Most of us are raised to believe that we must fit in and adapt ourselves to the outside world to be useful and successful. But the truth is your greatest strength – and your biggest contribution – lies in who you already are!
That’s the premise of a fascinating and useful book I have recently been studying, titled “Unique Ability – Creating the Life You Want”. It is published by The Strategic Coach.
The Strategic Coach is a company that teaches successful entrepreneurs to create balance in their business and personal life, while at the same time, creating unprecedented results and rewards through their business activities. A core concept of the teachings of the Strategic Coach, is the concept that every person has a talent that they love to use that translates into activities that they do exceptionally well… a unique ability. Sounds simple enough. But don’t let the obvious simplicity of this idea dismiss its powerful and transformative effect on the results you will create when you operate from the core of your unique ability.
Unique Ability is a way of describing a powerful force that is at the very core of who you are as an individual. Every human being comes factory-equipped with this ability. It expresses itself in the world from the earliest ages of your development.
You are such a genius at this ability that you don’t even realize its importance because your mastery is so automatic, like breathing. As a result, most people do not experience the full rewards that come from developing and harnessing the power of their unique talents and pursue their passions wholeheartedly. However, the more you are able to clearly identify and consciously develop your life around your Unique Ability – the more freedom, happiness and success you will experience. And the world will be the beneficiary of this because of the value you will be adding to people. Talent fueled by passion, especially when directed from greater self-knowledge and focused on creating value, is a powerful creative force and an awesome personal resource.
Of course, your own discovery and mastery of Unique Ability is a life-long process. And it does not show up in a vacuum. It expresses itself throughout every area of your life. As you study the information in the book, you will become more aware of your good habits, the good things you “always” do. For example, one of my good habits is:
“I always” follow-through on my commitments.
Try it. Make a list of the good and useful things you always do. Then you begin to carefully evaluate your daily activities, the big and small things you do in your daily life. These are all methods of discovery to get you to a point where you can express with confidence (and in a simple sentence) what your Unique Ability really is.
From this awareness, you can evaluate which of your activities fall into four important categories: incompetent, competent, excellent, and Unique Ability. The big idea here is to spend your time engaged only in those activities you have identified as Unique Ability activities. Activities in which you have the capacity of superior skill, energy, passion and never-ending improvement. Those activities that bring you joy and fulfillment. And what of the other areas? Delegate them to others on your team whose Unique Ability is defined by the activities outside of your own. Now you have the recipe for building powerful teams of people pursuing common goals from the power of their respective Unique Abilities. Big time results will follow! Imagine if all the structures in our society were built in this manner.
In my own personal and professional life, I am in the process of reinvention and creation of a bigger future. This Unique Ability concept has been tremendously valuable for me to determine the areas where I can make quantum leaps in my progress.
So go to the Strategic Coach site and order the book. I read it through several times and then several times more!. Now I use the information as a handbook to keep me focused on daily activities that express my Unique Ability. There are also other tools available from the Strategic Coach that I recommend highly. You can check those out in the Resource section of the site. And make sure you subscribe to the Strategic Coach newsletter too.
