How To Know One's Talents

Discover And Recover Your Talents.

By
The Man Who Saw God Face To Face
Raphael Okechukwu Nweze


MEANING OF TALENT
         Talent is a person’s natural ability to do something very well, and improve himself on it with little or no supervision, with little or no enlightenment. It is equally correct to define it as a person’s potential which is most developed and used, compared to his other potentials. It is usually the dominant ability or interest.
         For example, it is the natural talent of bee to produce honey. The natural talent of Holy Spirit is the perfect fulfillment of the will of God. It is the gift of prophets to foretell the future, and that of scientists to discover and invent.

IMPORTANCE OF TALENTS
  1. They make life enjoyable. All the good things of life will not be possible if God had not equipped people with the ability to produce them.
  2. They give job satisfaction. Any person, who is deployed to a place where he is not naturally talented to work, feels restricted, unhappy and ill-used.
  3. They make various skills, services and products possible.
  4. They enhance specialization and division of labour. Therefore, they encourage interdependence and co-operation.
  5. They save people from the boredom of loneliness and idleness, during old age and retirement.
  6. They diversify the source of income for people to earn more and live better.
  7. They lead us forward, even without education.
  8. They are spiritual tools with which man works.

HOW TO KNOW YOUR TALENTS
         The facts that identify a person’s talent include:
  1. What the person does with joyful volition and delight. For example, Mr. Okonkwo has two sons, Chidi and Nnanna. Each time he told them to go to farm, Chidi would become unhappy. After few minutes, he would become so psychologically disturbed that he will be sick with fever. On the other hand, Nnanna enjoys going to the farm. Usually, while going to school or church, or on his way back home, he goes to the farm to watch and rejoice over growing crops. He so delights in agriculture that sometimes, he spends a whole day in their home garden studying the crops. Undoubtedly, Chidi hates farm work because he is not naturally equipped for that. Contrarily, Nnanna delights in agriculture because his is a born farmer.
  2. What a person usually did when he was a child. Children who are talented in medicine spend their playtime treating unseen patients or mixing up different items to form drugs. Those of them destined for divine ministration spend there free times acting reverend in religious ceremonies.
  3. What a person finds easy to do, though others may find that hard to do.
  4. What a person would do, not minding to forfeit his meal.
  5. Ability to do something, even without being trained for that.
  6. What any person likes to be doing always.
  7. The person's outstanding qualities and abilities made manifest during gatherings, plays, discussions, etc. For example, those gifted in leadership usually organize other people, without being told to do so.
  8. Assuming a group of students were asked to prepare songs, drama, quiz, dance, debate, etc. Every student, by volition, would fit himself into the activity he is talented in.
  9. Every body performs best wherein he is the one most talented. You will be surprised to find out that individuals, who appear weak, inactive and disinterested in life, are full of life, action and creativity once you bring them to the utilization of their talents. In fact, they would exhibit interest, mastery, enthusiasm and selflessness.
  10. Some spiritual churches present their children before God in their worship. Then, the minister of God would pray and give revelations about what the child is or would be in future.

ESSENTIALS TO EFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT AND UTILISATION OF TALENTS
         The essentials include:
  1. Identification: finding out the talents a person has.
  2. Freedom of expression: allowing time and opportunities to express and use the talents, even immaturely.
  3. Encouragement: encouragement of talents through awards, rewards, recognitions, motivations, benefits, incentives, etc.
  4. Assistance: assisting a person in the actual practice and use of his talents. Parents, guardians, teachers, etc should often find time to assist the children and students.
  5. “Catching them young": very early identification, encouragement and development of the talents of children.
  6. Exposition: exposing a talented person to diverse means and opportunities. This is possible through public lectures, excursions, exhibitions, interactions, discussions, projects, orientations, societies, clubs, activities, etc.
  7. Education: Training the talented person for wider and nobler accomplishments.

