If you have recently traveled abroad, you are certainly aware that your currency has an exchange rate. Of course, you can look them up on line: One US Dollar = .76 Euro; One British Pound = 127 Japanese Yen; One Indian Rupee = 8.7 Chilean Pesos. When you’re traveling, you try hard to get a favorable rate.
But what’s the exchange rate for your talent? Foreign currency exchange rates change daily, but fortunately, when it comes to your talent, the exchange rate is constant.
Your talent = Your life
That’s right! It doesn’t matter whether you’re trading your talent at work, in the community, or with your family. When you exercise your talent, what you get in return is your life.
Fran felt impoverished. “I feel stuck in a staff job in the audit department,” she lamented. “The pay’s OK, but there’s so much more that I want to do in my career. I want to be a leader and know that I’m ready.” Fran didn’t settle for a lousy exchange rate on her talent. She explored options with a Talent Catalyst in a lively conversation. With a fresh perspective and focused action plan, Fran converted her hopes into results. She started acting like the leader she wanted to be. Within a year, she was a supervisor with five people on her team.
Are you getting a great exchange rate on your talent? Would you like something better? Think of a time in your life when you were exercising your talent. What were you doing? What parts of you were you using? Who was benefitting? What exactly were you feeling? Were you feeling fully alive?
You may notice that there is another very important aspect to your talent: it’s abundant. When you exchange it for your life, you still have plenty left.
So you’ve got choices to make with your talent: you can bury it and forget it’s even there, you can dole it out sparingly as though it were a rare commodity, or you can spend it freely know that it is a renewable resource with a great exchange rate.
Do you have an example of how you exchanged your talent and got your life in return?
