DIFFERENTIATING YOUR TALENT FROM YOUR SKILL AND PASSION

Few days back I was privileged to speak to some beautiful and intelligent women who are in the Omaje's  School of Purpose on how to identify their skills and their talents. I had to add passion to it too as it is often mistaken for talent. It was an interesting discussion and so I taught I should have it written down here so others can learn from it as well.

Success Oma Julius, head facilitator, Omaje's School of Purpose

The Omaje's School of Purpose is a school where young African ladies are taught on how to discover their purpose here on earth, understanding their uniqueness and skills, forgive their past and live the best of their lives. If you are interested and would like to join this school of purpose, then please kindly send an email to the head facilitator of the school through the email address queenomaje@jmail.com. 

As the class kicked off, we  started  by first defining skills and talents as well as differentiating our passion from our talents. So lets take a look at the definitions, their differences and how to Identify your skills from your talent and your passion. No doubt, these words are often interchanged for one another and often mistaken by so many people to mean the same thing. They might interrelate but they have their differences. Follow me as we take a look at them together below. 

• TALENT: Talent is a gift that we are born with and given to us from above by God. It is those  gifts we naturally exhibit without stress. They are gifts that come in naturally to us. Talents do not need prior experience or training. Talents are inborn. All that is needed for talent is recognition.

• SKILLS: Skills are abilities we acquire through training, experience and practice over time. our skills are learnt and developed over time. A skill is just like having a job after a series of interviews but before you begin the job despite being given an employment letter, you go through training to acquire the right skills for the job. Even after being in that office over time, you still go through training once in a while to either learn new skills for the job or being refreshed of your skills. sometimes, we here of skills acquisition, where people go to learn skills for different trades such as tailoring, farming and so on.  Most of these skills acquisitions are geared towards enabling the beneficiaries to learn a trade in order to be self sufficient. Training enables you to acquire, develop and master your skills.

• PASSION: Passion as a word is most often inter changed to mean talent as well. Passion is not talent but a feeling we develop for something or what we do. This feeling according Success Oma Juliius is not something tangible like talent. This feeling can fade with time from one thing to another. Passion only comes in play when we involve it in what we do. You can add passion to your skills as well as your talents. Developing passion for your skills or talent is what gives it the extraordinary touch.

What skill and talent have in common is development. For you to excel in your skill or talent, it needs to be developed while passion needs no external force or development but only from you. Passion kind of acts like a drive needed to push your skill and advance your talent further.

Recognizing your talent doesn't mean it needs no development. You still need to work on your talent just as you work on your skills. Don't rely on just having a talent but work hard to make your talent extraordinary and bringing it into full manifestation. In essence, do not be misled that your talent does not need development.

Having looked at what these terms mean, lets proceed to see their differences. A simple way at looking at the differences of these terms is looking at them from their origin. So we can say the difference between these terms is their origin. Hopefully the differences below will give us a clearer picture.

• Talent is a hidden potential that needs recognition from the individual involved while skill is acquired through training.

• Talent is natural while skill needs nurturing.

• In order for talent to be developed fully, it needs coaching while a skill needs training to be developed.

• Talent is intuitive. It is something we do without conscious efforts or thoughts. It is a constant behavior that is immediately applied and difficult to change or let go. The worst thing that can happen to our talents is lack of development. While skills are applied knowledge that we can easily let go and that is why we can opt from one job to another with different job descriptions because all we are doing is simply acquiring skills.

• Talent is who we are in the sense that it is inherent and inborn while skill is what we know through training and tutoring.

• All talent needs is coaching or mentoring to be fully developed but skills need training to be developed fully as well.

• Talent is thinking what you know how to do best but skill is doing what you have been thought to do.

• Talent is God given and skill developed.

• A major difference in skill and talent is hard work.  As I said earlier, you don't just sit and watch your talent thinking it would develop without putting in some work. Just as skill needs work to be developed so does talent. When it comes to skills, you hear of skills acquisition where individuals go to learn some skills while for talents you often hear of talent hunt like the popular American idol we all know about. American Idol is mostly based on seeking and developing talents and for these participants to make it to each round and to eventually win, they just need to put in some work into their talents. There is a saying that goes thus "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work add." Hard work and passion added to your talent serve as a drive. A person who has mastered his skill will do much more and go far in life than a person who doesn't work on his talent. A case study as provided by Success Oma Julius during the discussion was that of the story in Mathew 25:14-30 where three men where given talents. One five talents, the second two talents and the other one talent. Each were expected to work on their talents of which the first and the second did and multiplied their talents but the third person did nothing about his talent and as a result got no reward for his talent.

• Talent is a raw ability and skill a refined ability.

Now how do we identify our talents? We simply identify them by;

• Recognizing what comes off easily for us to do without stress. We just know this thing is in us. 

•  What people often say you are good at. Listen to people when they say often that you are good at a particular thing. Look inward to recognize that special ability and then work on it. People around us can help identify our talents.

• The things we often talk about. There is this particular thing you often talk about that you would like doing. Give it a try as it could be your talent.

• The things that put a smile on our faces and give us inner satisfaction when we do them. If you find yourself smiling always and having inner satisfaction when ever you do a particular thing, then it could be your talent.

The tips mentioned above are just a few given to help you identify your talent.

When you identify your talent, work on it so you can master it. You can do this through coaching or mentoring under people who have similar talents as you and same thing applies to your skills. Work hard on your skills by having constant training. Add or develop passion in what you do either in your skills or your talent to serve as a drive. Passion helps you go the extra mile.

No matter how little or insignificant you might think your talent is, never ignore it. Show case it, work on it and develop it. Your talent as given by God is a gift back to Him and a blessing to humanity.

Esther in the Bible serves as a case study in this month's edition of Omaje's School of Purpose themed " DISCOVERING THE VERY ESSENCE OF YOUR EXISTENCE "  Esther's talent was being selfless in her service to God and humanity. She was at first scared of showcasing herself but for Mordecai who helped her to identify her talent by saying to her " For if you remain silent at this time,  relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for a time as this." Esther 4:14

Esther became motivated after hearing what Mordecai said to her and was ready to give her life and at the end of the day she saved a nation and remained happily married to the king.

Your talent when discovered is not to be hidden or ignored. Do not keep quiet over it out of fear. People might criticise you and it might seem like no one is supporting you but keep pushing on because you do not know who you might end up helping or saving and you don't know who might be watching.

Proverbs 18:16 says " A man's gift (talent) maketh a way for him and brings him before great men."

We all have our individual gifts. No gift is too great and no gift is too small to showcase.

For your skills, the Bible says "  Seest thou a man diligent in his work? He shall stand before kings; He shall not stand before the mean men." Proverbs 22:29.

What ever your hands find to do, do it well with zeal and passion. You never know what mastering your skill can do for you and where it could take you to. Be diligent in your duty. It adds to your experience and can be of help or an added advantage for you in the nearest future.

Quote for the day -  "I believe that God has put gifts, talents and abilities on the inside of every one of us. When you develop that and believe in yourself and believe that you are a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation. " - Joel Osteen.

Share Your thoughts !