Surround Yourself With Talented People
We don’t always have the necessary talent to carry out the tasks that lie in front of us. Nevertheless, Carol Harrison points out that it is possible to surround ourselves with talented people.
What is one of your greatest talents? We would love to hear from you. Share your comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
Cannot Finish a Project Without Talent
Have you ever felt like you just could not finish something or maybe even begin a new project because you didn’t have the right skill set to accomplish the goal? I know I have often felt this way.
Sometimes I have considered learning the skills required and then felt overwhelmed at how long that would take – time away from writing or coaching or speaking or . . . . fill in the blanks with what might apply to your circumstances. There are times I just throw up my hands and say, “I can’t do this. I can’t learn it. I will have to give up on this project.”
Technologically Challenged
One example is how technologically challenged I am or perceive myself to be. My teen and young adult grandchildren don’t always understand my fear of doing something wrong or pushing the wrong button and losing everything. I have learned to do some basics but some days even they seem to be daunting tasks. Learning to update my website felt like a huge mountain I did not know how to scale. My granddaughter offered to walk me through the process. She even made a “cheat sheet” of notes to remind me how to do it the next time. I looked at the list. I listened and tried to follow all the steps she told me and came to a conclusion. I asked her to do the updates. I would even pay her to do them on a regular basis. She would have money towards university and I would have less stress – much less stress.
Designing A Book Cover
I needed a cover designed for my On Track devotional book. I heard of a few ways fellow authors accomplish this task. I cringed at the thought of learning yet one more piece of the puzzle of publishing a book. One that made me shrink back in fear was formatting the manuscript for kindle. This proved to be another example of finding some help. My editor also knew how to do the formatting for print on demand and kindle e books. For a small fee I took away my stress and allowed a professional to help me.
My daughter and another granddaughter designed a beautiful book cover using photos I took on our trip. The granddaughter had taken graphic design and excelled at it but had no time to do the cover due to her course load at post-secondary school. My daughter loved to dabble with these types of things and learned more skills from her niece. I accepted their help and expertise and had a cover without trying to add to my own frustration level in doing or learning something I am not interested in or have the knowledge to complete.
What Do You Struggle With?
What types of things do you have in your puzzle called life that you struggle with accomplishing or fear to try? Is there someone who has helped you or is helping you now?
You have likely heard the quote or a version of it that says, “Surround yourself with people smarter than you are.” This has often been attributed to Henry Ford but nothing I found could verify that. For people to be smarter than you are just means that they know more about a particular area or skill than you do. I get this for there are many areas I struggle with like technology.
Hiring My Granddaughter
There have been some great benefits of hiring my granddaughter to update my website or my daughter and another granddaughter to do my book cover design. I got the help I needed and a product that looked great but even better than that was getting to spend time with them. I loved to watch them work in areas they were good at too and maybe even gave them incentive to work on more projects like these for themselves or others.
It is good to challenge ourselves but we need to be able to look realistically at any project and see where our time and energy would best be spent. Should we take a class to learn a new skill or should we spend the time and money in working with what we already know so we can improve those skills? Once we have determined what we need to have help, we can choose where to find the help.
Get Professional Help
There are many places to get professional help with a project like when we decided to renovate our kitchen. My husband is not a handyman or carpenter. Neither am I. So we hired a company we knew and trusted to design, build and install the new kitchen. We used expertise already available. At other times family members might have the skills you need and it will give an opportunity to work alongside them or encourage them as they use their abilities.
John Maxwell has several quotes about surrounding yourself with others who can help you, challenge you and encourage you. One of them says, “The better you are at surrounding yourself with people of high potential, the greater your chance for success.”
Surround Yourself With Talented People
The other quote is, “My advice is to surround yourself with talented people who will challenge you, help you grow and inspire you to maximize your potential.”
I love the picture of surrounding myself with people who know more than I do in areas I need help but also ones who will challenge, inspire, encourage and help me grow into my full potential. What about you? Do you have people like this in your life? How does it look?
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My challenge for myself and for anyone listening is that we don’t give up when some task looks like more than we can handle because we don’t have the skills for it. Instead let’s remember to surround ourselves with others who can help, encourage and provide the skills we require to complete a project. In turn maybe we can provide something someone else needs and in that way help each other.
Carol Harrison
Listen to Carol’s program Puzzle Pieces Of Life.
Carol Harrison B.Ed is a speaker and published author with one book, Amee’s Story and stories in twelve anthologies. She is passionate about helping people of all ages and ability levels find their voice and reach their fullest potential.
She knows, through personal experience that some of life’s experiences are tougher than others. She encourages people that even in the twists and turns of life God’s amazing grace provides hope. She lives in Saskatoon, SK with her husband Brian. They have four adult children and a dozen grandchildren.
Visit Carol’s website carolscorner.ca
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Images Credits
Skills – geralt
Laptop – 27707
Plumber – fran1
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