Stop Ignoring Your Innate Abilities (And how to find them)

Matt K Head

3 years ago

MATT K HEAD My Creative Calling 2023-07-22 Innate abilities

Read time: 11 minutes

MCC #65 – 21 Jul 2023

Welcome to My Creative Calling!

Have you ever had the realisation:

“Wow, I must be getting known for something!”

People start coming to you with the material.

It feels good to know your messages are resonating.

I had a follower reach out recently and send me a clip — of Lex Fridman interviewing Matthew McConaughey and musing on career advice for young people.

Lex asked Matthew the question:

What advice would you give to young folks?

In high school and college, that are thinking of how to make their way in this world?
Lex Fridman

I made a note to listen to the episode. But I didn’t get around to it, as I know Lex’s episodes are always a commitment, 2+ hours long.

Anyway, back to this week.

I arrived home one day to find my wife packing up our son’s playroom. A familiar voice in the background caught my attention.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Matthew McConaughey. He’s so wise! So inspirational! Did you know that?”

“Yes, I read his book Greenlights and drew the same conclusion.”

I instantly got hooked on the conversation between Lex and Matthew. But then I had to pull myself up. Wait. If I’m gonna do this, I’ll do it properly and listen to the whole thing.

So the next day, I dived in from the beginning.

And so, what big takeaway did I find to share with you today?

Well, it lies in the answer to the above question from Lex.

Your innate ability is a key to your success

Matthew continues:

Sometimes we have an innate ability, but we don’t want to work for it, and we take it for granted. And we end up doing something that may work, may pay the bills, may get us by day to day. But we don’t really like it. We have trouble finding a way to enjoy it. Definitely don’t love it.

And then sometimes, we don’t know what our innate ability is, and we’re hustling and working our tail off and breaking a sweat, to do something that we really aren’t that good at, on an innate level.

And that’s a good challenge.

And you can work and become good at something that you don’t have an innate ability for.

But if you can match those two, what do you have an innate ability to do?

Because what we have an innate ability to do, when we do that well, we do kind of enjoy it.

And then, if you look at that and you can define those two.

Hopefully, you can activate it in a way where there’s demand for what you supply.
Matthew McConaughey

Powerful stuff.

If you can uncover your innate abilities and combine that with work you’re willing to hustle for, you’ve got it made.

But in reality, it’s not so simple.

Firstly, we often don’t know what our innate abilities are. It took me most of my adult life to find out where my gifts lie.

Secondly, inertia takes over, and we often get locked in on a path that goes against our innate abilities. Remember, I got sucked into accounting for 15 years! Getting out after you get hooked on that gravy train wasn’t easy. And you don’t want to upset loved ones who invested a lot in you getting to a certain place in your career.

Ok, so hold up!

So let’s define this.

What is an innate ability?

What is innate?

An innate quality or ability is one that you were born with, not one you have learned:
Cambridge Dictionary

What is an ability?

The physical or mental power or skill needed to do something.
Cambridge Dictionary

A lesson from the real world

I learned from my days in organisations something that shocked me.

What’s that?

The most successful leaders were great at what they did. But most of them also had significant weaknesses.

Sometimes really ugly weaknesses. Like, you know the visionary CEO who also happens to throw temper tantrums like a toddler? But their power to make their vision a reality is enough for people to look the other way on the tantrums.

Interesting…

As a young accountant fresh out of school, I was shocked when a large organisation’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) didn’t even know how to use accounting software. If we all called in sick, there was no way he could deliver a basic financial report.

“What?” I exclaimed. This seemed like a crime!

How can someone get to the top role for any accountant but not know the basics of number crunching?

I soon learned they had something that set them apart in the numbers world.

Sure, they may not have been the best number cruncher.

But they had something else.

Something that set them apart.

An X-factor, you may say that made all of their weaknesses irrelevant.

What could that be?

Well, they were brilliant at two things:

Working with people and getting the best out of them.
Telling stories with numbers.

Once I understood this, it changed everything for me.

You don’t have to be the best.

You don’t have to follow the traditional path of success in your field.

Heck, here was an accountant in the top finance job who, by all usual standards, wasn’t the best accountant.

But they didn’t need to be.

And they were getting results exponentially higher than all the other accountants following their numbers rule books.

They became unbeatable by leaning into their innate gifts:

People and storytelling.

They weren’t pretending to be the best in Excel reporting.

No, they understood that was someone else’s innate ability, so they would find that person and hire them to do that job.

What else stood out to me about this person?

They never really seemed stressed. It was clearly a stressful job. I’m sure some internal stress was going on, but they made it look effortless and fun from the outside.

They had carved a satisfying path to success—one where they were unbeatable as they led with their innate gifts.

Times have changed

You can no longer rely on school.

The birth and acceleration of AI has changed the game forever.

Anything you can make into a replicable process will eventually be outsourced by AI.

So what does that leave?

Work where you have to think, where you have to be creative and where you have to tackle human problems. Big, messy, hairy, interdisciplinary problems with no clear processes to answer are a good fit for the human mind.

And what is the problem here?

Well, for many, school only teaches you to be like everyone else:

The standard.
A number.
Mediocre.

And there’s another problem.

These “overqualified” people rolling out of university can’t even get jobs in the real world. The world’s moving fast, and some of the most in-demand and highly-paid people are not taught in university. Look at the people at the top of YouTube, for example. And you don’t get there by following the traditional path.

And so all these bright young people can’t find a job, or worse, in my mind, they settle for a mediocre job that makes them miserable.

Why do they struggle so much?

Because they don’t know how to function without a rule book.

You remember how it was?

They penalised you for not following the rules. Play by the system. You got rewarded for being “safe”, repetitive and predictable.

In other words, you learned to be boring.

