Episode 1054: Paying Attention to Your Strengths and Passions

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1054 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:06] Barby Ingle: Hi, I'm Barby Ingle, and I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talents and your treasures to live out your calling, your purpose in life.

[00:00:25] Having the ability to be your own health advocate is key and is one way to be inspired. Did you all that you were supposed to do another way is to listen to this, the inspired steward podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:44] Scott Maderer: a lot of times instead, people try to just work within their weekly. They want to, they're an introvert. They want to be an extrovert. Cause it seems like all of the extroverts are having all of this success. So I must make myself into an extrovert. I must do [00:01:00] something completely outside of my wiring and my norm.

[00:01:03] I must change my. And I would say that's the wrong way of looking at it. Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence.

[00:01:31] So that. Can impact the world

[00:01:35] in today's episode about impacting the world through steward of your talent. I talk with you about why paying attention to your strengths and passion is important for your success, but I share why this also does not mean you can ignore your weaknesses. And I talk about why you can do both and really shine.

[00:01:55] You've heard me talk about developing your team. And what are the best ways to [00:02:00] do that is through books. But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial.

[00:02:17] There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And you can pick one and listen your way to developing your talents via. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. One of the things I've talked about a lot on the podcast.

[00:02:40] When I'm talking about finding your calling is finding those things that are your strengths, those things that you are passionate about, those things that whenever you do them, they come so easily and you'll just look at it and go this is something that I'm meant to do. But in doing that, one of the [00:03:00] things that I've seen is when people talk about following your passion and doing your strengths, they often.

[00:03:05] About ignoring your weaknesses. And the truth is both things are important for your success, paying attention to your strengths and your passion is important. And so is looking at some of your weaknesses. Some of the things that we tend to overlook and try not to spend time and effort. And I'll talk more about that in a minute.

[00:03:28] When it comes to finding your strengths, there's of course, lots of different tests out there. You can take strengths finder, you can take disks, you can take other different kinds of Myers-Briggs and Enneagram and personality and communication kinds of things. You can find surveys about different careers and things that you might be interested in.

[00:03:47] All of these are ways of evaluating your strengths. But beyond that, you can also simply look for the things that give you energy. Look for the things that take away. Energy look for the things that [00:04:00] drain you, pay attention to your emotional state when you're doing different tasks. Is it making you feel anxious or worried?

[00:04:07] Is it something that causes you to be a little uncomfortable or is it something that causes true fear? How strong is the emotion around it? Both positive and negative. And where is that emotion coming from? So for instance, if it's something you're doing and you enjoy it, but you don't feel very good at it, you may have stress and strain and discomfort, but that's very different than something that feels like you're living completely outside of your normal wiring.

[00:04:37] So for instance, an intro. May be very good at communication, but doesn't like to be in front of the group. Doesn't like to be the center of attention. They feel a lot of draining of their energy and emotional stress and strain when they're put in front of the group. And yet they have a gifting and communication.

[00:04:57] But perhaps it's expressed [00:05:00] in writing or in more prepared content where they can video are produced content like a podcast and these sorts of things and put it out in a more controlled environment. That's why it's not simply do you like to do it or not like to do it? It's also, what is the source of the emotion what's happening and really evaluating deeply what's going on?

[00:05:23] You also can talk to your colleagues, your family, and your friends, talk to people around you who know you well and see what they feel like your strengths are, what they say that you're good at, because the truth is when you. Put out your strengths and you live in your calling. You can impact other people in a much stronger way.

[00:05:45] You can change other people's lives. And in yourself you will find yourself to be more satisfied and having a more satisfied life. A lot of times, instead, people try to just work within their [00:06:00] weaknesses. They want. If they're an introvert, they want to be an extrovert because it seems like all of the extroverts are having all of this success.

[00:06:07] So I must make myself into an extrovert. I must do something completely outside of my wiring and my norm. I must change myself. And I would say that's the wrong way of looking at it. But at the same time, you do need to think about areas that oftentimes are weaknesses within you. That if you spent some time and energy on them, they would completely.

[00:06:31] Change your life. For instance, are you in a situation where there's addiction or behaviors that are going on, whether it's alcohol food or. That is causing you to have health problems for you to have energy problems for you to have other things. That's an example of a weakness that you can't ignore. You can't say I'm not going to pay any attention to this.

[00:06:58] Are you stuck in a relationship [00:07:00] whether it's at work or whether it's a home with people that are causing problems and sapping your energy and your finances and other things. You got to fix that. You've got to either work on the relationship and improve it and cure it. Or you've got to leave the relationship.

[00:07:19] Of course, there's financial challenges that happen for people. We'll talk more about that tomorrow. But the financial challenges can be something that you can't ignore. And oftentimes all what we try to do instead is out earn this. And oftentimes that means we try to do things that we're not really meant to do another one poor communication skills, and don't get me wrong.

[00:07:41] I'm not saying you have to go become a public speaker, but you do have to learn to communicate. With the written and the spoken word in a way that's clear to others. And then of course the fifth one is things around your time. If you have weaknesses around how you use your time, [00:08:00] that's something that you've got to spend some energy on improving.

[00:08:04] Doesn't mean it's your calling. It doesn't mean it's something that you are meant to do, though. It might. But instead, it means it's the kind of weakness. That's a Keystone habit that if you don't spend some energy on it, you'll never succeed at your calling. So there's different kinds of weaknesses.

[00:08:20] There's weaknesses that are completely out of alignment with how you're wired and who you are and what you're meant to do. And I don't say you should spend a lot of time on those and there's weaknesses in certain Keystone areas where everyone needs a certain level of ability in those areas. And the truth is you can find your strengths and your passions, and also overcome those sorts of Keystone weaknesses without working in the weaknesses that are completely not in alignment with your calling.

[00:08:52] And then you'll really shine in what you do. Thanks for listening.

[00:08:58] Thanks so much for [00:09:00] listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your call. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of talent, you can go over to inspired stewardship.com/talent and sign up for our five week series on the stewardship of talent.

[00:09:29] Or if you're in the us, you can text 4, 4, 2, 2, 2 talent tips. That's talent tips to 4 4 2, 2, 2, and get those tips until next time. Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.