I attended a workshop several weeks ago by a good friend and exceptional trainer, Meggin McIntosh. Meggin is one of those people that no matter what topic she chooses to present, everyone is going to walk away glad they came.

The workshop was titled something along the lines of How to Create a “not-to-do” List. This event title made me curious because I’m such a fan of creating “to-do” lists. The title, in more complicated terms, could have been “how to say no, what to say no to, and why you should say no when you want to say yes in your professional environment.”  I can appreciate Meggin’s creative topic title that got me to this workshop.

Great trainers typically have great books in which they recommend. Meggin’s plead with us to go out and purchase #1 New York Times Best Selling Author Tom Rath’s Strengths Finder 2.0 is proving to be a life saver for me. The book comes with a computer access code and test that allows you to really identify your strengths that are based on your innate talent – and not based at what you think you’re good at. The key is to start by honestly identifying your innate talent.

It reminds me of a recent situation when some colleagues actually thought I would be okay in developing my own, simple personal branding web site. The fact is, I get lost going home – I have no sense of direction. I also have no sense of technical instruction outside of using software applications that matter to me. I do have determination, I do know how to ask for help, but seriously, the only thing I could have constructed would have been at best mediocre, and probably dysfunctional. I don’t do “technical” – so why would I say yes to a technically challenging project?

I am very good at what I do because I have an innate talent to organize. I did not learn how to do this, at age 6 every square inch of MY living space was in order. At age 16 I was the only one in the family who could fit every suitcase into the trunk on our 3,000 mile vacation. I was born 3 weeks early, maybe that’s why punctuality is so important to me.

It’s not too late for any of us to honestly identify our innate talents and strengthen them. And it’s never too late to admit that no matter how hard we try, there are some talents in life better left to others to strengthen.