Team Alpha 375

Finding and Using your Unique Abilities

By Craig Ballantyne

Have you ever found yourself working on something you enjoy only to look up at the clock and be shocked to see that an hour, two hours, or even longer has passed?

If so, then you might have stumbled upon to your unique ability. This is something that you can do better than everyone else and often with greater ease, as well. Plus, it's something that you love to do it. And today, we're going to show you how to turn your unique ability into the secret ingredient in your success formula.

When you are looking to start out in business, you need to 'get to know yourself'. After all, you are, for the first time, relying on nobody but yourself for your income. You won't have an employer to give you the security of a paycheck for turning up on time and doing what you are told.

But that's good news.

As an entrepreneur, there will be no appraisal system, other than what you apply to your own work. It is down to you to know your strengths and weaknesses, and down to you to play on the good and improve on the bad.

Let's take a look at how important it is to know your ultimate strengths – unique abilities, and how you can identify and use them.

Some people have a natural sense of where their key talents lie, and what they can do or offer that is special, unique even. For others, it can be a surprise to learn that they even have unique abilities, let alone what they are. This is because so often, we don't notice that the things that come naturally or easily to us, or which we've been doing for a very long time, are actually difficult for other people, or valuable in business.

Just as it is important to know the selling points of what you are offering, it is important to know what your own key strengths are so you can optimize everything you do.

Whatever it is for you, there's got to be something that first of all you're better at than most people, that your experience has helped you become even better at and really polish your skills in, and that you really, really enjoy.

When you think about all that stuff, that's what you want to use to get into your Internet business or your side business or your passion business. By doing this you will not only help your chances of success, but you will also find that you really can have a business that you love doing and that makes you money.

Start your "unique ability search" by thinking about what you're good at and what you do a lot, and what you have experience in. Next, narrow that down a little bit into what you have that is different from other people. Think outside of the box when it comes to experience, too. Work experience that you'd put on a résumé is far from being everything in business. Experience you may have in your family life can be just as useful, such as conflict resolution or leadership.

What is it that you really, really enjoy? What do you find most satisfying and rewarding in your professional life? I know a highly successful businessman who really, really enjoys strategic thinking. He loves identifying opportunity and identifying how he can capitalize on opportunity. How he can find a problem and solve it. That is what really gets him going when it comes to his working life, and so as a result he is brilliant at it. If you love a certain aspect of your work, whether it is networking, writing, creative planning, marketing, or just about anything, then you are likely to be strong in that area.

Finally, don't forget about what is it that gets you into the flow, as we discussed at the start of today's message. What is it that you can do for three hours and think, "Oh my goodness, I thought only 45 minutes had gone by."

If there's a thing that you do that gets you into what people call flow or "the zone", where you're operating at a great speed with amazing productivity and creativity, what is it? One of the key benefits of running your own business is that you can work when it's right for you, so if you have your best ideas late at night or write best first thing in the morning, you need to know this so you can work out a routine that gets the best out of your talents.

When seeking out your unique ability, remember that for a lot of people, it is often something that you dismiss as not being important, or not being that big of a deal.

If someone compliments you and says, "Hey, you're great with numbers. I've never seen anybody track these numbers and find hidden opportunities in them like you," this could be the identification of your unique ability. As ETR Publisher, Matt Smith, likes to tell our coaching clients, "The activity that you dismiss as being easy is probably your unique ability. People tend to discount the abilities that they are good at."

Think about positive feedback you've had in the past, or the things people come to you for in your personal life. Are you the person your friends get to check over their cover letters when they apply for jobs? Are you the person people go to if they don't understand how to do their taxes? Or are you a practical sort they ask for help if something breaks at home?

Chances are there is something your friends and contacts know you are the best at, that you think is nothing. So whatever it is, whether you have charisma that nobody else has, whether you're a great speaker, whether you're a great salesman, whatever you think is probably not a big deal, because you've been doing it for so long or because you had some natural talent with it, that's probably going to be your unique ability.

It is important to think about this, and appraise yourself as others see you in terms of what you can offer that others can't. The exercise will help you because when you get your unique ability then you focus on harnessing the power of it and you leverage your talents so that you get more done.

Once you've identified your unique ability, you need to protect and foster it just like you do with your magic time. In fact, you'll need to focus on your unique ability talents during your magic time to get maximum results.

You need to build your work and schedule around protecting your most important talents and time. Do this by delegating the stuff that gets in the way of you being able to spend time on your unique ability, and maximizing the time spent doing what you do best.