There are times in life when everyone thinks about what they are good at. You may want to know about the best skills to apply for a job or just to boost your confidence. Not knowing what someone is good at may lead to depression or self-doubt. You may also think that you are actually not good at anything, and you just have no talent
If you are not sure about your skills, you can follow some simple steps to find out. The best way to find what you are good at is to question yourself and other people who know you best.
In this article, I am going to talk about how to find out what you are good at in life. There are simple ways to find out your passion and skills. So, here are 21 simple ways to find out what you are good at in life.
21 Easy Ways to Find Out What You are Good at in Life
1. Ask Yourself
The first step to finding out what your skills are is to ask yourself. No one can tell you more than yourself. So, take time and observe yourself. Think about what you do better than the others. You may think these skills are not that important or outstanding. But you might be wrong.
These can be skills like doing calculations in a short time or making a budget every month for your household. Find out how long you take to complete these tasks. Being good at math and or analytical skills can help you secure a good job in the financial sector.
2. Ask people around you
If you are not sure about your judgment, ask people around you. They can be people who know for a while or have taken help from you. Your family members, relatives, friends, and even teachers can give insight about you. They are the ones who observe you daily. So, they can tell a lot about you.
Ask people what they think about you. What are your strengths and weaknesses according to their point of view? These opinions can let you know where you need to improve.
You can also ask them what they think you should take as a profession or in which sector you can do your best.
You will be amazed to know what other people think about you. However, make sure the people who are advising you are trustworthy and honest with you.
3. Take a test
Take a personality test. Personality tests can help you understand your potentiality and strengths. An approved personality test will also suggest jobs and professions where you can succeed. These tests do not require much time and you can know about the skill which you did not know you have.
In many job interviews, applicants have to go through easements to find out what skills they have. These assessments are very reliable. When you learn something new about yourself from these tests, use the skill with something you already know.
For example, you find out that you are good at communications or influencing people. On the other hand, you are already good at writing. You can combine both of your skills and become a journalist. So, take a test and find out your hidden talent.
4. Look for similar patterns
When you are done with talking to others and self-analysis, look for similar patterns from the research.
Maybe many people have talked about similar characteristics that match your personality test. Combine both of these results and see what you get as your talent. When you find out your talent, you can apply for jobs suitable for you.
5. Use a journal
Keep a journal or a diary and write down your thoughts. Write about 5 things you think you are good at or you can do better than others. Then, make a plan and work on your talents. Sometimes all you need to improve yourself is a written plan. A visual representation of your thoughts can help you to find your talent.
For example, if you think you can be an excellent writer, start writing short stories in your journal. And you can also use a journal to make lists of skills you think you have.
During this process, you may face some obstacles.
Try to get over these problems. While you try to solve these problems, you may come across new ideas. You can also write down these new ideas which can aid you build new skills.
6. What is your natural talent?
Sometimes people are naturally gifted. You may have a friend who can do things without much practice or any practice at all. For example, some people have beautiful voices. Consequently, they can sing well. Ask yourself if you have any kind of natural talent. You may not think of them as talents at first because you use them unconsciously.
However, try to focus and pay attention. Maybe you can understand foreign languages better than the people around you. You might see that you know a lot of foreign words. This can be a talent as well. You might be natural at learning different languages comparatively faster than others.
7. Try something that you have never done
Sometimes people avoid doing things because they think they may not do it properly. But trying new activities can also help you find new talents. For example, you might think learning to play guitar is hard for you or you do not have the talent for it. So, you never tried.
What if you can be good at playing the guitar? All you need to do is start practicing guitar sincerely. It may surprise you when you see how good you would become. This brings to our next point.
8. Keep practicing
People often stop practicing new skills whenever they face problems while learning it. They may not have time for practicing or struggle to overcome a step. They get frustrated and quit. But if they keep practicing a skill and spend sufficient time on it, they can achieve the skill.
For instance, if you want to learn to draw, you have to keep drawing until you reach your desired result. Of course, some people are naturally talented in drawing and painting. However, even they need to practice. In your case, you may need to be persistent to learn the skill. Hence, commit to learn a new skill to improve your talent.
9. Analyze your greatest achievements
Think about your greatest achievements in life. Everyone has at least one thing they are proud of doing. These achievements can be from your academic or professional life. Maybe you have outstanding results, which mean you are good at studying or doing research. Or you were an excellent football player on your school team. So, consider being an athlete.
Again, you might have been a volunteer on various occasions and services in your academic life. You are kind and helpful to others. If you have these qualities, you can think about joining organizations that work for human welfare.
10. What are your hobbies?
Many people do not consider hobbies as serious skills. However, hobbies are actually a great source of understanding what you are good at. Observe what your favorite hobbies are and how long you spend doing these? Write down about your free time and you may find out about your talent.
For example, you are good at photography. You love capturing beautiful photos and you feel happy to spend time taking photographs. If you are really passionate about photography, you can take it as your main profession.
