What's YOUR Superpower?

Posted on July 06, 2018 by Neelam Sharma, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.

In a recent conversation with a colleague, she mentioned hidden talents (or superpowers) and how all of us have them. It’s an interesting assertion and one that made me think back to my yoga teacher training years ago.

Body? What body?
I was not a physical kid. When my mom told me to go out and play, I would sneak a book outside with me, sit under a tree and read until I could go back inside. I was basically a brain being magically carted around somehow.

So, it was a stretch (see what I did there?) for me to decide to become a yoga teacher. Once I was in teacher training, as with everything, there were some things I could do easily and others that were more difficult. Here’s the thing, though. Everything I could do easily, I discounted as intrinsically easy. In other words, “if I could do it, then it must be easy and anyone could do it.”

Obviously, that is not true. But how many times have we thought exactly that? “This is so easy, it can’t be a talent.” I have had coaching clients tell me that they have no hidden talents (my colleague mentioned that she had that same conversation with her clients). I know that you have hidden talents because we all do.

Being In the Flow
Think about something that you do or have done when it felt like it wasn’t work at all. The time you put together a presentation and it just poured out of your fingers. Or when you played an instrument and time just slipped away. Or solved a math problem, or cooked a fabulous meal, or fixed that misbehaving machine…I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

A hidden talent/superpower is something that, when you are doing it, you are in the flow, and it feels effortless. Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, a Positive Psychologist, has done pioneering research into this idea of flow, which he defines as a state of heightened focus and immersion in activities such as art, play, and work. (If you’re interested in learning more, there are several YouTube videos that explain it in more detail.)

There is actually a scientific explanation for that feeling that while you’re in the flow (or in the zone) you forget everything else and the work, art, play, flows through you without you having to will it. Because of the amount of data your brain can process, when you are doing something absorbing, there is no processing power left for your brain to process your environment, or monitor your body, or pay attention to anything else. This is also what yoga and meditation teachers call “being in the moment.”

What is YOUR hidden (or not so hidden) talent? What makes you feel like you aren’t working when you do it?

If you’d like some help in finding that talent, or incorporating that talent into your life, contact me for a complimentary discovery call. Together, we can help you find clarity about your superpower and bring more of that feeling of being in the flow into your everyday life.