A Few Thoughts On Finding What You’re Good At
This article is a collection of thoughts about finding what you’re good at.
Most people make a couple of mistakes which can set them back a lifetime; they’ll not dedicate themselves to being good at a particular thing, or they’ll pick the wrong thing.
Really, as much as free will and other philosophical stuff may or may not exist, we’re biological beings and as such have biological quirks. Those are compounded by our unique psychological makeup.
Before we get complicated; what it essentially boils down to is that there’s no template for what’ll get you to a particular place. Your own personal quirks are going to account for 90% of your success or lack thereof at a skill.
Getting better at stuff is rarely complicated. It’s just a case of time and learning the right things. Most people complicate the process by picking skills which they have no aptitude for.
Let’s start the conversation with the two major mistakes people make.
Mistakes
What you think you’re good at might not be what you’re good at.
What you want to be good at might not be what you’re good at.
On their own, those two things account for a lot of bad decisions people make. Remember, a person has an aspirational self that can be completely different from their actual self.
Think about the kids who want to be sports stars, despite being of average build, or the guys who look at themselves as “leaders of men” without the slightest amount of charisma.
I’m not a psychology professor, but needless to say – you don’t want to be one of those guys. If you are, then you’re wasting time.
We could talk about natural aptitude, nature versus nurture and all kinds of other things until we’re blue in the face, but “talent” really comes down to natural proclivity plus getting through the initial learning stages of a skill.
Let’s take the two examples above: Being a sportsperson and some leader – let’s say a politician.
If you want to be a sportsperson, then consider the following:
- Do you have a naturally athletic build?
- Are you willing to put hours into drilling skills?
- Are you young enough that all of that works on a timeline? (i.e. don’t think you’ll be an Olympian sprinter if you’re starting at forty years old)
- What about other tangible or intangible things that might be relevant? (teamwork, hand-eye co-ordination, proneness to injury?)
The reason you’d ask those questions are that if the answer to any of them is “no” then you’re probably not going to be successful. It’s more prudent to save time by not trying or setting lower targets.
How To Find Out What You’re Good At
If you want to find out what you’re good at, there are a few different approaches you could try:
- Ask someone neutral about your skills and talents.
I don’t recommend this. People are quite biased naturally, and that’s no knock on them. Their answers will be reflections of themselves.
- Try hundreds of things and honestly assess which stick.
This is the path I recommend. We don’t know what the future holds for us, but by working constantly at as many different things as we can, we can find out more about ourselves than if we spend one Saturday afternoon doing a single hobby and spending the rest of our weeks lazing in front of the TV.
Make a point to try 50 new things for a minimum of ten to twenty ours I the next year, and you’ll have a good idea of what you’re good at by the end of it.
- Pick the first thing you’re good at and run with it.
For instance, you might be great at math. Run with it. See where it takes you. Look for places in the real world to apply your mathematical skills. Even the tiniest, most mundane skill can be valuable and lead to weird places. I saw a guy not long ago who shaped willow plants into furniture as they grew. He charges four-to-five figures per item and has a multi-year waiting list.
- Think about stuff you’re naturally inclined towards – particularly in childhood.
Puberty messes human beings up. Kids have pretty unique and untargeted desires, but the minute those testosterone surges tell them IT’S TIME TO BREED they lose all that and tend to briefly narrow down into status-based desires.
If you’re really stuck for ideas, think about skills you had as a kid that seemed to come from nowhere.
Don’t Fixate On A Niche
I’m not sure I’ve made this clear above: Do not fixate on a niche. There’s a tendency to assume “I like sports, better be a pro-footballer” or the like. Don’t fall into this.
Your “skills” and “talents” or whatever you call them will be at once much narrower and much wider than a particular job description.
Kinetic learners can do much more than be athletes. (I wouldn’t know too much about this though; it’s totally not me.)
Your “skill” won’t be “writing songs” it’ll be something like creative synthesis. It won’t be “computer programming” as opposed to “systematic thinking.”
This is what I mean by narrower – there’ll be certain behaviours that come naturally to you. Cataloguing information. Creative problem solving. Calmness under pressure. Those things are unique talents and you’ve probably got many of them. They’re narrow because unlike what a careers adviser would say, they don’t apply to a job. Having a “Sense of justice” doesn’t mean you’ll be a good police officer.
Yet they’re also wide. Somebody with a sense of justice could easily be the next police commissioner or a dead-end rioter depending on how they use that skill. A person with an innate sense for organising information could develop that skill towards being an archivist or a spy. And a person with a natural talent for speaking could end up a priest or a president.
When it comes to finding what you’re good at, the last thing you think of should be what job could I get?
Final Thoughts
Let’s conclude this brief meandering.
- Most of your success is determined by your unique blend of skills and attributes
- Working against this will get you nowhere fast – or slow
- Avoid thinking about what you want and instead concentrate on what you are
- Find skills based on objective analysis of your performance in a range of things
- Once you have those skills, work full-pace at developing them
- Find applications of your skills, don’t think in terms of specific jobs or areas
If you follow those guidelines, you’re probably going to be excellent at a range of things in pretty short order. Finding where to invest your energy is the hardest part. Once you’ve found that, it’s plain-sailing from there.