abilities | David M Masters

Your Special Abilities Could be Holding You Back

We are all born with special gifts and abilities. Some things just come more easily to you than your peers. You settle into a comfort zone of confidence about your innate skills, and you may even take them for granted, but your special abilities could be holding you back.

When a thing comes easily to you, it’s easy to just be aware that this is so and leave it at that.

If you are working with me or one of my contemporaries, there’s a good chance that you might be encouraged to focus on developing your innate skills even more.

Your first response might be, “But I’m already good at that.” And you might interject your desire to focus on developing other skills and abilities to augment your existing innate skills to maximize your efficacy, “I’d rather work on things that I’m not that good at.”

You have a point, and we will focus on some of those other areas, but not honing your special abilities prevents you from moving past the phases of competency and into mastery. Then, and only then, do your innate skills become superpowers.

This can make all the difference in your pursuit of achieving your highest and best and attaining your full potential in this life.

In the classes of ultimate high performance, those individuals who stand out far above the crowd in their ability to achieve unparalleled levels of achievement, they are said to be driven to excellence.

What does it mean to be driven to excellence?

Those who are driven to excellence are different from the rest of us because they approach life and honing their skills to a higher degree than the rest of us.

Top 4 Keys to Excellence

Determination
Persistence
Passion
Reverence

When applied to one’s innate skills and abilities, these four attributes separate the superstars in any given field from the rest of us.

To move to the level of mastery, you must not only be driven to excellence but also we willing to

Learn More

The best masters are also the best students of their craft. They are not content to be competent. They continually study their craft and desire to know more, never falling into the trap that they already know everything there is to know about a given thing.

Masters are also continually practicing their craft to keep that edge, never falling into complacency.

Masters are students, always open to learning more about their craft.

They do often find themselves teaching their craft to others, and report learning things that had gone unnoticed in their own training from experiencing the growth and advancement of their own students. Masters learn from students and others.

Unrelenting desire to achieve

Some masters are born to be masters, others have developed the skills to achieve mastery by the sweat of their brow, but in either case, there is an underlying compulsion to excel that supersedes the desire of their peers.

These are the masters of our day.

Will you be one of them?

Embrace Your Passion

You have a fire burning inside you; a desire to tell the world something of grave importance, an idea to present that will make the world a better place, you have no choice, and you either have to let it out or put it out.

Even as that fire burns, the less attention you pay to stoking the fire to keep it ablaze, the more it diminishes, and left to itself, it the flame will eventually burn out.

You might think that you’re not good enough, smart enough, educated enough, old enough, young enough, brave enough or worthy to take on such a project, for if you dared to utter that which burns inside you, and you were met with resistance, you would be crushed. Life has probably taught you that on already.

You’ve found a good enough place in life where you have a job, a place to live, some family and friends… Sure, things could be better, but on the other hand things could be so much worse and you think, “I’m not that bad.” And that’s what you settle for.
The media does a good job of giving yourself much worse circumstances to compare your plight to. When comparing to those who are much worse off, you feel somewhat better about eeking out your basic life which leads to nowhere.

Still, every once and a while, the urge to do something to make a great contribution to the world wells up inside you, and the more that it happens, the easier it gets to push it away, hide in under a bushel, ignore it, and it will go away.

Just disregard it as childish daydreaming. You were warned of that as a child, now you’re an adult, you have no time for such foolish ideals.

Yet, inside you remains a huge storage facility full of gifts, tools, talents and special abilities, which may pop up occasionally and shine for a brief moment while at work, in a crisis, or a special occasion. But this vast cache of treasure is otherwise underutilized or disregarded altogether; more childish foolishness.

You are okay with your job, but not satisfied. There is little pride in being basically just an assembly line worker or cog in the machine, or a sheep in the field. In fact, that drudgery is not only at work, but you find un-fulfillment all around you, at work, at home, in your community. It’s just the same ol’ same ol’, on and on, every day, ad infinitum.

Why not consider this?

