What Are Your Superpowers?

Do you know what your Superpowers are? You can have more than one. They are your strengths that give you confidence to push aside fear and tackle the obstacles in front of you.

My primary Superpowers are resilience, compassion, sarcasm and humor. You might be saying "Sarcasm? That doesn't sound like a positive Superpower." Yes, I realize that but for me sarcasm is a pre-cursor to humor.

I don't use sarcasm against others (pay no attention to my family members shaking their heads), only to process my frustration in difficult situations. In my mind, I use sarcasm to have confrontations with difficult people so I can say what I really want to say. It's faster than journaling and my sarcastic confrontations in my mind eventually make me laugh. Eventually is the key word.

Rediscovering my Superpowers

Last year, right after my heart transplant and going through an unexpected divorce after 27 years of marriage, my heart doctors wanted me quarantined at home for the first year after my surgery even in spite of COVID.

I found myself unemployed from our business due to our pending divorce so I moved in with my twin sister in her one bedroom apartment. I went through my grief process while recovering from my heart transplant surgery. Thank the Lord for my new strong heart with no complications during this time.

If I wasn't able to get a job, how was I going to earn income to pay my share of our living expenses?

Instead of focusing on what I couldn't do, I asked myself what CAN I do? 

My Top Two Favorite Superpowers

One of my favorite Superpowers that I learned to develop over the years is resilience. I know how to bend and not break because I've had lots of practice from hardships, especially in the past six years.

Being resilient compliments my other Superpower which is stubbornness. When I was in my early twenties I decided to move from Texas to northern California with a friend because I wanted to do something exciting with my life. When I went over to my parents house, they were completely caught off guard and asked me all kinds of questions anticipating I had not fully thought this ridiculous idea through.

Little did they know, I came prepared to win the battle. I had a logical reply to every question they asked. They finally looked at each other, heavily sighed and said to me "Clearly you came to tell us your decision and not to ask our permission. We see you have thought this out which makes us feel better." 

Long story short, I moved back to Texas after nine months because I ran out of money, was very homesick, and despised my new and unqualified supervisor at work who happened to be the grown son of my manager's new beau (trying to keep my sarcasm under control).

I'm thankful my parents didn't fight me on moving to California and I'm thankful they didn't say "I told you so." when I moved back because I learned a lot about myself in those nine months. Like how I could make $25 stretch the week before payday...more than once.

How My Superpowers Uncovered Opportunities

So, getting back to earning income after my divorce, I asked myself "What CAN I do to earn money to pay my living expenses?" What work experience do I have? 

I have financial accounting experience. office management, and I know how to start and operate a small business. I also needed to find a way to work from home to comply with my heart doctors request to quarantine.

What were my talents, skills and character traits that I received compliments on from people who knew me?

I was known for my baked goodies, crocheted and quilted lap blankets, and teaching others at work. I was described as encouraging, positive, good sense of humor, resilient, positive, compassionate, strong faith, and a few others.

After much pondering, it came to me! I would start my own virtual business and teach my resilience framework to others who struggled to move on after adversity. Others could benefit from the years it took me to learn how to overcome hardships by accelerating their time after grief to find new opportunities and flourish in life. 

I realized that my story of overcoming adversities could become someone else's survival guide and then their own story of overcoming their adversity could become another person's survival guide, and so on and so on. How exciting is that!

Your Turn To Discover Your Superpowers and Uncover Opportunities

So now it's time for you to start working on your story of overcoming adversity so your survival guide is ready to inspire others going through a similar situation. 

1. Make a list of 10-15 strengths and character traits that you see in yourself. Keep this list handy.

2. Make a list of your talents and skills in personal, work, and community environments. Keep this list handy as well.

3. Ask 5-10 friends, family, and co-workers what they think your top three strengths or character traits are and why. You can word it like this: "Can I ask for your quick opinion? I'm completing an exercise in which I am to reach out to a few people who know me best. Can you tell me what you think my top three strengths or character strengths are and why? I appreciate you taking the time to do this for me!"

4 .  Take your lists in #1 and #2 and #3 and come up with your top 10 strengths and traits. Look for duplicates because these are your strongest ones.

5. What is your passion in life? What would you love to do if time and money were not a factor? Now, how can you use your top strengths, traits, talents and skills to make this happen? Think outside of the box and look at all possibilities. Just because 2 + 2 = 4 doesn't mean that's the only way you can make 4. Change your perspective: 10 - 6 = 4, (24/3) - 4 = 4. etc. 

These 5 Tips Really Work

Recently, I had a conversation with a long-time friend who had been diagnosed with cancer. She was distraught because she had earned a certification and was ready to apply for jobs in her field.

However, her more detailed cancer test results would not be available for at least 3-4 weeks to determine if surgery was needed right away or another procedure would suffice. Her dilemma was she needed to earn income as soon as possible but didn't know what to do because of the pending test results. 

Since I already knew her talents and skills as an artist, we talked about ideas for starting a side business doing what she loved. She mentioned to me that people used to tell her she should sell her artistic creations but she didn't know how to go about it at the time. By the end of our conversation, I could hear her excitement about looking into two opportunities she had available to her right away which was creating and selling her items online or teaching online how to create similar items.

Once she changed her perspective from what-I-can't-do to what-I-can-do then she was able to see the opportunities available to her. Exciting, right?

 What Opportunities Will Your Superpowers Uncover?

So what about you? What are your Superpowers? What opportunities will your uncover to experience positive growth?

Don't assume you already know your Superpowers. Do the exercises above.

When I received the responses back of what others thought my top three strengths were and why, it made my confidence and self-worth go up so I could step out of my comfort zone and try something new.

We can be our worst critic sometimes because we tend to focus only on our flaws.

Seeing yourself through other peoples eyes builds up your confidence and self-worth. You are ready to take the first step out of your comfort zone and grow.

Stepping out of your comfort zone into the unknown reveals untapped knowledge and talents inside you that are waiting to get out. Let them out and experience the positive growth that will make you flourish in life. You can do this!

Daily Mantra: Hunt the good stuff, find the humor, keep positive, and focus on your blessings. God can bring good out of every situation!