Navigating a Whackadoodle World: Episode 20, or Have You Discovered Your Talents?
A Whackadoodle discussion in which my student thinks she is ready to plot her life's course without having uncovered her talents.
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“Okay, I have followed the directions in your last rule,” she informed me immediately after sitting down. “I have written a personal commission, which includes what I think is an accurate map, a full sail, a moral compass, a steady rudder, and a loyal crew. Now, I am ready to plot my course.” She threw me a challenging smile.
“So where do you want to get?” I asked, accepting her challenge. “What goals and objectives do you want to accomplish?”
“Well, I think I would like to be an influencer,” she admitted at last.
Influencer is not a career choice that I’d had when I was a kid, when phones were still stuck on the wall. I took a deep breath and asked her, “Can you explain to me exactly what an influencer is again?”
“I actually looked it up. It’s kind of confusing because they list two types of influencers.” She looked at her notes and read, “Influencer marketing (also known as influence marketing) is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, people and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field.”
“Okay, what’s the other type?”
“Well, it seems to be social influencers. They don’t just get people to buy products; they try to spark social change. Like the students who started the whole March for Our Lives Movement. They got all kinds of media attention after the Parkland school shooting, and they used that influence to start to really have an impact on how people felt. Some of them have even started a new non-profit called Leaders We Need to help more young people like me get into public service and politics.”
“Funny, when I was a kid, they called that kind of work community organizing, and activism.” I shrugged and added, “So which type of influencer do you aim to be?”
She spent a long time thinking. “Aren’t they kind of the same?” she asked eventually. “They both require people wanting to listen to you. They both require that people believe you. They both require that you can get people’s attention.”
“I guess the difference is what you want to say to those people listening to you, believing in you, and paying attention to you.”
“So, I have to decide what I want to say?”
“You’re young. You have time to think about it. What does your personal commission say?”
“Which part?”
“Maybe the part where you lay out your full sail, and the talents that keep you moving forward?”
“Talents,” she said uncertainly. “I’m still not sure what my talents are.”
“You know, I once taught a resume writing class. I presented the class with a list of over one-hundred action verbs to choose from in order to describe their talents. Communicating, demonstrating, motivating, investigating, cultivating, computing, analyzing, rescuing. Talents are the actions that you can do well, and that you more importantly love doing. Talents fill your sail as you move forward in life.”
“But I was ready to plan my course this week,” she said dismally, once she realized that her personal commission might still need some work.
“You can still plot a course, and tomorrow that course might change. In order to honor the power of vacuum, you just have to budget your time so that you are not living in waste, or urgency, or illusion.”
“That’s that Covey thing you mentioned in one of your articles. Where you divide your tasks into urgent, not urgent; important, not important.”
“Yes, it is,” I agreed. “The matrix helps people not get caught up in other people’s sand.” I looked her hard in the eyes and added. “So, what are you going to accomplish this week. What Measurable, Accountable, Specific, Timely, Exciting, and Realistic actions will you take this week to help you discover your talents?”
“You want me to MASTER a goal?”
“Heck yeah.”
Stared back into my eyes before saying, “I will look up those action verbs of your, and any others I can find, so that next week I can answer any of your questions.”
“Are you sure that goal was MASTERed?”
“Sure it is. I can measure my success. I am defiantly the one accountable for doing it. I think it is pretty specific, and I have more that week to do it, so it’s timely,” she paused. “I suppose it’s not that exciting?”
“And how realistic is to say, ‘I will look up those action verbs of your, and any others I can find, so that next week I can answer any of your questions’?”
“You’re nit-picking now,” she accused.
“Yes I am. It’s the only way I know to make you understand. You don’t know what questions I might ask next week. You will never be able to predict of my questions. Not a very realistic goal, is it? Learn to MASTER those goals, so you won’t ever disappoint yourself again. That’s the quickest way I know for people to stop believing in themselves.”
“So, what should have I said?”
“I can’t keep spoon feeding you the answers; I can only share with you some tactics that might help you navigate your future. And some point, you are going to have to trust your own talents to keep you moving forward. You want to be an influencer? Start reaching out to those that share your vision and ask how you can help. But first you need a vision.”