So many of you are searching for your purpose, trying to figure out where you truly perform at your best: what makes you, you? What is your uniqueness? What is your superpower?
Why should you care what your superpower is?
Why should you invest time in doing the work to discover your unique gift?
I believe that when you liberate and then express your superpower or your unique gift, it is the path to your ultimate success and your ultimate life satisfaction.
When you are in your sweet spot that is when you are making the most of your unique skills and gifts in an activity that is ideally suited to that uniqueness. When you are in your sweet spot you are performing activities that draw out your superpower and your uniqueness.
Some features of being in your sweet spot:
You are working, but it doesn't feel too much like hard work.
Often, it is something that feels relatively easy to you – you’ll notice people commenting, ‘Wow, this is easy for you, I find this really challenging!’
The amount of effort that you're putting in creates great abundance - proportionally, the time and effort that you're putting in produces a great abundance of positive outcomes and results for you and the people that you are working with and working for.
What does having a uniqueness or unique ability mean?
You, like everybody, have a special skill or an innate gift, which when put to use has an enormous benefit, not only on you, but on the world around you and the people you are working with and working for.
You have to look into the deep essence of who you really are to discover what gift you have been blessed with.
Your gift is your greatest contribution to the world and people around you. It is in fact the pinnacle skill of your working life - and of course, you can use it to great benefit in your non-working life.
Your unique gift is like those little Russian dolls you may have seen – they stack inside each other. Each time you open one, there is another inside. Your unique gift is a skill within a skill, within a skill.
So what do I mean by this? Your special, unique gift is usually something that's camouflaged inside a much more obvious gift or something that you already know that you're good at doing.
You may say: ‘I'm good at problem solving.’
I would challenge you and ask: ‘Which part of problem solving are you good at? What do you do and how do you do it that makes you good at problem solving? Which bit of that is actually bringing you joy, or which part is the bit you love most?’
Start with a wider question, zoom in, then dig deep.
An example:
You believe you are good at running meetings. Which bit of running a meeting are you best at? On reflection you feel it is the ability to direct conversation and move the meeting forwards. You then consider which part of that are you good at? Why are you so good at that?
You pinpoint it further: you can quickly read body language and facial expressions and have an innate sense about when it's time to either stay with a point or move a meeting forwards. You realize you enjoy this almost ‘sixth sense’ about when it’s time to change direction and move the conversation onto a different point. You realize your unique skill lies in the ability to read the room and make an assessment quickly to figure out how to direct conversation for maximal results. You then notice it is something you were good at from a young age.
So often these innate gifts are something that will have appeared early in your life. Something you may have developed perhaps as coping mechanism. Perhaps you learned it early on in life because it was important for you to survive.
Your unique ability or gift is usually something that you were good at from a young age that was also a benefit to others. A superpower!
Questions to find your superpower:
What sort of work doesn't really feel like work.
What sort of work does not leave be bored or distracted?
What sort of work can I do for long periods of time without completely switching off?
When am I most engaged and energized?
Proportionately, for the time and energy that you put in, where do you get the greatest outcome and abundance?
Consider the Russian doll analogy: what is my skill within a skill within a skill.
Once you understand your unique gift, think about how you bring it together with purpose.
What is purpose?
I've spoken before about passion and how trying to follow your passion can be problematic. Note that passion and purpose are different. Purpose is more about how you relate to other people.
Purpose is what you're here to share with the world, the impact, the significance, and the contribution you're making to others and the world around you.
Passion can come and go. Passion can be more excitable. Passion is more internal. It's more about what you enjoy and your emotions.
Purpose is more grounding. It's more outward. It is how you make an impact on others and the world around. It is the reason behind what we do. Purpose gives us a sense of direction, a sense of intention. It is the feeling and understanding that the activities that you are undertaking are contributing to something greater than yourself. That the contribution you're making is going somewhere.
I believe that the greatest tasks that we are here to do, is to share what we know and share our knowledge and skills and contribute to other people and the world around us.
When I went through my time of hunting for my purpose, I found it quite stressful because I couldn't figure out what the answers were. I realized that I was very focused on myself. It was all about me and my purpose. I eventually realized that it was not about me, it was about the impact that I could make on the world or other people around me.
I made a shift to go from ‘self’ to ‘service’ (to quote my business mentor, Rory Vaden).
I encourage you to do the same. Think about the contribution that you can make to others around you. Who do you want to serve? Who are you best placed to serve? How can you help them? What are the problems that these people are facing?
How do you bring together your unique gifts and purpose?
Purpose is when you are using that unique gift and that superpower in a way that not only serves you, but serves others for good, to make a positive impact on the lives of others or the world around.
How to find your purpose:
You don't stumble into your purpose. You build it.
It is a process of reflecting on your innate skills and gifts, your superpower, and how you use them to contribute to the world.
Questions to ask:
How will the world in some way be better off for your contribution?
What are your unique gifts and superpowers?
Who have you been when you are at your best?
Who must you fearlessly become?
Who are you best placed to serve? What problems are those people facing and what way can you help solve those?
If you are ready to finally figure out how to bring your uniqueness and superpower into your professional life, whether it's your career or your business, and find more purpose in what you do, then book your free call with me.
I offer group coaching, one-to-one coaching, courses, and programs all designed for high achievers like you to really amplify your excellence.
