T<\/span>here I was, a diva in full meltdown mode. I was a half-mile from home, the electric audio gear slopping around in my sock and my collar microphone flopping in the wind as I stomped along. I\u2019d just flubbed the eighth take and fled in frustration from our cramped basement \u201cstudio\u201d into the fresh air.<\/p>\n Frankly, I had no idea what I was doing\u2014I\u2019d never been videotaped before, other than typical home movies. (\u201cHi Mom!\u201d) Here I was, nearly 60 years old, an introvert who liked nothing better than to sit in a corner and write. When I found myself in front of a video camera, I\u2019d get so nervous that I\u2019d forget how to breathe\u2014my shaky voice squeaked like a chipmunk\u2019s. Not only did I have no skill, but I had no talent for the new area I was trying to transition into. Hence the occasional diva meltdowns.<\/p>\n I could never have imagined that the videotapes we were making on the cheap in our cobwebbed basement would become the basis for the largest, most popular course in history, Learning How to Learn<\/em>, now approaching two million registered students.<\/p>\n It turned out I had a hidden talent for making online courses. How could I have ever soldiered through all the failures to discover this hidden ability? And trust me, this ability was really hidden!<\/p>\n We often tend to box ourselves in, thinking there are only specific things we\u2019re good at. In school, we tend to stick to those areas\u2014maybe art, or language, or science. When we take career and aptitude tests, it just reinforces that feeling of \u201cThere are certain things I should stick to, because that\u2019s what I would be best at.\u201d<\/p>\n But of course, that\u2019s just not true. As my own experience has shown, even in maturity, we\u2019re often capable of excelling at far more than we ever give ourselves credit for.<\/p>\n Many of these \u201cmindshifters\u201d were seemingly ordinary\u2014in fact, they were sometimes initially terrible at what they wanted to try to become. But they often had one unusual shared characteristic; they had learned to use their \u201cworst\u201d traits to their advantage.<\/p>\n It\u2019s common, when you are trying to change, for you to feel like an imposter\u2014a not-so-good fake who\u2019s only there by luck. Feeling like an imposter is supposedly a \u201cbad thing.\u201d Instead, psychologists say you\u2019re supposed to realize that you\u2019re actually terrific.<\/p>\n But the reality is that when you\u2019re starting something new, you often really aren\u2019t all that good. In fact, you may indeed not be as good as everyone else. But here\u2019s the dirty little secret: your hidden asset is that you think you\u2019re an imposter! Precisely because you feel less equipped, you tend to be more open to what\u2019s going on around you\u2014to have more of a beginner\u2019s mind. You listen more carefully, you work harder, and you don\u2019t go off half-cocked with bossy overconfidence.<\/p>\n Feeling like a fake isn\u2019t bad at all\u2014it can be a genuine benefit!<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take another seemingly bad trait\u2014having a poor memory. Bummer, right?<\/p>\n Wrong. As it turns out, having a poor memory can be a genuine plus. Research has shown a distinct counter correlation between the strength of your working memory and your creativity. In other words, the weaker your working memory, the more creative you tend to be!<\/p>\n There\u2019s more. Because of your weaker working memory, you have to find ways to simplify, meaning you can hold something complex in mind only once you\u2019ve found ways to simplify it. You can sometimes see elegant simplifications that smarter people can miss.<\/p>\n Do you sometimes have to work harder than others to grasp key ideas? Yes, but the creativity and elegant problem-solving abilities you also possess mean you\u2019ve got something of real value. Oh yes, and you\u2019re less likely than \u201csmart\u201d people to jump to wrong conclusions! Smart people, after all, aren\u2019t used to being wrong, so they can be fast, yes, but also rigid and dogmatic in their thinking. It\u2019s not just me saying this\u2014Nobel Prize winner Santiago Ram\u00f3n y Cajal observed this in some of his more intellectually gifted colleagues.<\/p>\n Are you a bit stubborn on occasion? That can be good! Trying to make everyone happy can make no one happy\u2014especially you. Take a bit of delight in the challenge of proving others wrong. But remember that to succeed, you need to be receptive to critical feedback that allows you to grow. Be careful\u2014if everybody tells you you\u2019re great, is it because you\u2019ve sent inadvertent signals that say you won\u2019t tolerate negative feedback?<\/p>\n Are you a bit of a dreamer sometimes? Those day dreams can help you creatively envision and work towards a bright future!<\/p>\n As I\u2019ve discovered throughout the years, perhaps the most important part of developing hidden talents is learning to reframe and see the good in your \u201cbad\u201d traits. These \u201cbad\u201d traits are often invaluable in helping you to excel long term in the talent you are trying to develop.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to forget that learning something new is about the journey, not the destination. As for myself and my learning now, in my 60s, when I continued to work through months of learning as a video \u201ctalent,\u201d and exploring the world of video editing, I gradually got better and better. Persistently learning, trying, and growing\u2014even when I thought there was no way I could do it, was what ultimately counted.<\/p>\n How can you discover your own hidden talent? Look to some of your worst traits\u2014they can give you the surprising gifts you need to move ahead.<\/p>\n Your own \u201cworst traits\u201d can often be your most valuable assets <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-summer-2017","category-spring-summer-2017-columns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5561"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6105,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5561\/revisions\/6105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Developing Our Hidden Talents<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/9781101982853-mindshift-book-for-bookshelf-650h.jpg\")
When I was working on the book Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential<\/em>, I travelled around the world, interviewing people who\u2019d made major transitions in their lives, doing things they thought they could never do, often involving subjects they thought they hated: musicians who became medical doctors, electrical engineers who became woodworkers, school losers and dropouts who turned around to great success.<\/p>\nDo You Feel Like An Imposter?<\/h4>\n
Do You Have A Poor Memory?<\/h4>\n
Are You Thoughtful in Your Approach or A Snap Decision-Maker?<\/h4>\n
Are You a Contrarian?<\/h4>\n
Are You A Dreamer?<\/h4>\n
The Importance of Learning to Reframe<\/h4>\n
Barbara Oakley is the author of Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0<\/em>\u00a9 2017 TarcherPerigee, paperback, and A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)<\/em><\/a><\/span>\u00a0\u00a9 2014, TarcherPerigee, paperback.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"