Mastering Your Gifts and Talents - Part 1

One of the things I love most about life is that each and every person is unique, we are all born with different gifts and talents and our experiences in life along with our education further helps develop this uniqueness. What excites me about this is that if we all have a natural talent then that means all of us have something we can be great at! I'lll let that sink in for a while...

The people who are enjoying themselves the most, the people who are making serious money out there are the people who are great at something, look around you, there are examples everywhere. Some of us look at these people and can't help but be jealous, some look at them and are happy that some people have actually managed to make a success of their lives, the group that benefits the most are those who look at successful people and think "if they can do it, so can I! What can I learn from this success story? what must I change in my own life to achieve the results that they are getting?"

The biggest challenge we face in this regard is that the world we live in puts more value on education and the acquisition of skills than on the mastery of our personal gifts and talents. So in all likelihood you are stuck in a job you have no passion for because you are not using your gifts and talents. Trust me when I say you are not alone, this is a problem worldwide. Let me qualify my statement, an international research company called Gallup has been doing research on employee job satisfaction across the globe for years, I came across their 2013 report and it revealed that overall, only 13% of workers are "engaged" meaning they:

• feel engaged by their jobs,  
• feel a sense of passion for their work,
• have a deep connection to their employer,
• spend their days driving innovation and moving their company forward. 

63% are “not engaged,” meaning they:

• are unhappy but not drastically so,
• they’re checked out, they sleepwalk through their days at work watching the clock for knock-off time,
• put little energy into their work doing just enough not to get fired. 

24% are "actively disengaged" meaning:

• they pretty much hate their jobs,
• add no value to their jobs,
• deep down hope to get fired so they can have an excuse to leave without resigning,
• always cause drama by acting out and undermine what their coworkers accomplish.

The last two categories added up means 87% of workers worldwide are not happy with where they work! That is messed up, it actually explains why in most cases one receives such poor customer service. The above makes it clear that not only are the majority of people stuck in jobs they don't want to be in but they are also getting paid peanuts to stay there! Who in their right mind would agree to such a deal? The answer is you and me, we agree because the world teaches us that this is the way things are done and so we neglect our gifts and talents to go work at jobs we hate only to be paid peanuts at the end of the month...its time to change the direction of your life. 

Be on the look out for Part 2 of this series where I will be sharing more insights on Mastering your Gifts and Talents.