Everybody’s got talent

Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.
Aristotle

Have you ever wondered what your talents are and/or if you have a vocation? I’m really curious if other people know their talents and if they do, whether they found where their talents cross the needs of the world. How do you know your talents and how do you know you found your vocation? Do you just know?

I’m still looking for my talents, let alone my vocation. Due to some limiting beliefs that are not totally gone yet, I still feel as if I don’t have talents. Or at least, I don’t consider it to be talents. Yes, getting those limiting beliefs out of my system is still quite a challenge for me.
Despite that, ever since my NLP practitioner training I have this feeling that I want to help people and to inspire them. Yeahhhh…that narrows it down, doesn’t it? Depending on your interpretation of helping people, there are, I don’t know how many ways to “help” people. For a while I have been thinking about coaching people. Like I said, there are still some limiting beliefs I need to deal with, apart from that, at the moment my health requires my attention more.

So what is talent? The dictionary says: natural aptitude or skill. Limiting belief says: no natural aptitude for anything; skills? The only thing I think I’m really good at is reading; not sure what need of the world that would cross. Ergo, no talents.

And then, there’s good old Ego. Remember Ego? Ego needs to be needed, to be heard. Not to help others, just to feel good about itself, that it’s needed by others. Ego wants to be special and do incredibly awesome stuff. Not like becoming a movie star or something, but like being a really, really smart person who knows what other people need and gives wise advice. Actually, that’s the kind of person Ego needs, it just doesn’t realize it (yet) 🙂 .

Back to my talents. Ego wants me to think big as in: ready to join the Olympics; and I realize I have to think small, everyday life. Like: taking care of my family, reading, writing, crafting, being kind to others and reflecting on myself. And maybe instead of trying to help others, I need to help myself (first). And that’s what writing this blog does for me. It helps me sort out my thoughts and reflect on myself, even though it isn’t always pretty. And, if along the way it may help others as well, that’s a nice side effect.

I don’t know if this feeling of wanting to help others could be a vocation. I realize it could very well just be Ego who needs to be needed. Ego wants to go viral so everyone can enjoy it’s supposedly wise words. Told you it isn’t pretty 🙁 . Ego is very, very persistent and I really need to let go of Ego. Anyone know a good way to have Ego shut it’s big mouth? Would make life so much easier.

I believe everybody has their own talents, even if we don’t always perceive it that way. This world is so focused on money, looks and success that it can be hard to see that smaller things can be talents as well and that those talents are needed by ourselves and the people around us. And maybe my vocation is to help myself so I can be a caring and loving wife, mother and friend. I don’t know, I still haven’t figured out how one knows their vocation. Suggestions are welcome.