How do I figure out what I'm actually good at?
Efri · 1 min readThe difficult part of identifying your strengths is that your strongest abilities often feel ordinary from inside your own head.
Look for evidence instead of asking yourself to produce a flattering list
Look for evidence instead of asking yourself to produce a flattering list. What do people repeatedly ask you for help with? What kinds of problems do you get pulled into? What have managers, friends or clients thanked you for?
What feels unusually easy to you but seems difficult for other people?
Then separate three things that often get mixed together: what you are good at, what you enjoy, and what the market values. A strength can exist in only one of those circles. The best professional direction often sits where several overlap.
A useful prompt is:
“Create a strengths quiz for me that explores both my personal and professional life.
Ask me one question at a time about situations where people rely on me, work that feels easy, problems I enjoy solving, compliments I dismiss, tasks that energize or drain me, and moments I have performed unusually well.
At the end, identify recurring strengths and give me evidence from my own answers.”
The point is not to discover a magical hidden talent. It is to notice patterns you have been treating as normal because they belong to you.