The same can be said about dancing. You might have been dancing and singing just for fun, but never thought it about a skill. So, your hobbies can tell you what you are good at too. Moreover, if you keep track of your hobbies in a journal, you can also publish them as blog posts on a website.
11. Look back into your childhood
Your childhood can be a source of finding out your forgotten talent. When people are young, they are more creative and optimistic. Unfortunately, with time, people forget about those talents or are discouraged to practice their talents in the future.
While you used to play with your friends in your childhood, you could have been a team player or you were the one who leads the group. As an adult, you can take inspiration from your childhood. Maybe you are still a team player or a great leader to handle projects in your office. These are impressive skills for working in the corporate world.
Besides, you might have been great at acting in your school plays. Then you can start pursuing acting again. Therefore, start digging into your past and rediscover yourself.
12. Can you be good at something you hate?
Let’s face it. Sometimes people have to do things in life which people actually hate a lot. However, it is also true that many of us become good at activities we hate. You might not be a people person, but you have to deal with many people in your workplace. This can also be considered as an exceptional skill in life.
Besides, suppose someone has to operate a machine in a factory which he or she does not like to work on. With patience and practice, the person can learn all about the machine although he or she still hates it. This could mean that the person is good at learning technical or mechanical skills.
13. What makes you feel empowered?
Track your energy while you do any activities from now on. Find out what makes you more energized and empowered. There are moments in our life when we feel easy and light while doing any job or activities. You might ignore it as a talent, but it can be beneficial for others.
For example, you might have been good at making people understand a difficult subject in your academic or personal life. While helping others to learn new things, you may feel good or energized.
You feel strong and empowered when you do things you are good at. So, look for things that make you feel good about yourself. Make a list of these activities and find out which skills help you to be good at these activities.
14. What compliments do you get?
People often get compliments from other people for their talents. Think about moments like this when you get positive compliments or comments from others. Although you might brush off these compliments thinking people are being nice, it actually might mean a lot.
For instance, you often help your friends to arrange surprise birthday parties. You handle the decorations and other arrangements. For this, your friends may compliment that you have an excellent sense of decorations. You should think about it and try your luck in event management.
15. Where do you spend your money?
Sometimes people spend their money on things they are passionate about. Their passion can tell a lot about their talents. You can open your account book and track where you have been spending your money. You might have been spending money on buying things that make you happy or buying supplies for activities you enjoy doing.
Maybe you have been buying stationeries like journals or buying art supplies. So, what can it say about your talent? What are you writing in your journal? You can start writing blogs taking inspiration from your journals. And if you are buying art supplies, it means you have a creative talent.
16. Get inspiration from others
Have you ever seen talented people and get jealous? Or you simply admire their talent and want to be as talented as them? It is okay to be jealous of others, but make sure it inspires you to do better. You can take advice from these creative and talented people to improve your skills.
If you love to read books of a certain writer, try to understand their writing techniques and combine them with your writing style. This process can make you even more skilled at writing.
17. Keep an open mind
If you want to find out your talent, you have to keep an open mind for learning new things. You might not have any noticeable talents right now, but you can gain new skills anytime in your life. You can also start being good at things that can help you to achieve your ultimate goal.
You might want to apply for the post of a manager, but you lack one or two skills required for applying for the post. To improve, start working on building up those skills. By doing so, you will acquire a new skill. So, always be open to learning new things.
18. Have you helped others?
You have definitely helped other people now and then. Maybe one of your family members needed to apply for a job, and they did not know how to do it.
You helped them to search for a job. This means you are good at job searching and you can help others to find suitable jobs. Therefore, you can apply for jobs that welcome this kind of talent.
19. What is your deepest desire?
Everyone has a dream to become something or do something. However, people get distracted from their dreams or start doubting themselves. Wanting to be something or doing most of the time originates from one’s interest or potentiality.
There might be a time when you wanted to be an actor, but at one point thought you do not have the talent for becoming an actor. However, you actually might have been talented in acting and now you just lack the confidence. So, think about your dream jobs and sharpen the skills you need to fulfill that dream.
20. Make time for learning new things
If you want to find out what you are good at and develop new skills in life, you have to spend a lot of time on that. No one can be successful without spending their time practicing.
For example, if someone wants to be an athlete, he has to practice running every day. In a study, it is said that people have to spend 10,000 hours to master a skill. When you see people succeeding in life, it means they have spent a lot of their time perfecting their skills.
Finding out what you are good at can also mean finding out new talents in life. And without spending time, you cannot be good at anything.
21. Never give up
Everyone is born with some sort of talent. But finding it is quite hard for some of us than others. But the trick to finding out where your talent lies is to keep at it and by never giving up.
Sure, at times it might seem pointless. But you have to keep engaging yourself in various things to find out what you can really do. Keep learning new skills and trying out various things until you come across something that resonates with you.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article has helped you on how to find out what you are good at in life. Try to follow these steps, and you will definitely discover your talents. The people around you, your surroundings, and your willingness to improve can bring out your potentiality.
Knowing what you are good at can make you feel more confident. Consequently, you can do better in both personal and professional life.
