speller then just be diligent about using spell check. This will be more efficient than spending hours trying to spell words that you do use regularly.
If you tend to lose your keys, rather than beating yourself up about it. Set up a system. I always put my keys in this pocket of my purse. Everytime. All the time.
Besides, it is so much more fun working with our talents and our strengths.
Get really good at what you enjoy doing.
If you enjoy writing, take a writing class. Write short stories. Learn the basics of copywriting. This can lead to a part time job that could replace your full-time job and give you flexibility with your schedule.
What do yo
u love to do? What do you enjoy that you would like to learn more about?
Combining a superpower with learned skills can skyrocket your success and enjoyment. An example of this is learning the skills of getting your writing published. this will take your enjoyment of writing and make it marketable.
Designing a life that you love is first about noticing what you love about yourself. Then deciding what you want more of. Doing something for yourself, just because it brings you joy is reason enough. You deserve this. Your family will be blessed by a mom who is excited about life.
So what are your superpowers? What are the things that bring you joy? I hope you can find a few minutes to indulge yourself this week. I would love to hear about your superpowers. Please post them in the comment section below. Your comments might just spark someone who thinks they don’t have a superpower to realize theirs. Let’s hear it!!
Keep Dreaming,
