Don’t lose sight of your uniqueness

At an industry event this morning, I heard a 17-year old girl talking about her love for writing. She said she recognized her talent for writing at an early age and decided to pursue it. She had already published a few books and was working on more.

My son started tinkering with robots since he was 8 years old. He designs and creates robots, programs them and then blogs about each creation. Kids today know their strengths and talents and are not afraid to pursue their passions. And most parents are willing to support and enable them.

However, how many of us adults still remember our earliest passions and interests? Each of us is unique and our uniqueness is not just defined by our looks, upbringing and exposure, but also by the unique strengths we possess. As kids, we knew what made us feel alive. But as we grow into careers and routines, we forget or ignore the passions that define us. Our lives tend to get so busy that we lose ourselves in the process.

I encourage you to think about your unique strength, passion or talent and revive it. All of us need a channel for our creativity, so make time to pursue it. The world will be better off if all of us leveraged our greatest strengths.

Let us take any profession. If you look at the number of software engineers today, do you really think all of them were born to code? A few decades ago, societal pressures and lack of opportunities prevented people from pursuing their passions. People did not have opportunities to carve professions out of their strengths. However, that is not the case in current times. Considering the sheer variety of options available today, why not pursue what you love?

There are people who pursue their passions alongside their professions. Several people pursue sports, gardening, creative arts and I know someone who attained a Black Belt in martial arts at the age of 40!

Here are a few suggestions on how to identify your strengths (if you don’t already know implicitly):

· Recollect what you enjoyed most as a kid — was it a particular sport or reading or art?

· Reflect on what makes you feel alive and makes you lose track of time. Usually, when we pursue our passions, we get completely absorbed in the task

· Think of what comes naturally to you, while others seem to struggle with the same thing

· Ponder on what you are known for — what your friends would say you are talented at

· Ask yourself a question: “If you had the liberty to do anything you wanted, what would you do?”

Once you have identified your unique strengths or passions, look at ways to integrate them with your life and profession. Find jobs that allow you to leverage your strengths and it will cease to feel like work anymore. If your strengths and talents lie in areas that do not coincide with your work directly, find alternate avenues to pursue your talents. If you are passionate about photography or art, you could always make time for these interests. And if you dedicate time to these interests on an ongoing basis, you will be able to create an impressive stack of your work. You could publish this on online forums and not only get recognition, but also carve out a profession if there is enough demand for your work. If what drives you is more of a hobby, pursue it nevertheless. Such interests tend to help us relax and rejuvenate. I love to read and travel and it lifts my spirits every time I indulge in these interests. Several online forums allow like-minded people with similar interests to discuss, share and network. This will give you added exposure and expand your network.

So, go ahead and do what you were meant to do. If you can find ways to make it add value to society, that’s even better. You would make the world richer by being your best self. It will work wonders on your self esteem and you will end up happier, content and full of life.

Let me sign off with a pertinent quote:

“Its never too late to be what you might have been” - George Eliot