Brad Giles_Made to Thrive (2019).pdf - Unique Ability: Creating the Life You Want

In 1967, I came across a piece of 2,000-year-old advice from the philosopher Socrates: Know thyself. The secret to happiness in life was to know yourself. I spent the next 20 years figuring out what that meant for me and came up with an answer that has been very useful for many other people as well. Unique Ability. Based on my own self-improvement and insights from thousands of other individuals, I was able to devise a very simple approach to human learning, growth, success, and satisfaction that seems to work for everyone who is willing to try it. The Unique Ability concept is easy to grasp, makes life immediately more enjoyable, contributes enormously to improved communication and cooperation, produces results in the world that keep getting better, and makes personal happiness a daily reality instead of a wish. Here's the basic idea:

Each of us is born with a potential Unique Ability that has four characteristics: First, it is a superior ability that other people notice and value; second, we love doing it and want to do it as much as possible; third, it is energizing both for us and others around us; and, fourth, we keep getting better, never running out of possibilities for further improvement.

Do some imagining with me. Imagine that from an early age, you had a growing clarity about what you were really great at in lifeand that your whole life could be organized around the never-ending development of that ability. As this ability grows, so does your sense of confidence about how you can contribute best to a greater number of people. As a result of this growing contribution, you are constantly rewarded with increasing income, resources, and opportunities. This continually inspires and motivates you to develop your ability even more so that you can make an even greater contribution. Now imagine being surrounded by dozens, hundreds, thousands, and millions of other individuals who are growing and contributing in the same fashion. Imagine the impact on the world in every sector of life. Imagine the creativity, innovation, improvements, and breakthroughs that this would introduce into every situation. Finally, imagine that all of this is entirely possible with the concept of Unique Ability. I know it is, because I am seeing it at work all around me in the lives of thousands of individuals.