That’s a simple enough question, but can you truthfully answer?  Our first reaction is to reflect on why or who is asking the question.  I’m certainly going to tell my boss something entirely different than my wife!!  An my best friend or casual aquaintance may have separate answers also.

What I’m trying to say here is that we spend our lives playing to our audience, rather than ourselves.  There are probably many correct answers to what you are good at, and each audience gets a truthful answer, but we are not giving the internal answer, which is the one that gives us motivation.

How I fit into your plan has nothing at all to do with what my plan is and how I am going to make it work.

So lets talk about what YOU think YOU are good at.  How on earth do we answer that without reference to those around us.  Is it my hobbies, or the way I work?  Maybe it’s what I do better than anyone else.  Or could it possibly be what my family has always said about me.

Do you hear the self doubt creaping in?  When we look at ourselves, we want, almost need someone elses opinion to validate our own position.

Are you thinking yet?

Ok – let’s focus for just a minute, because the topic is so broad.  What are the 4 pillars that we’ve heard since our youth.  I’m no psycologist, but physical, spritual, emotional, intellectual are what pop into my head.  Can you look at each of these and find a ‘good at’ in each?

Nope – that’s challenging also?  Ok – let’s try Work/Play or Family/Friends.

The bottom line is that just about any key word that I write down is going to trigger thoughts in your head on both the I’m good and I’m not so good category.  It’s the focused thinking your after and interspection generated by that same thinking.  So take those thoughts, record them in some fashion and start discovering how many things you do that you truly are good at.

We don’t give ourselves enough internal credit for our abilities and that holds us back.  Take 20 minutes, even 10, and write down all the little things that pop into your head.  The list goes wild as your focuse changes from things your good at to things you like to things you want to do.  Your brain goes wild as it imagines possibility and forgets limitations.

Have fun with it and let me know how your 10 minutes went.