Ummm, what?
I can’t fly, I don’t have a magic lasso of truth, and I’ve heard wearing capes isn’t safe!
What I mean is, what do you do that all of your friends (and maybe even strangers) look to you for?
Are you the empathetic listener?
Are you the problem solver?
Are you the fix it person?
Are you the creative muse?
Not sure? Ask your friends!
I’m serious. Ask them what it is that they can always come to you for.
Your superpower is what makes you, YOU! It’s what you’re designed to do, without even trying.
What happens all too often, however, is that we try to take someone else’s superpower. It’s like Spider-Man trying to wield Thor’s hammer. That’s not gonna turn out really well. (You know, the hammer’s gonna get all tangled up with the spider web stuff… and, well… yeah.)
So what happens when you have an interest in a career in one industry, but your gifts, your superpower, seems to fit in a different career? You really want to be a (fill in the blank), but you don’t seem to have the right temperament, disposition, or qualities for that type of career.
Often we push ourselves to fit into something just just isn’t a good fit.
We’re expected to choose a career direction in high school. Heck, we’re still just kids! We have no idea what the real world has in store for us, but we’re expected to make life changing decisions. And then, after a few years of college studying to be (full in the blank), we just aren’t satisfied. We flounder, often feeling like we failed.
Or we get into a “good career” (according to society, our parents, our guidance counselors) only to realize after a number of years that it just isn’t fulfilling. It becomes drudgery, but we don’t know what else to do. We’ve already invested time and education in this career.
The more we can align with our gifts, the more successful, and fulfilled we’ll be!
According to my guidance counselors and career trends at the time, I was supposed to be an architectural engineer or something along those lines because I’m an artist and good at math. Computer graphic design and CAD were relatively new (yes, I’m that old!) so of course, that’s what I should have studied. I didn’t want to. I left school and traveled instead.
Traveling around the country for three years, I learned a lot… about myself, about people, about the world, and about a lot of random things like fixing a car and stopping only at roadside diners with three or more pickup trucks parked out front (they usually have the best food and nicest people!)
I’ve written about how my personal experiences became some of the tools I used to help my clients. One of my superpowers, it turns out, is using my experiences to be an example to others (sometimes, I’m sure, on “what not to do”!)
I never dreamed of being a teacher, but that, I discovered, is one of my superpowers. Not a schoolteacher, but I teach classes about life: discovering yours and living it fully. I’ve taught people everything from home herbal use to Tai chi to knitting.
I found that learning things and sharing them with others is one of my strongest gifts. So I continue to learn and teach. There wasn’t really a set career path for this so I had to create my own path. It shifts and evolves based on my interests and what people want to learn.
Much of what I know about my best gifts I learned over the years by paying attention to what I did that was successful and enjoyable to me. Then, I began learning about Human Design, and that confirmed much of what I already felt. I once took an Ikigai (life purpose) personality test, and guess what? Same result!
When you can tap into your greatest gifts, your superpowers, work doesn’t feel so much like work anymore, and life feels so much more exciting.
If you’d like to learn more about your superpowers (or confirm what you already feel about them), you can run your Human Design chart or take an Ikigai test for free online. If you’d like some assistance with finding those tools or interpreting them, just reach out! I love helping folks explore their gifts!