I was forwarded an email that was a forward of an email, that was forwarded from Dan Sullivan. All credit for the process that you are about to learn goes to Mr. Sullivan. Of course, that is unless he forwarded the email from someone else. Then the credit goes to that guy.
Here is my summary: We all have talents, yet few of us have the talent of determining what our talent is. And even fewer of us leverage our talents. The reason is, a talent is something that comes naturally. No effort is required. Therefore we think, “Eh, it is nothing special… anyone can do it.” That is not the case of course, but the ease of performing our talents leads us to conclude that it would come easy to anyone, otherwise it would not be so simple.
So the process of finding your talents is to seek out what is easy and effortless. And you do that by following these steps that I summarized from Dan Sullivan:
1. For the next seven days, write down everything that you do during the day. Make sure to note every detail (except using the bathroom). Write down the emails you send, the calls you make, the proposals you write, the clients you chit-chat up, and the meetings you run.
2. Over the course of these seven days, you will have compiled a list of (likely) up to 50 things that you do for your business. Break these items into the following four categories:
Below Average – The tasks that you are below average at; The things that take all your energy to complete, and you still mess up.
Average – The tasks you don’t have a particular talent at, yet you can still keep-up with others.
Excellent – Tasks that you excel at, however, are not inspired to do them.
Super Talent – These are tasks that you both excel at and feel inspired to perform. This is the type of task that you would never stop doing, even if you couldn’t make a penny doing it. This is the work that’s not work, its pure joy.
3. Immediately delegate your “Below Average” and “Average” activities, and quadruple your work in your “Super Talent.” If you have no one to delegate your Average (and lower) activities to. . . hire or contract someone immediately. By focusing on your Super Talents, you are more than likely to generate the revenue to cover that person’s salary, and take home a nice profit… all while doing what you love.
Stop doing Below Average and Average work. Do your what you’re Super Talented at. The world is starving for your talents (and willing to pay good money for it).