Tag: talent

It’s a funny old thing ‘pride’ and the notion that pride is a sin, although designed to promote humility, isn’t helpful in today’s weary world. We need every ounce of grit and spit if we’re going to succeed in our Modern Career.

We need to know that we’re talented.

During the last month I worked with two clients who made the leap from being fed up and run down, to achieving great performance and increasing their happiness.

The secret is that as we talked and considered their tangible achievements they realised for themselves that they are talented people. (Not ‘were’ talented people… they still are talented).

Not boastful either. Just aware that the work they do requires skill and that success isn’t down to luck.

So, this week if you, or a colleague, does well and says ‘oh it was just luck’ stop and think.

It wasn’t luck. It was talent.

We all have real talent and once we admit this to ourselves we can really excel and have a good life. And because so many people don’t do this, we can zoom past them and get good jobs, or make a career change, or follow an ambition.

And I’ve done just that. My new radio show called ‘Business Life’ goes on air at 2pm UK time on Thursday 24th November.

I’ve been practicing hard with my co-host, Julie Bishop, and we have a pacey, fun, informative show that we and Future Radio are all really excited about. It mixes chat with music and a studio guest. (Volunteers take one pace forward). Our 60 minutes whooshes by and we love it.

And we started from knowing nothing about running the desks, producing content, working mics, timing ads and idents… the list goes on. We just had a love for radio and the knowledge that we’re determined, talented people. All the rest is just detail, waiting to be learned.

You can listen live either on 107.8FM in Norwich or through the magic of the worldwide interweb thingy.

And we promise not to play only 80’s music too! (We were told off for that when doing a demo. These young people have no respect!)

Enjoy your week… and enjoy your talent!

I’ve been working with a couple of people recently who had difficult decisions to make. What they both had in common was a desire to follow their talent and also a struggle to square that with the needs of other people.

In both cases they knew in their heart what they wanted to do and they had a small voice in their head holding them back saying:

‘Hang on… think about how the others will feel if you do this. Think about them first and put your ambition on hold.’

It’s normal to have doubts and it’s okay to wonder what the future holds.

And yet if you have talent and ambition it really is okay to follow it and see where it leads. That doesn’t make you ‘selfish’ it just means you’re putting your talents to use, which is an entirely different matter.

The cautious voices we hear are just there to encourage us to double check our thinking and make sure we know our heart.

In the pick and mix world of Modern Careers there are always opportunities waiting to be created and if you have a talent for something then you CAN follow your heart and engage your ambition to power you forwards.

Here are some questions to help you make progress:

1) How can I be resourceful and make a success of this?

2) Who do I know who can support me?

3) What do I have to let go of in order to create space to do this?

4) Who already uses their talent in a similar way… and what can I learn from them?

5) What am I going to be saying to myself when I’m retired and wishing I HAD followed my talent?

It’s okay to be talented and to follow your ambition.

It’s okay to put yourself first.

We can follow our heart and go for our dreams, because otherwise we’re just treading water and not living life.

I’m taking my own advice and this week am off to Future Radio to record a demo show with a friend, as the next step towards getting my own show. It’s going to be great fun and I’m looking forward to honing my ‘radio voice’ …and hopefully I’ll avoid all cliches, Pop-Pickers!