What are talents anyway? A talent is the capacity to perform certain activities or process certain information in a way that is very easy, natural and most often times enjoyable to the person. A talented person is capable of doing something easier, faster, with less effort, and more naturally than most other people. Talents can be physical, mental or emotional or any combination of all three.

We are all born with God given talents. But these talents are different types, different degrees and different forms for different people No two people have the exact same talents at the same degrees. I believe this is true even with twins.

Once a person is born with talents, I believe that they will not be able to gain additional talents or alter the ones they have. I do not believe people can learn new talents in school, or acquire them from others.

People can however learn new skills to enhance their God given talents. Skill training is what basketball players with exceptional basketball talents learn and hone to become the excellent basketball players that their talents give them the capacity to become. This also holds true for artists, doctors, leaders, mathematicians, and the list goes on. People must learn the information and develop their specialized skills to take advantage of their talents. People with exceptional talents that do not study their fields and develop their skills are people with Potential, but no results.

People must discover their many different talents

However, when God gave us our talents at birth he did not give us another important ingredient. He did not give us a LIST of our different and unique talents. They are and remain a mystery to each of us. Every person must discover and learn their own unique God given talents. But how do people discover and define all of their talents? There are no formal methods, processes, or schools that are focused and capable of assisting people to discover their true talents. There are lots of different assessment tests and such that purport to reveal talents, but in truth they are very inaccurate, very general, and unfortunately very misleading. They frequently cause more harm than good.

Baseball teams compete to discover baseball talents

Baseball teams hire “Talent Scouts” to roam high schools and even younger leagues to observe and discover kids with the natural talents for baseball. These talent scouts have special observation skills and talents, a special motivation to seek the truth and clarity, and an ability to communicate the special talents they observe in others. They sign these youngsters to contracts and the teams have them play in developmental leagues to improve their baseball skills, baseball knowledge and baseball confidence through training and practice. Frequently, these players develop so well that they become the effective and productive baseball players they and the teams want them to become to create winning baseball teams. This system has been working very well for decades. Many youngsters have been brought into the baseball world to become very successful and happy players because a “scout” discovered them. Most players would probably not have pursued a baseball career without being discovered by a “scout.”

It is not easy for people to discover their own talents.

People are on the inside looking out. It is much easier for people to recognize and describe the talents of other people than themselves. But to truly discover the talents in others, a person must want to look for the talents in others, must have the awareness to recognize talents when they appear, must have the freedom of restraints to acknowledge different talents and degrees, must have the honesty to reveal the true talents, and the connection with the person to communicate openly without barriers what these talents are.

Engage your personal coach to discover your special talents

A talent discovery person must become a clear mirror to the other person. This is exactly what a personal coach does and the reason personal coaches work with their clients. The fastest, most accurate, most complete, and least costly way for people to uncover their many and varied talents is to engage their own personal coach. Personal coaches are trained, skilled and have the talents (I call this special talent “the gift of coaching”) to easily seek and discover the many talents of their clients and reveal them in a confidential and guilt free environment. Personal coaches are “Talent Scouts” who are not limited to any specific talent.

The greatest wasted resources on earth

Think about how many people go through their entire lives without discovering their talents and without putting them to great use for themselves and others. Also think about how many people are misled abut their true talents, and are even penalized because of their talents. The vast resources that exist in all of us are wasted unless people are able to not only discover and understand their own unique talents, but are able to develop the skills and knowledge to maximize their true potentials. It all starts with the discovery and understanding of our unique talents.

Examples of unique talents almost being wasted

Michael Jordan was cut from as a sophomore from his high school basketball team. Albert Einstein was required to repeat the fifth grade. Luckily for everyone, others recognized their talents and reflected them back to Michael and Albert so both could develop their remarkable talents to achieve unbelievable accomplishments later in life.

Discover and maximize your personal talents?

If you are not aware of all of your talents, consider engaging a personal coach to discover them so you to can develop the ones you want into remarkable adventures and accomplishments. Once you discover your many hidden talents you can employ them to create your “ideal income position.” This is the position where you get to go to play every day, because you love what you do, do what you love and are rewarded so well for the valuable results you produce.

The recent poor economic conditions have changed the landscape for where people would consider investing their money to receive secure, continuous, and profitable returns on their investment dollars.

