Focus On What You Do Best

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, “I used everything you gave me.”

Erma Bombeck

I’ve Been Thinking. . . about my responsibility to develop my God-given abilities.

I love the story of the ninety-year-old man who, when asked if he knew how to play golf, responded that he didn’t know. “What do you mean, you don’t know?” he was asked. The man, with a wry grin on his face, replied, “I’ve never tried.”

Many of us have talents, abilities and gifts we’ve never fully developed. Others haven’t taken the time to identify their strengths and still others don’t have a clue what they can do because they’ve never tried.

Gallup, Inc., an international research and consulting company, studied 250,000 successful people and concluded that “the highest levels of personal achievement came when people matched their activities with their strengths.”

Author H. Jackson Brown Jr. quipped, “Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forwards, backwards, or sideway.” If you know you have talent, and you’ve seen a lot of motion – but little concrete results - you might benefit from an intense strengths focus.

Activity without productivity is often talent without disciplined application. Often times, people are so intent on improving their weakness, talent takes a back seat. Unless your weakness impedes your results or zaps your confidence, learn to manage rather than correct. Let the strength of your talents compensate for your weakness and make them irrelevant.

We have a responsibility to nurture our talents to become the best we can be so we are prepared for life’s opportunities. But how? How do I develop the necessary discipline to develop my natural abilities? Actually, it’s simpler than you might think.

First, determine what you are naturally good at. What activities tend to give you a natural high, peak your interest, or trip your trigger? Where do you enjoy investing yourself? What comes easily to you? What tasks are a no-brainer for you to accomplish?

Secondly, find a way to invest yourself enlarging your talents. Professionals understand the price to be paid to achieve impressive results. They practice, apply and refine their talent. Find paths to contributing your unique abilities to achieve what your organization needs you to do and produce uncommon results. How could you get involved in special projects that would highlight your strengths and allow you to contribute in a special way?

Follow the wisdom of basketball great Larry Bird. “A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses those skills to accomplish his goals.” This is a wonderful lead-in to our final step.

Finally, Act! Sitting on the sideline is unacceptable. What is holding you back? What keeps you from applying your God-given abilities? Face it head on. It is time to do what you were designed to do. Find a need and invest everything you have in making life better for someone else. Les Brown says, “You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.” Do it!

In his book, Just Like Jesus, Max Lucado tells about a wealthy woman who lived 100 years ago. She was extremely stingy with her money, so neighbors were shocked when she finally had her home wired for electricity. Weeks later, a meter reader noted very little usage, so he asked, “Are you using your power?”

“Certainly,” she replied. “Each evening I turn on my lights long enough to light my candles; then I turn them off.”

Are you using your power? Are you doing all God equipped you to do? Have you joined the anti-just-get-by league? Commit fully to the power that is in you. I love what Charles Swindoll says about having the discipline to apply ourselves. “When you do the most what you do the best,” he said, “you put a smile on God’s face. What could be better than that?”

Don’t paint stripes on your back if you’re not a zebra. Focus on building upon your unique abilities.

Lee J. Colan