No unique behaviour.

No creativity.

And no innovation.

This dull obedience worked fine in the industrial system — factories, big banks and the like. But we’re beyond that now.

They say we live in a VUCA world now — volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

We need individuals who can self-organise, think and lead.

So how do you stand out?

How do you get exponential results?

By leaning into what makes you, you. And tapping into your innate abilities.

When you uncover your innate ability, you will notice that you not only have a skill, but you’re bursting with passion and energy and have that never-ending thirst for self-improvement.

And that’s where you become unbeatable, as you can run through brick walls or jump through fires, where the other person would just give up.

Dan Sullivan created a concept called Unique Ability.

Unique Ability is the essence of what you love to do and do best.
Nomura, Waller, & Waller, Unique Ability 2.0

This concept is a recipe for a massive impact on the world. Your passion drives an endless energy to create value and help others. And the growth mindset element allows you to compound lessons and improve exponentially over time.

What does this Unique Ability look like?

Unique Ability shapes your whole way of being — it’s the “you” that makes you who you are.

Your Unique Ability shows up in your skills, your talents, your personality characteristics, your activities, your creativity, and your habits.

Yet it is more than any of these: It’s also an expression of your values.

If you’ve ever felt the excitement of doing something you excel at and others praise you for, something you’d happily keep doing all day long, you’ve probably experienced your Unique Ability in action.

Because you use it so naturally and willingly, it’s constantly evolving and improving as you move through life.

When you give it room and focus on it, that evolution speeds up and the value you create for others increases, as do the rewards.
Nomura, Waller, & Waller, Unique Ability 2.0

You don’t know what your innate abilities are

So part of the problem with our innate abilities or strengths is that it is difficult to know what they are.

Why?

Because they become so natural to us, we don’t even realise they are special. It’s become second nature.

Think of someone you admire or look up to. What is it about this character that has you hooked?

I bet they have one or a few qualities that really jump out at you.

Maybe they are an excellent communicator. They have some strange ability to speak to your soul.
Maybe they’re a natural leader with a gift for painting an inspiring vision and rallying everyone towards it.
Or maybe they are a friend who shows up with a mountainous presence, leaving you calm and supported.

There are millions of ways these gifts can show up. And you can quickly see in others what you don’t have.

But the mind-blowing thing for us is that people see this in us.

For example, I often feel like a quiet, shy introvert. But I once had a friend commend me on my “optimistic enthusiasm”, where he said he admired how I could speak up and become a catalyst to get people excited and drive action towards a challenge.

I was shocked. To me, it felt far from the truth. But my friend listed a few examples.

Hmmm ok. I guess I never gave myself credit for some things that come naturally to me.

And I’m sure you do too.

But it’s easy to be harsh on ourselves.

We are our own worst critics.

But once you uncover and lean into your uniqueness, possibilities emerge.

People want to be around you when you’re giving off that effortless energy and having fun. It’s infectious. They want more. Your magic reels them in.

And one of the best parts is no longer feeling like a replaceable cog in a big machine. No, you unlock the passion and finally feel empowered and like you can create a unique value in this world that is meaningful to you.

It’s a totally different experience in the world when we come from a place of abundance vs scarcity.

Throw the mask away

One of the most liberating things about using your gifts is you can throw your mask away. You no longer have to pretend to be someone else. You can double down on what makes you, you. You feel less stressed or inadequate when you know you are fulfilling your purpose.

And you can finally let go of all those things weighing you down which you don’t enjoy. Stop clinging to everything you secretly hate but have been hanging onto in case you “might” need them. You can confidently claim your stake in the ground and focus on your innate gifts.

I don’t know about you, but I often feel drowning in options. There is so much opportunity out in the world today. So we try to do it all, often badly — a newsletter, podcast, YouTube, course, community, and write a book…

With the clarity of knowing how you can best serve the world in a way that makes you happy, you can confidently go all in on that one thing where you excel, and master this before taking on other challenges.

What if you could free yourself up to spend most of your work days doing the most rewarding things, impacting who you want to influence, and doing what you love and do best?

Reflection

Let’s try and find some of your innate abilities:

Review your tasks

Take a look back on your last week:

List out your daily activities. As many as you can. Business and personal.
Put a circle around the ones you love doing. You know the ones where you have endless energy and motivation for.
For example, I hate admin tasks like clearing my inbox or scheduling content. But I love writing and creating content.

Apply this to improve your week:

How could you do more of those tasks which light you up?

For example, my week would be significantly improved by outsourcing, batching or minimising those admin tasks. More possibilities would emerge if I spent more time writing, which feels like my zone of genius.

Reflect on your childhood:

What did you love to do as a child?
Was there something your parents thought you had a special gift in?
Was there something you could do for hours? Even leading to wanting to skip dinner time?
For example, I was a creative kid. I was always painting, drawing, making music, and even making home videos on our old-school video recorder. I also loved exploring outside. I would go for long walking adventures through the scrubland near our farm.

Apply this to your work:

How could you bring that childhood spirit into what you do today?

For example, I knew I had to quit my accounting career. I felt like I was dying inside — losing that inner creative explorer I had as a child. Since embarking on this new adventure, I feel a fresh burst of creative energy driving me forward.

Ask someone:

Contact 3-10 people you trust. Say you’re trying to uncover more of your best self. Ask them what they see as your innate abilities or strengths, with examples if possible.

For example, I did this and gained a wealth of responses like:

“You have an unreal ability to go all in and commit to a cause that inspires and energises others.”
“You can help others to see problems from a different perspective and help them to move past obstacles.”
“You are a unique person to come to for advice. So helpful to people going through struggles and will keep mentoring them through their struggles.”

How could you utilise these abilities in the coming week and future?