Personal talents: more than 20 tips to develop them

How can we put our latent talents to work?

Talent: a somewhat unknown concept. Throughout this article we will try to describe what talent is and show several strategies, techniques and habits to develop it.

Cases of wasted talent

• Johnis young and quite intelligent, but when he tries to become his own boss, he ends up ruined.
• Manuelhas two careers and multiple plans in life, but he has not been able to achieve any of them.
• AnnaAnna , a woman with an extraordinary talent for mathematics, but she is not aware of it, if she successfully passes the exams she understands that they were very easy, and not obtaining the highest qualification causes her serious frustration.
• PatriciaShe is a very diligent and professional woman in furniture design and photography, but she is the target of criticism from her relatives, which gives her the feeling that everything is in vain and that she is wasting her time.
• RobertoHe invests a lot of time in his activities, he has many recognitions, but he does not stand out because he is afraid to let others see the skills he possesses. In his inner self he does not feel he deserves any success and sabotaging himself he feels he has failed.
• JessicaJessica, when she constantly reveals herself, brings out her negative aspects: "the bad thing about myself is...". She is not able to realize the good things that fill her life, and always endlessly proclaiming the negative.

These are people who possess some talent, ability or skill, yet are unable to feel fully realized.

Personal talents: how to show them to the world?

Few personalities have existed or exist who have dared to show their innate talent and who have left their mark on history: in music Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartwho in his career left us more than 600 works.

The vast majority of us would like to possess a masterful talent.. In spite of everything, very few people have had gifts like these in the course of the whole history of the human being. It is very important to keep in mind that a person born with such a talent dies with it. The proof is that in December 1791, even on the last day of his existence, Mozart died, pen in hand, composing what would be his last piece of music, a Requiem (for the funeral mass), which was never finished.

But does everyone have talents?

Language is polysemous, which means that the same word has multiple meanings. The term talent is no exception, since it relates to a person's intellectual capacity or intelligence, to the ability to do something useful or beautiful. Likewise, talent is defined as the innate ability or capacity to Excel in one or more specific thematic areas or activities.. It is also described as the capacity to exercise a certain occupation in performing an activity.

It should be emphasized that we all have some capacity or ability that we can strengthen, the important thing is to discover them, be constant and work hard to obtain benefits.

Some talents are natural; others must be acquired through learning. There are things that we are simply incapable of doing. But We are all capable of improving in many capacities with training and enthusiasm..

However, talent in this polysemic sense of the language has meanings, such as: an intellectual capacity, something innate, an aptitude, even a strength. I will use the word generically to refer to a form of behavior that makes us improve our life or situation.

There are multiple ways to take advantage of personal talent. This proposal is only one of many options to discover, enhance and maintain it, it contains the following steps:

Multiple intelligences as a reference to know our talents.

Linking it with some of the multiple intelligences, knowing how to manage our emotional intelligence and orient our talents to specific goals.

The theory of multiple intelligences proposed by Howard Gardner teaches us that intelligence is not unitary, but that each person has more or less developed some types of intelligence. Thus, we are all potentially talented in some aspect of life, we all have something to contribute to the world if we manage to channel our talent through an activity in which we especially stand out.

How do we relate to our environment?

We make contact with the world through our five senses, we make "sense" of information and act accordingly. Then, there are clearly identified processes, one is the use of the organs in charge of the senses and the other is how the senses perceive and determine what reality means.

We use the senses externally to perceive the world, internally to represent the experience to ourselves..

Perception, neurons... talent through the lens of neuroscience.

The neurons that make up the chemical storm of the brain are interconnected and exchange information with each other, the environment influences us to learn and thought influences us in the way neurons are connected. In this amazing influence that we now know thanks to neuroscience, we need to use our connectome to acquire new skills or to further develop those we already have.

It is now proven that positive or negative thoughts not only change the reality we perceive internally or externally, but also part of the intertwining of wires. part of the intertwining of the wiring inside our brain.. Conectome is how the neuroscientist Sebastian Seung describes it, that is, the way in which the 100 billion neurons that make up the brain communicate and influence it, and can achieve the overwhelming number of one billion different connections. Then our experiences can change the connectome. The countless number of connections makes us materially unique people. That's why Seung says, "you are your connectome".

If we harbor deep-rooted behaviors, even negative ones that we believe we cannot change, it is true, because we repeat the same connectome with our thinking, with positive positive behaviors we do the same but we direct our learning to achieve more options, solutions and goals.

Are we all intelligent?

The history of intelligence goes back to the beginning of the last century, when as psychologists we oriented ourselves to measure all behavior. From these studies we derived the intelligence quotient (IQ) and the intelligence tests that measured it comprised different areas to find out what our intelligence was by means of a series of statistical points. They divided people into average or above-average or below-average intelligent people.. Often this gave the opportunity that someone evaluated in this way acquired a label that could be carried throughout his life, which is false because we can all develop skills or abilities regardless of the context of this evaluation.

We do not have only one computer in our head as the human connectome demonstrates, that is, there is not a single type of intelligence but several, some of them well identified in appearance and others to be developed. Howard Gardner states that intelligence is the capacity to put order in thoughts and coordinate them with actions****s. There are different types of intelligences that mark the potentialities with characteristic accents of each individual, in strengths and weaknesses.

