December 12, 2023.

Dear Reader, I must confess that I forgot to send you the newsletter at the end of November. So, I'll try to make this one value for two! November and December in one. I hope you like it.

Thanks to Aljaž Primožič and Davorin Kuhar for the conversations that inspired this article.

Do you know what you are good at?

When I was about to celebrate my 40th birthday, I wasn't sure if I was good at anything. Watching the competition, the famous people in my field made me feel like I would never achieve what they did.

Not many people know what they are good at. The ones that know often focus on developing those skills and become excellent.

The first clue that helps you find what you are good at in a specific field is to see what you enjoy doing. Example:

I enjoy talking with people who benefit from the topics I care about, like entrepreneurship, personal development, and technology. A few years after my 40th birthday, I started a Coworking space, and until today, I talk with the members about those topics. Today, I'm much better at supporting them than before. Not only that, in my work as an IT consultant, I'm not so much better at reading and relating with people than ever before.

In my fields of work, learning to connect with people, listening to their challenges, and providing helpful information became my strength.

Let's dig deeper.

• If you spend more time doing things you are good at, you will increase the time of joy.
• To develop your strengths, focus on what you enjoy doing with the explicit intention of developing that skill. In time, that becomes a value proposition, a unique characteristic, and a source of inspiration to others.
• Ask yourself the same question in different fields: personal, professional, social.

On the other hand, some doubts may arise when thinking about focusing on what you enjoy. Let me share some examples and their counter-arguments:

1. Nobody pays for what I enjoy doing.
   1. Get a job where your strengths can be developed. While you work on that, use the job that pays you to discover other things you enjoy doing; they might become strengths in the future. Responsibility is a keyword here.
2. The world wants me to do what they need, now what I want to do.
   1. True in most cases, but once you become great at something, many will recognize it and pay for it.
3. Many people say that focusing on what you like is a stupid idea.
   1. Doing only what you like and abandoning everything else, especially what pays your bills, is a highly risky idea.

In my experience, it is becoming essential to confidently acknowledge what I'm not good at and do not enjoy doing. That helps me avoid accepting tasks I resist and helps me find the strengths I lack in other team members.

What can jeopardize your efforts to become the best version of yourself?

A short-term vision.

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This year has been intense in many ways. I hope the coming year will let us experience peace of mind and more moments of joy. Cheers for countless opportunities to enjoy what we do!

Jose.

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