Sometimes we are stuck in life and look for answers to our deepest questions such as, what should I do next? What I want to do with life? Am I following correct path? etc.
Having such questions in mind is positive sign for success and growth in future. After all we truly start from these questions. This quote will define my words more clearly;
It’s not answer that enlightens, but the question.
Questions are vital to give clarity in life than answers. They makes us realize where we stand currently.
Confused and sometimes even terrified of such questions we head on to internet, elders, successful friends or read or listen to successful peoples for advice and we mostly end up draining our brain around these sentences: that initially switches our defensive mode (we want to ignore them)
- In order to succeed you must find your Passion.
- Develop a skill and master a specific area for success.
- Find your hidden talent and succeed.
To be very clear none of them is wrong statement each has its own sense, and depends on point of view.
Which is why this article is here, to give you more clear idea about these terminologies.
What is Skill?
Skill is anything that we can learn by consuming knowledge about it, something that we didn’t practice before (we have to start from scratch).
Most of the time we don’t find interest to learn a skill.
Example of skills- Programming, Mathematics, Swimming, Public Speaking, managing money, everything you can imagine of.
Identify a Skill
The ironical part in learning process of skill is you know that you are learning something but not aware of what is that? Unless you start to learn it with intent.
Learning process of a skill starts from level 0. You know nothing when you start.
A Skill need mental effort or push to master and keep learning. If you are pushing yourself through something it means you are learning a skill (you don’t feel to do it but you still do it).
Must Read: 8 Most Important Skills to Learn in Life At Any Cost
Learn Complex skills easily
Let’s categorize skills in two parts, Complex and Simple, Complex skills such as Programming, Digital Marketing, are tough to learn and may not excite us to learn. Such skills require extra mental effort.
Simple skills such as, spinning plate over finger, slow motion walking, etc. skills that require less mental effort.
To learn complex skills we must sub-categorize them and narrow them down to bring at level 0 and start there.
We need to come out of our mind, just thinking about learning a skill will not practically contribute anything. After categorizing take action and start from level 0.
We can soon find interest and excitement to learn a skill if we add feedback loop around it and observe small wins and pat ourselves on back.
Even after narrowing (sub-categorizing) a skill you don’t find interest, drop idea, and try new thing. Appreciate yourself that you found that this (skill) is not my passion.
What is Passion?
Dictionaries define passion as strong desire to do something but that’s not just it, this is half definition, of course not incorrect.
Complete definition is, something that excites us every time we do it practically.
Practically, because most of the time we find interest in things we never tried before, such as, watched a dance movie so want to be dancer, watched 8-Mile, want to Rap, watched Karate kid, next day ended up cracking bone, and infinity.
Identify your Passion
No. 1 Principle to find passion is, you have to keep looking for it by trying out different things, which means cracking bone was not a bad idea. (We can try more than one thing at a time)
People who claim to be living passionate life describe passion as something you find joy in doing and can do for long time without getting bored.
For passion we don’t start from level 0, we’re already practicing it (photography, speaking, etc.) and with time we realize, ohh, it’s amazing I love to do it.
There are hundreds of techniques that guides impressively to observe our passions and purpose. IKIGAI is considered to be best among them.
Interesting part about finding passion is, only we know whether we really love to do what we do.
We are already practicing and trying several things, only thing we need to do is to look at our usual day, reflect things we do, maybe any of them could be our passion.
Remember, we must not force us to find passion, it’s not a lost ring, indeed keep trying new things, eventually we’ll find our “ohh I love to do it”.
Advantage of Living a Passionate Life
You can have more than one passion, but to get something out of it you must stick to just one until you get what you desired, and later you can add another.
When you follow your passion;
- You get freedom to do what you love.
- You experience Peace
- Live a life with less stress.
- Don’t feel like slave.
- Your Self-Confidence is higher.
- You’re Proud of yourself.
Remember, that finding your passion is not end, of course you need to take action and keep doing what you love, sometimes you may even need to push yourself.
Remember, living passionately will add balance in life, not completely disappear unbalance. As Universal Philosophy says “There will always be ups and downs in life”. That’s reality accept it and embrace it.
Remember, choose your passion wisely, it should have ability to give you what you need, want or desire.
But keep adding good values and do what you love it may reduce friction and add more balance.
What does Talent mean?
Talent is a skill that you are gifted with.
Imagine yourself gifted with a skill and you are beast at it. With little practice you could master it. Talent word is overrated because unlike skill you don’t have to start form level 0, since you are already incredible at it.
But twist is, you don’t find it easily, after finding, it may not be as interesting and exciting as passion.
Most common examples of talent- Singing, Networking, Dance, Flash Like memory, etc.
Almost every narrowed skill you can think of can be a talent, talent do not need to sound fancy.
How to find Talent?
There are several techniques and tips to find talent, but most of them are just theoretical.
You got talent from nature and genes. Start there;
- Observe your previous successes.
- Ask you parents, about what you were good at in childhood.
- Most importantly, ask friends what they think you are good and bad at without judgement.
- Deep dive into yourself and ask yourself.
Perks and Shortcomings of Talent
Perks are, you’ll get genuine attention, peoples would seek you for advice, feedback or to connect. Because, you are master of specific skill.
You’ll be supported by society.
You’ll have ability to come up globally.
*To achieve these perks you don’t necessarily need to be talented, it’s just you’ll get advantage of time. And with skills and passion also you could live these perks.
Shortcoming is only that you might not find your talent interesting and exciting.
Conclusion
Skill, Passion and Talent are deep terminologies to understand, I tried my best to give you basic idea about them. Future blog posts will give you more in-depth knowledge about them.
You have to learn a Skill from scratch, Passion, is like game to you, you don’t get bored and love to do it, and Talent is gift, which you can use to make world a better place and more joyful surrounding.
Final Thoughts
Follow your passion most suggested three words from top leaders and success idols. I love passion, I am still figuring out mine (trying new things), I am also adding skills.
I don’t have good relationship with Talent, I can’t spend time figuring out what am I made for. Instead I would choose to keep on adding new skills because I believe I will find my passion.
But I will never ignore opportunity or feedback to look after whether I am gifted with some skill or not?
Let’s wrap this post with an actionable idea and a quote you must rethink on;
Ask your school or university friends (who spent most time with you) about what they think you are good and bad at, reminding them to be truthful, this could be quite awkward (in initial moments), but it will make your friends more open around you. This question could bring an incredible conversation, if not actual answer.
“When we work hard for something we don’t believe in, it’s called stress, when we work hard for something we believe in is called Passion”
Simon Sinek
Goodbye🙌