The next time you have a free moment, create something, talk to someone about what deeply moves you, find a way to release some of that passion in your life.
If you look at your life, even if you have a full time job, you have excess hours that are spent idly. Why not turn this time into opportunities to express yourself and exercise your special gifts, talents and abilities?

These precious moments are your chance to stoke the fire in you about the things you are passionate about. Even if it feels awkward, at first, start with just a few minutes every day. And keep building on those minutes, until you get to an hour, a few hours, as many as 8 hours or more are just waiting for you to capture them, to achieve your highest and best, and make the world a better place.

You came to this planet with a message and a purpose. They will always be itching at your attention to be engaged in and released. Sure, you can bury them, like you have in the past, or you can bring them to life. What have you got to lose?

Embarrassment?

Okay, so you’re afraid of being embarrassed, ever been embarrassed before?

How bad was it? Did you live through it?

Compare that to answering this question: What if you’re successful?

What if you actually find fulfillment in your life, a sense of satisfaction, and how good it feels to do something good for the world that will help others in their lives, and possibly have an impact on the world looking for something better than the troubles, tragedies, fear, or sense of worthlessness they’re struggling with on a regular basis?

You have some fear. We all do.

Try this little personal exploration project. Make three lists. One list of all the things you are good at. The second list jot down all the things you like to do, activities and things that bring you joy. On the third list, delineate all the things that make you feel like you’ve accomplished something, give you a sense of meaning, value or purpose.

The things that appear on all three lists? These are the major clues to your calling, especially if they resonate with your hidden treasure chest of skills and abilities that your kept locked away.

Sound scary?

Okay, so what.

You’re only starting by dedicating five minutes a day, then when you feel comfortable with that, try 10 minutes, and keep going until you’re on your way to empowering yourself as a force for good in a world that need you, to hear your message, to feel your presence.

This is your time.

The time is now.

What Should I Do with My Life?

We all come to the point where life doesn’t seem to be all it was cracked up to be, so we find ourselves looking for a greater sense of meaning.

The easiest way to achieve some satisfaction and fulfillment in life, it to start doing the things that you were sent to this planet to do. What I mean is, there are certain gifts and abilities bestowed upon you at birth. These are the things – that when you do them – make you feel good, give you a feeling of a high degree of accomplishment and (quite frankly) you rock at this stuff!

Carve out some time to relax and ask yourself the 7 simple questions that follow, honestly jot down a list of items that come to mind after each one. Then review your notes and rate each one of your answers as to how much joy or satisfaction you feel about each activity or skill listed. Rate from 1 to 10, one being the least liked and 10 for bringing you the greatest amount of joy.

The tens account for your innate skills and abilities.

As soon as you’re able to determine what your gifts (superpowers) are begin integrating more of these things into your daily routine.

1. What are you good at?

What are those skills that you are particularly good at? These are the things that you do that may appear to be easy and certainly feel that way to you when you are engaged in them.

2. What do you like?

What gives you a sense of feeling good, joy of happiness when you are engaged in a particular activity? You enjoy certain things that you do that give you a sense of peace, calmness or make you happy.

3. When you were younger?

When you were younger, what did you enjoy doing the most. We often clearly recognize what resonates with us when we are young, but are reprogrammed by family or society to regard these ideas as folly when being programmed to grow into a “productive member of society.”

4. What do you do best?

There are some things you just do better than others. What are the activities – when you are engaged in them – where you shine?

5. What do other people think?

Friends, relatives, co-workers compliment you on specific skills. When was the last time someone said, “Wow. Good job.”? What did you do that compelled someone to notice and speak out about what you were doing?

6. What do you want?

What is that thing inside you that you’ve always wanted to do? Even if it’s remained your secret wish and you’ve never shared it with anyone, what was it?

7. What makes time disappear?

There are certain activities where time loses all relevance. You are focused on a particular activity and you’re so immersed, in tune and in a positive emotional and physiological state, that when you break state to look at the clock you’re amazed that an hour (or hours) has passed.

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