Increasing Your Chance of Excelling

I believe the idea that to excel in life, you should spend as much time as practical doing the things that you are exceptionally good at.  (I was partially influenced by Marcus Buckingham's books First, Break All The Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths.)

I’ve noticed in my own life that at the core, my talents don’t change much over time. Finesse in using talents and the applications in which talents are used may both change in time, but the very core of the things at which you excel, the types of activities that you are drawn to, will probably change very little. 

An Exercise to Identify Your Talents

Here’s a useful exercise that I came up with one evening  as I was trying to sort out
what I wanted to be when I grow up.  The basic idea is that if you can identify the things that have made you successful before, you can put yourself in a role where you can use these strengths again.

Make a List
Write down a list of every time that you can think of in your entire life that you did something (anything!) very well. Whether the essay you wrote in fifth grade, your performance on your sophomore basketball team, your job pushing carts at a grocery store, the assembly you organized as a student body officer, your performance looking for a job as you graduated college, the regional seminar that you organized while still new in your job...write all of these things down. Hopefully you can come up with a long list.  My list had about thirty things.

Identify the Roots
Then go through the list item by item. Be honest with yourself.  Write down next to each item what it was about you that resulted in such a good performance.   The more specific you can be, the better.  For the essay you wrote in fifth grade, was it your precise vocabulary?  Was it your choice of an interesting topic?  Was it the way that you connected to your audience?
If it was your vocabulary, was it creative use of vocabulary?  Was it topic-specific vocabulary? If it was the choice of an interesting topic, was it your understanding of the audience that helped you pick a good topic?  Was it your ability to look past the obvious choices to pick a topic no one else would have thought of, but everyone wished they had?
In basketball, was it your quick decision making?  Was it your dedication in practicing long hours?  Was it your leadership on the court?  Was it your connection to the other team members?  Was it your confidence in your skills in the face of an intimidating defense?
Are there going to be multiple reasons? Yes. Will there be overlap?  Yes.  Will there be fuzzy reasons that you can’t really put in to words?  Maybe.  Just do the best you can and that will be good enough.

Look for a Pattern
As you come up with a long list of these reasons why you were successful, an interesting pattern might form.  You may see recurring theme.  You might see your confidence in leading a group showing up again and again. Or your ability to connect on a personal level with groups or individuals.  You might see faith or a love for facts or absolute dependability.

Put it to Use
Treasure this list.  If you can identify your core talents and recurring strengths, you have a list of features that you can use to direct your career. 

Give this exercise a try and let me know how it goes.  I found it to be very useful.  I'd like to know if this is something with general application. Return and report in the comments!