» A Skill, A Talent or a Gift?

Is there a difference between a skill, a talent and a gift? Yes, there most definitely is! You are probably using all three in your business right now. However, if you use more of your gifts and less of your skills, you will be amazed at what can happen to your business. Let me explain the difference.

A skill is something that you have learned. For example, you may have learned to sew, to cook, to change a tire on a car, to balance your check book or to sell. Because you were taught how to do it, you can do these things when you need to do them.

A talent is something that comes naturally. You may look at a recipe and be able to change it easily and it still comes out tasting good. You can look at a row of numbers and see there is an error, almost at first glance. You have taken public speaking courses such as Toastmasters and have learned to hold your own on stage and be reasonably comfortable.

A gift is something that is given to you at birth from a Higher Power. It’s something that creates an almost magical effect that is way beyond you. It’s unexplainable if you looked at it from a human standpoint because it produces such extraordinary results.

Many people remember when Paul Potts got on stage for a British talent show and wowed the world. In less than a year he has taken the world by storm because of his incredible gift of music. People cried, people felt moved, people were touched beyond belief by this mobile phone salesman from England. That’s a gift. It’s not a skill that he acquired after taking singing lessons. That’s not even a talent where he just sings naturally well. Paul Potts is an amazing example of a gift, what I would refer to as a Sacred Gift.

I know what you’re thinking already. I don’t sing like Paul Potts. I doubt you do but if you do, please let the world know! But I guarantee you that you do something else in the same magnificent way that Paul Potts sings opera.

Then why isn’t my gift obvious? Good question. The gift of music is a really obvious gift – you can either sing or you can’t. Your singing may move people like mine does – right out of the room! So it’s easy to identify that gift.

But what about a gift of encouragement? Many coaches today have this gift. People tell them their troubles and the coach provides exactly what the client needs. When I coach coaches, some have the gift of encouragement and the words just flow from them and they are thrilled with helping, yet other coaches feel overwhelmed by the problems and don’t know what to say to a client. So they may be skilled at coaching because they have taken a certification course or some other program but it doesn’t always produce extraordinary results. Ask yourself: Where in my business do I
produce extraordinary results?

A gift is also different from a skill or talent in that it is effortless. It’s one of the reasons many people have a challenge identifying their gift although most people have four to five gifts given to them at birth. These gifts seem so easy to you. For example, perhaps you can quickly rattle off a brilliant newsletter that people remember years later whereas someone else struggles for a day to write a testimonial for their best friend’s business. Notice what is effortless for you and what is a struggle and a challenge.

I know that I can do my own accounting. I did an accounting course and the first year of financial planning. I understand debits and credits but it’s a skill for me, not a talent and certainly not a gift. It’s draining, I’m exhausted and I hate it. Those are three big clues in your life that you are working with a skill, not a gift if you use those words to describe a task in your business.

I have a natural talent for cooking. I can look at a recipe, change it around and create great meals. It comes easily and naturally to me, but my cooking does not produce extraordinary results – except maybe these twenty pounds that have showed up over the last two years. But enjoy a meal prepared by a gifted chef and you feel an energy in the food that is absolutely divine.

Are you starting to see the differences between the three in your business? It’s oftentimes easier to notice it in others. Next time you go to a restaurant, observe your host or hostess and server. Does the host chat with you as you go to sit down, make you feel welcome and offer to take your coat, get you a highchair for your child or some other gesture to make you feel special? Or do they say, “this way” and march off ahead with not a care in the world as to whether or not you are following. That’s a clear sign that they do NOT have the gift of hospitality. Does your server practically throw the food at you and act as if they are doing you a big favor even serving you? We’ve all had those kinds of servers and wondered what the heck they are doing in the “hospitality” industry. Others just can’t do enough for you and you feel impelled to leave them an extra large tip.

So each person at the restaurant may have taken a course on how to be a server or a host but there is a massive difference between a skill that is taught, a talent that comes naturally and a gift that is extraordinary.

Are you busy thinking about yourself? As you begin to observe people around you, it will become more obvious. Next time you listen to a trainer or speaker on stage, notice the ones that are trained to speak. They move from side to side on the stage, they have their gestures down right, they have good contact with their audience but there is a magical spark that is simply missing. You don’t feel any real connection. Now remember a speaker who had you riveted to your seat. You were fascinated. You still remember something they said years ago and it moved or touched you. That person probably had the gift of teaching.

There are four characteristics of a Sacred Gift:

1. It energizes you.
2. It produces extraordinary results that could not be accomplished by you
alone.
3. You get amazing feedback.
4. It is a repeated pattern in your life that often started in childhood.

So what difference does this make in your business? Lots! The word “Charism” is a Greek word that means, “A divine gift believed to be given by God or a spiritual endowment.” It’s where the word charismatic comes from. We are naturally attracted to people who are charismatic, people who are operating from their Sacred Gifts. When you operate your business from your Sacred Gifts, rather than a skill, that charism draws people like a magnet to you, almost effortlessly.

You’ve got a lot to do in your business. We all do. One of the easiest and simplest ways to increase your income and fun in your business is to do what you love to do and let others do the rest. You are charismatic when you use your Sacred Gifts and the results are extraordinary – that sounds to me like a good recipe for success!

So write the newsletter if writing is your Sacred Gift and let someone else put it in the HTML for distribution. There are people who have the Sacred Gift of Assistance and who love to do that part. Or teach the workshop because that’s where you are energized and “in the zone” and find someone else who feels that way about the marketing or the event planning.

One of the things that I am clear about after working with the difference between a skill, a talent and Sacred Gifts for more than three years now is that when I focus on my gifts, my business flows, I’m relaxed and love life. When I step away from those gifts and do what I think I should do because I know that I can, that’s when the witchy-bitchy part of me comes out. I see the same thing in my partner and in my clients.

Why suffer to do what you don’t like or what is challenging for you when you have things that you really love to do?

This month, start to identify your skills – what you have been taught to do, your talents – what you do naturally well, and your gifts – using the four characteristics of a Sacred Gift as your guide.

Business can and should be fun. See how you can move into a greater place of peace, joy, love and prosperity this month putting into practice what we’ve talked about today.

To Your Outrageous Success,

janjanzen1