Ed Delph shares another thought-provoker…

Recently, I saw a poster that caught my attention on Face Book. Its title was the same as this article’s: Ten Things that Require Zero Talent.

Under the title were ten things:
1. Being on Time
2. Your Work Ethic
3. Your Effort
4. Your Body Language
5. Utilising Your Energy
6. Your Attitude
7. Your Passion
8. Being Coachable/Teachable
9. Doing Extra in What You Do
10. Being Prepared in Work and Life.

These ten things have nothing to do with our talent, IQ, our particular gifting or aptitudes, our personality type, our calling or purpose, our talent level, where we were born, when we were born, our genes, our gender, our social status, race or education level!

In other words, these ten things have nothing to do with our capacity or talents. These ten things are part of our competency.

Ten-part EQ
These ten things affect our will which affect our choices. Everyone makes choices. That’s not a God-given talent issue.

The ten things consist of our EQ (Emotional Quotient), our attitude, our motivation, our willingness to engage, our passion about what we do, our desire to become all that we can be and the like. They all have to do with our competency…if you have these, it might just unleash your capacity.

Increase your competency…unleash your capacity! Let’s consider attitude for a moment.

This is probably the number one issue in today’s world. It’s not that people don’t have the capacity; they don’t have the competency of a positive attitude and outlook which can move them from the outhouse to the penthouse.

Getting from the outhouse to the penthouse!
Author John Maxwell says, ‘Attitude determines altitude.’ Note this…

• Ability is what people are capable of doing.
• Motivation determines what we do
• Attitude determines how well we do it.

Consider this story. A guy with a bad attitude screams at the man in the car, ‘Why don’t you people watch out where you’re going. You’re the fourth car I’ve hit today!’

Attitude is a tough one. In the story of the prodigal son, the younger son had a sin of the flesh, the older brother had the sin of attitude. It’s impossible to determine how many jobs have been lost, sales not made, relationships ruined, potential never realised because someone ‘copped an attitude.’

Consider being on time and going extra at work? Some might say, ‘I don’t like my work but I’m stuck here for now. I have to pay bills. I’m not going to come early or stay late. I’m not going to give this any real effort.’ Many people feel this way. I have been there, done that and got the T-shirt!

Think about this. If you can’t change your present circumstances, change your present attitude/outlook. That requires no talent, just choice.

Getting personal
Why change the outlook on our job? A bad attitude/outlook lengthens the distance to any miracle we are pursuing. If you don’t feel like being on time or going the extra mile in any area of life, my advice is do the opposite of what you feel. Show up early and do a bit extra.

Most times that choice shortens the distance to any miracle you are pursuing. It might even get you promoted to the desire of your heart in any area of life. Your present doesn’t have to be your future.

Someone once said, ‘The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.’ We become servants to the choices we make. Once we choose a bad outlook, we become a servant to that choice.

As a general rule, if our attitude toward the world is excellent, we will receive excellent results. If we feel so-so about the world, our response from that world will be average. Feel badly about our world and we will seem to have only negative feedback from life.

Let’s get personal. If you feel you do not have the talent to go any further, good! Why? Because it’s not a talent or capacity issue. It’s a competency issue.

Accepting, adjusting, adopting, and activating the ten things that require no talent could unleash your life.

I encourage you – get back to where you once belong.

Dr Ed Delph is president of Nationstrategy, an organisation with the strategy of envisioning and empowering today’s leaders in the church to be some of tomorrow’s leaders in the community. Links: nationstrategy@cs.com  / http://www.nationstrategy.com