Raw Talent
by Erec Lindberg
http://www.ereclindberg.com 

Raw talent is one of our largest untapped resources. Everyone has raw talent: abilities and interests that remain undeveloped and unexpressed. By discovering-or rediscovering-your unused raw talents, you can bring more balance to your life, revive a job or lifestyle that has grown unsatisfying, or develop a new engine of income.

Many people stop developing their raw talent once they become embedded in the workforce. Mistake! In today's job market, we have to be flexible, ready to move to new areas, within a company or outside of it. Also, people are demanding higher levels of fulfillment, which requires investment of personal and career growth. Or perhaps the career you thought you wanted-or were told you wanted-is no longer for you. This is where your raw talent can be your strongest asset.

Let your preferences lead you. We all excel at what arouses our interest or passion. The energy you feel when yelling for your favorite team can be focused into commitment to developing an area of raw talent.

Revive past interests, such as hang gliding, a daily walk at sunset with your partner, painting, or writing. Nurture underused skills, such as public speaking, animal breeding, mentoring, or a flair for research. Keep in mind the raw talent that you begin with may lead you to the raw talent you really want to build on. You have to start somewhere. Another indication of raw talent is hearing others talk about some activity and wishing you could try it. You can! Be honest with yourself. Ask yourself where you will be in ten years, if you stay with the same job. Look around at co-workers who have already achieved those ten years-do they seem happy? Finally, would you advise younger people you care about to follow your exact life?

If the answers are negative, you may be ready to make new choices. Think of the feelings of freedom and possibility you had at college graduation. Think what it would be like to again experience that excitement, learning, and growth.

Just an hour a day can do it. Add just one hour per day pursuing a talent or interest you currently ignore. Enjoyable in itself, this time can improve your attitude all day long. Developing your awareness of what attracts you and spending time with these activities can also help you understand what you want in other areas of life.

Daily structure keeps you moving forward. There are many ways to add structure: keep a daily log, join a self-help group, find a mentor or role model, or read motivational books. Structure is what life-coaching is all about, helping to pull you forward when you are not strong or disciplined enough on your own. Invest in yourself and in your raw talent; I use the rule of spending up to 10% of my income to invest in my career and personal self-development.

Weekly goals make you show up. Weekly goals bring instant results that add up quickly over a period of months. Yes, many times I wait until the end of the week to dig in, and sometimes I don't fully meet my weekly goals, but even that is more than I would have done had I not made the commitment.

Develop your insights. Insights can open up all areas of your life, from what you wear to whom you love. Learning to act on these insights produces self-awareness, a major part of designing the lives we want to live. Combining our insights and our raw talents with actions can bring experiences that we have only observed or read about.

Clear out tolerations and distractions. Two basic problems can interfere with our progress. Tolerations are those things we no longer enjoy, but which we put up with out of habit, fear, or not wanting to make waves. As a coach, I help clients clear out these bottlenecks in three areas: living space, personal life, and career.

Once you are no longer dragged down by what you have been tolerating, you have time and energy to develop raw talent. Distractions are usually genuinely enjoyable, but still interfere with what is even more important to us. Not everyone needs to throw out their TV, as I did, but you do need to honestly face what is distracting you from living the life you want to live.

Which makes more sense: wasting time and money to distract yourself from your dissatisfaction, or investing in your own raw talent, building a life you are satisfied with?

Erec Lindberg is a noted personal and entrepreneurial coach whose compassion and enthusiasm helps his clients turn their raw talent into developed success. He has helped to motivate people from all walks of life toward their personal goals and fulfillment of their dreams. To change your life and begin walking toward your own desires visit www.ErecLindberg.com now!