Traditional investment opportunities look bleak

1. Real Estate has declined rapidly and is still in the downtrend.

2. The Stock Markets have all taken downward hits and are still very volatile and iffy.

3. The Commodities Markets have all risen to record highs and might still have some ways to go, but the risk reward for additional investments looks shaky.

4. Interest Bearing Accounts yield very low rates that are approaching levels below inflation.

As you can see these major investment areas are not providing the Return On Investment (ROI) and security that would give you enough confidence to attract your investment dollars.

Where is the best investment opportunity?

Where can you invest your money and obtain secure, continuous, and very profitable returns? The answer has been right there all along. The best place anyone can invest their money to reap the greatest ROI with the highest security and confidence is to invest in YOURSELF.

The greatest asset you will ever have is YOURSELF.

You are and will always be the most valuable and most productive asset you will ever have. When you invest in YOU and grow and improve as a person you cannot lose. Self-growth even in small levels brings considerable additional rewards and excellent returns on your self-growth investments. Think of the new opportunities and rewards that you receive when you graduate from High School and the greater levels you receive when you graduate from college. When you improve the core asset of yourself, it attracts more wealth, both financial and personal at much higher levels than the cost of the self-improvement investments. For example athletes receive rewards in recognition, power, fame, money, and adoration that are considerably greater in value and staying power than the amount they invested in increased sports coaching and training to increase their athletic skills and productivity. Medical professionals invest considerable time and effort in continued education and learning to improve their medical knowledge, shills and confidence. Their abilities to provide better and better medical solutions to their patients increase, and translate into more productive and lucrative practices.

Why risk all of your investment money in the less secure and less profitable investments of today? Carve out a portion of your investment dollars to invest in yourself now. The conditions could not be better, even though the economy appears to be declining. In fact, as others loose confidence, loose momentum, and loose interest as they scramble to protect their dwindling resources, you will stand out as you grow by investing in yourself. You will be improving yourself to move forward in the areas of your life that mean the most and you will be gaining momentum.

Possible ways you can invest in yourself to grow and improve as a person?

1. Invest in improving your health. There are all kinds of ways this can be done. Weight loss program. Exercise program. Take up an exercising sport. Eliminate unhealthy habits. Invest in activities you would enjoy that will also improve the health and conditioning of your body. Whatever you do or invest in to improve the overall health of your body will result in very valuable benefits to you in many ways. You will gain more energy, more stamina, more alertness, and more self-esteem. You will also reduce sickness down time, reduce the costs to repair your body through sickness and other body breakdowns, and you will reduce the mistakes you would make in every day decisions because you were not fully alert to think completely and clearly.

2. Invest in learning new information about subjects you like and can use to your benefit. Take classes, read books, research online information to gain more knowledge about languages, computer programs, financial information or whatever you feel will benefit you because you have become more knowledgeable. Pick subjects and information you want to learn and that you can use for personal growth.

Taking classes in subjects you have no interest in just to get grades for a degree will produce much less improvement in you, the asset you are investing in. You are spending time, effort, and money to cram information into your personal knowledge base, that you will most likely have little interest in and that you will probably forget and rarely use after you complete your exams. But if you earn a degree you might be able to use it to convince others you know something. And this could be a valuable document for marketing yourself.

3. Invest in a personal coach to accomplish any coachable goals you might have. A coachable goal is “a future place you want to be, that requires you to grow and improve as a person to achieve it.” By using a personal coach you will unravel the mystery of you by discovering what really drives you, motivates you, limits you and what is really important to you. You will dramatically increase your true knowledge and understanding of you. This is self-awareness. And self-awareness is considered the best form of self-improvement. You will also achieve your coachable goals to reach places you had previously thought to be out of reach. You get the best of both worlds. That is why the Return On Investment (ROI) for engaging a personal coach has proven to be so remarkably high over the years. One of many studies calculated the ROI of investing in a personal coach to exceed 500%. This looks real good when compared to the 2.5% in interest you might be able to get from an interest bearing account.

By using a personal coach to achieve your chosen coachable goals, you gain two huge rewards. Not only do you directly gain the remarkable benefits you receive from the coachable goals you select, which you will undoubtedly choose to be very valuable for you, but you will also gain the remarkable benefits of the self-awareness personal growth of YOU, which will produce even more valuable benefits.

It is your money! Invest your money wisely

You are the most valuable and beneficial asset you can ever invest in. I encourage you to pick any one or more of the different ways to invest in yourself and enjoy the remarkable personal, emotional, and financial rewards you will receive by improving YOU in any way.