Our competencies are not the same as our gifts.

I was recently reflecting on a season in my previous professional life as a transportation planner when I got stuck in a cycle of torture that I didn’t understand how to get out of. 

Our transportation team would regularly get weird traffic analysis requests from the Washington legislature. By weird, I mean that they didn’t have standard traffic analysis solutions. They required that we devise an approach. Quickly. 

Somehow I became the go-to person for these kinds of requests. I could always figure it out and create a high-quality report in response. Remember the old Life cereal commercials where they gave the healthy stuff to Mikey? That was me. Except unlike Mikey, I didn’t like it. Not one bit. 

But I got it done because someone asked me to. Because people had confidence in me. Because it created value. Because I was proud of the work and the recognition I received. 

However, behind the scenes, I was stuck in a cycle of torture that looked like anxiety-driven hours of work in which I spun around in my thinking, costing me hours of my life. Tears of frustration and overwhelm were not uncommon.

I kept at it, though. People were telling me that I was really good at it so it must be a reflection of my gifts. 

Right?

Wrong. 

I was good at it because I had developed a strong set of competencies — but our competencies are not the same thing as our gifts. 

I wish I had known that then. 

All of the signs that I was not doing work related to my true gifts or natural strengths were there: spinning, over-efforting, frustration, exhaustion, and tears. 

That's not what it feels like when we work in ways that are aligned with our true gifts.

When we are aligned with our true gifts and our natural strengths, there is a sense of ease, flow, intuition, a “just knowing” how to do something. 

If you are in your version of this cycle of torture, of doing work that calls on your competencies rather than your gifts and natural strengths…

I want you to know that another way of engaging with your work is possible. 

And I’ve created the Soul Purpose Program to help you discover it.

We’ll start with a deep dive into uncovering your gifts and natural strengths. Then, we’ll identify ways  you can bring them more into your work and life right now. 

This process will help you see entirely new possibilities for how you engage with your work and life, and you’ll find the clarity, confidence, and self-trust to explore these possibilities.

If you want to see if this work and my style are a match, come join my Free Discovery Workshop on Thursday, June 7, 5:00-6:00 pm to get a taste of what the program will be like!

Or, book a 20-minute Explore Call with me and we'll noodle on it together.

Until next time, notice those moments when you are experiencing a sense of ease and flow, when time is flying by, when you have a sense of “just knowing” how to do something -- take stock of what you are doing and how you are doing it. This will help you connect to your true gifts, your “soul abilities”.