A hypothetical was put to me recently – one that I’ve lived out in real life many times, incidentally. It went something like this:
You’re approached by a young man, just out of college. He’s been trying to determine his next move. “All my life,” he says, “my path has been laid out for me. But now, I’m trying to take the next step with purpose. First, I want to really understand what I’m naturally good at. What are my strengths? How do I even begin figuring this out?”
My response is today’s quick thought, a 2-minute listen, with transcript below:
I would tell him the main thing to do is relax. Don’t get stressed out.
People get too uptight as they try to apply the 6 tools to look for what their key attributes are. The fact is, your attributes are dripping out of your pores all the time. They’re obvious.
Sort of, just relax and listen to yourself for revelation – just like you would listen to another person. Start watching your own behaviors. Listen to your own words.
Think of yourself driving in to work all excited on one day and all not excited the other day. Well, the day that you were excited, what was it about? What kind of meeting was kicking off the day? What was the thing that lit you up as you thought about it?
Do a little self-analysis and just discover what that was. Chances are, it’s standing there right in front of you.
You go to a movie and you’re lit by a character. Why? What is it about the character? It’s not important whether you think, gee, I want to be like him or like her. The issue is not that. The issue is why? What is it about the character? What is it in the character that lights you up?
The key factor at all times is to look for the things that light you up, that make you sparkle, that impassion you, etc., as indicated in the tools.
And so, relaxing and just listening to yourself, you are revealing them to yourselves all the time. Just like other people are revealing their attributes to you.
Also, you should be very encouraged that you are choosing to do this.
You are choosing to do this at a very early age. You are choosing to do it early in your career. Some people are 58, 65, 70 years old before they even think about, “Gee, maybe I could have even done something my whole life that I really enjoyed.”
You are tuning into it early. Good for you!
So you can evaluate what is going on in your current job. And you are paying attention to it.
That’s a major accomplishment for somebody to be doing at a young age.
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