Unfair Advantages: Three Powerful Questions That Will Help You Uncover Your Strengths.
We all have plans, goals, ambitions, and dreams of things we would like to see come true. While it is true that we may not accomplish success in everything we set out to do, except you are with the proverbial Midas touch, learning how to improve our chances of success becomes critical. If you have two different paths that you can take to achieve your goals, with one path giving you a 90% chance of success and the other about 20% of success. Which path would you follow? I bet you will follow the first path where you have a higher probability of accomplishing your goals.
The same concept can be applied to virtually anything we do in life. When choosing a career, starting a business, or in the field of sport. We must follow the path where we are most likely to succeed. Let’s consider the field of sport in a moment. Lebron James, by all accounts, is a great basketball player who has excelled in playing the game he enjoys. Tom Brady, another sportsman, is one of the most decorated and accomplished football players in the NFL history. These two men are obviously great at what they do, they exploit their areas of strengths, and the result is that they are successful in their chosen games. If they swapped roles and James became a football player while Tom picked up a career as a basketball player, they would most likely not have the level of success that they both enjoy today. Therefore, the key to achieving success is to channel our energy and efforts toward areas that excite us and match our natural skills and abilities.
We all have our zones of geniuses, where we can, with some little practice, operate at our optimum performance, where we can thrive with little to no struggle, where our skills will be rewarded when we put in the necessary work. That area is where we have our “unfair advantages” when compared with others. Failure to play on our turf and capitalize on those areas where we have these undue advantages will only leave us scraping by without much to show for our efforts.
If you have a natural skill in writing, you are better suited to posting blogs and writing books. If your natural ability is to sing, you will do yourself a favor by focusing on composing and singing songs. If you have the talents to become a gymnast, you should use that advantage to hone your skills and rise to the top of your field. When we can identify the natural environment or areas where we can utilize our natural abilities, we would have used our “undue advantages” for our benefits.
The question now becomes, “How can I figure out those areas where the odds of success are in my favor? And the best way to do this is to understand your personality. What makes you — You? In this piece, I will share three questions that will help you narrow in on your strengths so that you can exploit your unfair advantages in your favor.
1. What are the activities that come naturally to you?
To me, writing is an activity that comes naturally. I found it easier to put my thoughts in written words, and as such, it is not difficult for me to write blog posts or publish books. For some, singing, painting, drawing, speaking, running, or playing some sports is almost like second nature. For someone with a talent for writing, it is easier and more productive to find ways to hone in on that natural skill by publishing articles or books. If this person decides to become a singer, a profession where he lacks skills and talents, he will most likely struggle and only achieve mediocre results. It is always advisable to identify your strength and improve on things that come naturally to you, to avoid the dissatisfaction and disappointment that you may experience for not accomplishing your goals.
2. What feels like fun to you, but work to others?
Every athlete goes through rigorous training and exercise before they can compete in any tournament. They spend hours practicing improving their skills, controlling their diet, and following specific routines to be in great shape during a competition. It will be extremely hard to hear a professional athlete say that he hates his profession. They love playing games, and they understand that they must continue to train to become better. It’s fun for them to practicing and playing the game they love. If you ask someone that does not have any flair for a sport to go through the same routine as an athlete, you will most likely get a pushback, and if you can force them, they will only do so reluctantly. We all have things that we enjoy; it is by focusing on those things and finding ways to do them productively and to the benefit of others that we can find true success.
3. Where do you get a higher return than the average person?
It’s true that some people are multi-talented. It is not uncommon to find someone that can stand in front of the crowd to give an inspirational and engaging speech to the audience, and the same individual will write a best-selling book about personal finance management. This is someone that is multi-talented. However, such an individual will most likely know his core strength. He may find it more relaxing and pleasurable to write than standing in front of the crowd. Perhaps, he makes more money from his books than his speaking gigs; if that’s the case, being an author is where he derived greater return on his talents. If you have multiple skills, you need to establish where you derive the greatest return and exploit that specific area so you can fully utilize your unfair advantages.
By effectively answering these questions, you will discover your areas of strengths, and by capitalizing on those strengths, you will be playing in your domain, thereby improving your chances of success. Every human being has their areas of strengths, many people wander through life without discovering those strengths, and the result is that they won’t accomplish any meaningful thing. In most cases, once you identify your strengths, you need to know commit time to practice and get better so that you can stand out among the crowd.