GIFTEDNESS
         People are talented in diverse ways. Some are more talented in an area than other people. Usually, when a similarly talented people meets and interacts the best among them proves himself. The basic foundation of talent is the spirit. In Zech. 4:6 God said, "Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit." 1 Cor 12:4-11 states, "There are different kinds of gifts, but by the same spirit. There are different kinds of service, but by the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God does them all in men." This is to say that a person cannot do something unless he first receives the spirit for doing that thing. Moses acknowledged this in Exodus35: 30-33: "See the Lord has chosen Bezaliel son of Uri… and he has filled him with the spirit of God, with skill, ability and acknowledge in all kinds of overcasts - to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic craftsmanship."
         A talented person needs to exercise his talents from time to time, through practice. The more a talent is used, the more it develops. It is a natural law that anything that is not used or maintained becomes stagnant or ineffective. This is why a person who has mastered an art may decline in his ability with time unless he exercises the gift. It also explains why some professional bodies do not allow a professional to practice after many years of inactivity, unless the person undergoes refresh course. Of two persons who are similarly talented, the person who practices more has greater experience and better skill.
         We have discovered that every man is talented: He is multi-talented. There are so many potentials (skills, means and possibilities) within man. Some have acted on this knowledge and have thereby become proficient in many fields. An example was Dr. Walter Russell, who was a scientist, artist, philosopher, an architect, author, etc. God puts no limit to human possibilities. Hence, the sky is not our limit.
         There are so many who seem not to be talented in a special ways. Majority of them remain the mediocre. They are so, not necessarily because they were so destined. Some of them neglected their talents during their youthful days, when they would have identified and developed those talents. Some of them, by acts of commission, killed special abilities. By killing the spirit implies doing something, which is against the nature of a spirit, so that the spirit leaves the person. Samson lost his mighty and victorious spirit through carelessness. Esau lost his spiritual rights to leadership through neglect. Lucifer lost his power and throne through greed, etc. Likewise, many lose their spiritual gifts in many ways. The ways includes anger, jealousy, immoralities, falsehood, and etc. We may think that these vices have no adverse effects on their perpetrators. Yet, they do.
         It is worthy of note that God gives talents to an individual according to the purpose for which He created. The person this is to say that the minds of babies are not ‘’clean slates’’ as some would believes, but that children are masters at the nursery stage.

HOW TO RECOVER YOUR TALENTS
         Do the following:
  1. Pray for it.
  2. Recollect your childhood interests and activities..
  3. Recollect your childhood dreams, visions, trances, messages, etc.
  4. Find out what you find easy to do, though others may find that hard to do.
  5. What would you do, not minding to forfeit your meal.
  6. What are things you can do, even without being trained for that.
  7. What you like to be doing always.
  8. Recognise your outstanding qualities and abilities made manifest during gatherings, plays, discussions, etc. For example, those gifted in leadership usually organize other people around them, without being told to do so.
  9. What activities give you joy.
  10. Engage in as many activities as possible. Do not develop the habit of only seating down and watching others.
  11. Consult prophets, visioners, guidance counsellors, etc.
  12. Perform selfless duties for people without asking for reward, without being persuaded, without expecting thanks, etc.
  13. Seek advice from intelligent/enlightened personalities.
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
         One major problem is “nipping in the bud’’. That is killing the talents in a person, when the person is still a child or when talents are about to manifest. Parents, guardians and schools who want their children to take to professions, which are incompatible with the children’s talents, usually kill the children's talents. A father might prevent his son gifted in fine arts from drawing things, because he wants the son to become a medical doctor.
         Parents, guardians and schools should become interested in the talents of their children. The child’s individuality should be respected. Children should be allowed to express their natural abilities. They should be seen as masters, who are already equipped for their work in life, but needs care and times to become fully manifest. All the essentials listed above should be fully taken into consideration.
         Another problems is that many schools now overlook handworks or local crafts. Some schools do not encourage and support school organizations, societies and clubs, though they would claim that they do. It is the duty of schools to provide as many opportunities and means as possible. One hour every week on extra-curricula activities, in the school programme can teach the students far more than the classroom lessons. This is because, practical, in most cases, is better than theory, in learning. Money must not be accepted in the place of handwork.
         Sometimes, lazy students see those who encourage their talent development as disturbing and demanding. It is even a more serious problem when a grown up does not know his talents. Experience, the best teacher, has taught that education is good, but not the only thing important. Today, many are not fed by their education, but by their talents. Also, at the old age, when a person retires from active service, it is the talents that will engage him. It will give him job satisfaction and save him from the boredom of loneliness and idleness.