Your gifts are the the combination of what you’re naturally good at doing, and what you’re innately drawn to do. They’re like your unique calling card — the behaviors or personality traits that make you… you! Once you identify your core gifts, they can help you discern which careers may and may not make sense for you.

Step 1. Journal Responses to the Following Three Prompts

• Think of 2-3 experiences in your life when you felt truly yourself, alive, and in flow. It doesn’t have to be a moment when you were receiving praise or a degree or an award, but rather should be a time when you felt like you were in your element; doing something that came naturally to you; did something that made YOU feel proud; or you felt you were put to good use. These experiences can be personal or professional, and they could have happened at any age.

  • Give each experience a title or header, and then for each experience, write down what you specifically were doing when you felt in flow. What actions were you taking, skills were you using, problems were you solving?

  • Consider this your list of what you’re naturally drawn to do. Then, rank order your items from what makes you feel most alive and in flow, to least in flow.

• Think of the things people in your life have told you you’re really good at. What are the problems people come to you with, asking you to help them solve? What do people tell you they admire about you, or appreciate about you? What are the behaviors or skills that most frequently appear in your performance reviews and recommendations?

  • Write down all of the things that come to mind.

  • Consider this your list of what you’re naturally good at doing. Then, rank order your items from which of these things you feel most drawn to do, to which of these things you feel least drawn to do.

• Imagine you’re at your 85th birthday party. Everyone who means something to you in your life - personally and professionally - has written you a card, telling you what you they appreciate about you, what you mean to them, the difference you’ve made in their life.

  • Write down what you hope people will write about you.

  • Consider this a list of what you most value in yourself and others. Then, rank order your items from what’s most important to you, to least important to you.

Step 2. Discern your gifts

Look at your three lists side by side, and look for the strongest themes that run through your experiences. If you have trouble pulling out the themes, return to your lists, but pretend that they’re the lists of a friend or colleague. Look from a different, less-attached vantage point, and ask yourself, “What are this person’s most special gifts? What would the world be missing out on if this person chose not to use these gifts?”

Journal responses to the following questions:

• What themes or gifts showed up most frequently?

• Which skills, behaviors or qualities did you find matter more or less to you than you thought they did before completing this exercise?

• Which gifts do you feel most called to make sure you use in your next career step?