Each person has different intelligences (visual-spatial, verbal or linguistic, logical-mathematical, kinesthetic-bodily, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, interpersonal, naturalistic) and cognitive abilities. These intelligences work together, but as semi-autonomous entities. Each person develops some more than others. Culture and segments of society place different emphases on them.

Possibly we have more than one ability or capacity, the challenge is to know ourselves better, since there are people who are excellent artists but who are not. There are people who are excellent artists but require someone to help them sell their talents, that is to say, they do not have a developed talent.In other words, they do not have developed interpersonal intelligence. Moreover, when we try to take advantage of our talents we incur in contradictions so that they do not come out, it is called cerebral modularity.

Another part that influences us is how we handle our emotions or Emotional Intelligence (EI).

Is it enough to know our hidden intelligence or do we also need emotional intelligence?

Having talents and skills is not enough to achieve success, and if we achieve it, emotionally the cost is very high.. Today, just as we exercise our muscles, we can do the same with our emotions. Being angry and acting without thinking can lead the most prepared person or the most capable intellectual to turn into a beast, in a dynamic that is called emotional hijacking.

Negative emotions block learning and prevent you from developing your talents.. If they persist more than advisable they even diminish your state of health, this principle is proven by the neuroendocrineimmunology.

Intelligence may not have the slightest importance when you are dominated by emotions. We really have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels. The goal of emotional intelligence is balance, not suppression.

If emotions are too muted they create apathy and distance; when they are uncontrolled, extreme and persistent, they become pathological. The mechanisms for balancing emotions; controlling impulsivity, enthusiasm, empathy, perseverance despite frustration, deferring gratifications and the capacity for self-motivation, since someone is not always behind us.

The most important thing is awareness and practice; the daily training of our skills.. It is not easy, but our connectome can be remade and that change of neuronal pathways once it is constituted becomes a habit of life. There are those who will not make it and will only get upset, they are stuck in the conflict (reproach frame). These people could use the saying: "genius and figure to the grave", as a sarcasm, of course.

Giving up who we are leaves us without identity, not developing skills or talents, leaves us without the possibility of feeling self-realized, we will not discover them if we are not bold. Given this perspective we will get nowhere if we do not set goals in life.

What does it take for us to achieve our goals?

To help you promote good habits and attitudes to develop your talents, we have put together more than 30 small tips for this purpose in the following paragraphs. in the following paragraphs. We hope you find them useful.

• CommitmentCommitment: without commitment there is no destiny and no fulfillment. Trying is no good, it requires planning and flexibility, and giving more than what is required of you.

• Divide goals into small goalsYou don't reach the top all at once, you have to climb little by little.

• Turn disadvantages into advantagesIf you are shy, look for a job that requires you to talk.

• Respond to disappointmentThe important thing is not what happens to you, but how you react to it.

• Get all the support you canYou can't get to the finish line alone.

• Surround yourself with like-minded like-minded people.

• Ask yourself and imagine what you would like to look like when you develop your talents.. To project is to begin to walk the path.

• Your thoughts are what determine your life.

• Have goalsShort, medium and long term goals.

• You are the architect of your futureBuild what you long for.

In conclusion...

• Self-knowledge is the basis for discovering and developing your talents..... The proposed strategy is simple but requires effort.

• Determine your representational system: visual, olfactory, auditory, sensory or sentimental.. Or a combination of one or the other.

• Your profession may be related to one of the multiple intelligences (visual-spatial, verbal or linguistic, logical-mathematical, kinesthetic-bodily, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal). It is best to take advantage of your representational system to accelerate the learning of new skills. Or take the opportunity to learn more about the topics you are passionate about by relating them to your multiple intelligences and your representational system.

• Learn to manage your emotionsNo talent will help you if you suffer from emotional hijacking, apathy and laziness.

• In the face of any difficulty, to develop your talents, set as a goal to think of at least three solutions on how to achieve it, put your talent to the test.put your talent to the test.

Developing your talents is not a one day thing, you need to be constant in order to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. If you want to get to where you have never been before, do what you have never done before. It matters a lot to meet with people with whom you share interests. Socialize and gather all the support you can!

A few more tips to enhance our talents

"There is only one small part of the universe that you will ever know for certain can be improved upon, and that part is you."

-Aldous Huxley

• We cannot choose the circumstances that have befallen us.But we can choose the way we react to them and adjust the emotions we feel to dampen their negative impact.

• You can't change a problem in the same environment in which it was generated.. Sometimes you have to do a 180 degree turnaround to change.

• Behaviors cannot be changed if they are not conscious..

• If we are not able to face our emotions we will not be able to develop our talents. our talents.

• If we control our emotions, this makes us more efficient in our multiple intelligences. and helps us to develop our talents to the maximum.

• As astronaut José Hernández says: "being perseverant is not enough, you need to be effective".. Perseverance is effective when it is accompanied by self-knowledge, focus, and a positive attitude," says Marianne Blancas, human resources consultant and executive coach.

• Learn to be optimisticThe optimist sees both the positive and negative sides, but decides to stay with the positive.