7th January 2024, 8:48 PM
(7th January 2024, 3:24 PM)tbbm Wrote: I'm not so sure about "natural" gifts/talents I have. Many skills can be attributed to one's upbringing or environment. Encouragement is a motivator for people to dedicate more time to a skill, which leads to improvement. Having access to people or resources which answer your questions is also important. I can source nearly all of my "gifts" to some external motivator. I care about results and opinions more than the process itself—I'll dedicate more time and effort into projects if others enjoy what I make. Others have different motivators. 10% luck, 20% skill, 15% concentrated power of will. 5% pleasure, 50% pain. And 100% reason to be pedantic about what natural means.
Explaining your skills, and confidence in yourself, are also "skills" themselves. Valuable ones, at that—at least in hiring processes which aren't 100% merit-based, which means most of them. This line of thinking can be seen as selfish or cocky, which I'd imagine leads to a disparity in how much people develop these skills.
I hope you're not undervaluing having a diverse set of interests. They expose you to a variety of ideas and communities and help develop interconnected skillsets (some of which may not be obvious). You're also introducing yourself to new opportunities to use these developed skills regularly (if you find fulfillment in not sucking at something). I find exploring diverse interests fulfilling, even if I consider myself amateur-ish regarding my hobbies. I've never regretted dedicating time to a hobby even if I'm not proud of my results. There's more than just personal benefits, too—others will appreciate when you share your knowledge, even if it's what you may consider "surface level".
To answer the thread (sort of), using the skills I developed to create things others enjoy or find helpful. I'm not particularly great at these individual skills, but I've found niches where my "amateur" skills I've developed (e.g. programming, art) have strengthened or even created communities—which motivates me to strengthen these skills further.
I will say this: surrounding yourself with intelligent, like-minded people will not only bring out the best in you, but also allow them to point out gifts or talents that you unknowingly possess. God has given every human being some sort of gift that they might not even know about because they haven't reached their full potential. I'm sure you have gifts and talents where you can accomplish things (that others can't) that would end up in the Guinness book of World Records.
On the other hand, I will agree with you that networking and resources is significant because it's a great opportunity to share your skills with people. When it comes to gifts, you just need to tap into your full potential (a lot of people haven't even done that, yet). But, it's never too late!
What kind of projects do you work on for a living?
