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In order for a nomad to also be an entrepreneur, the career they choose to develop must be portable. It can’t be tied to a physical location by clients, by technology, by products, by visas, by whatever……

Writing has long been the most portable of all careers. Even today, when we think of travel and entrepreneurship the image that pops into most people’s minds would be that of the travel writer or some other type of non-fiction article or book writer or  published author of some kind. Writing gives nomads the flexibility to earn money anywhere, and doesn’t tie a nomad to a specific technology – if your computer gets lost or stolen, or stops working, you can always use a pen and a notebook or a napkin or any scrap paper to write on.

(I can hear a number of you, dear readers, expressing a collective “Well, Duh!!, but please bear with me for another moment or two)…………….

continued on the Writer Nomad’s Skills page at http://www.agelessnomads.com/the-writer-nomads-skills

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Everyone is born with natural talents but no-one is born with the skills needed to take advantage of these natural talents.

Natural talents tend to be associated with activities that are so easy for us to do that we do them without really having to think about them or make much of an effort. Natural talents include such attributes as: artistic, creative, entrepreneurial, detail oriented, mathematical, imaginative, innovative, mechanically minded,  practical, literary, persuasive, articulate, etc.

Natural talents on their own don’t really count for much. They are merely unfulfilled potential without the development of skills.

By developing a ’skills portfolio’ you can identify patterns that can help you discover your natural talents, as well as help you identify skills that you would like to develop in order to fulfill specific personal goals.

What Are Skills?

I’m glad you asked that question. Skills are learned and practiced abilities. They are influenced by our natural talents. Skills are much easier to develop in areas we have a natural talent for. However, even without a natural talent, skills can still be developed for activities and topics that a person has an interest in.

As an example, if a person has  a natural entrepreneurial talent , they still need to develop specific entrepreneurial skills, such as developing a viable business plan, finding clients, marketing, etc., for the natural entrepreneurial talent to be of any value.

On the other hand, if an individual has a personal interest in becoming an entrepreneur but they don’t have a natural entrepreneurial talent, they can still become an entrepreneur by learning and developing entrepreneurial skills. The process of becoming an entrepreneur will take longer and be more challenging for a person who does not possess a natural entrepreneurial talent, but it is still doable.

5 Basic Skills Groups

For anyone interested in undergoing a major transition in their life, it is a good idea to begin by identify our current skills set, including those associated with our natural talents. Knowing our current skills set can help us identify activities we want to include in, for example:

• a new lifestyle we are trying to design (including a nomadic one); or
• a new career we are trying to break into; or
• a new enterprise we are trying to develop.

The catch here (and there is generally a catch with this type of activity) is that identifying skills, particularly those associated with a natural talent, is not an easy task.

In her book, The New Zealand Guide to Transferable Skills, Christine Dekker identifies and defines 5 basic skills groups that are very useful at helping people identify what skills they have developed.

These skills groups are:

1. Physical/Practical
   1. Working with things and the physical environment; using your hands and body skillfully.
   2. Examples of physical/practical skills include: assembling, building, fitting, fixing, installing, maintaining, repairing, restoring, ordering, using.
2. Creative/Artistic
   1. Working in a visual medium or with words or sound to express ideas/emotions; using imagination; being innovative.
   2. This group can be divided into: words and ideas; visual; performing.
   3. Examples of creative/artistic skills include: (words and ideas) writing, symbolising, interpreting, modifying, expressing, scripting (visual) color coordinating, decorating, fashioning, styling, forming, drawing, (performing) acting, composing, entertaining, modeling, role-playing, staging.
3. Communication/Interpersonal
   1. Working with people; any interaction or information exchange between people; using language; understanding.
   2. This group can be divided into: ‘key’ communication skills; teaching; relationship-building; facilitating/leading; problem-solving; marketing.
   3. Examples of communication/interpersonal skills include: (‘key’ communication skills) answering, briefing, articulating, writing, reporting, describing, enquiring, conversing; (teaching) advising, coaching, disseminating, explaining, training, instructing; (relationship-building) affirming, appreciating, nurturing, team-building, guiding, empowering, listening, supporting; (facilitating/leading) brainstorming, chairing, directing, motivating, stimulating; (problem-solving) arbitrating, conciliating, mediating, negotiating, reconciling, resolving; (marketing) advertising, representing, selling, convincing.
4. Organization/Management
   1. Bringing resources/people together; making something work together as a whole; using initiative and vision; having an overall picture or goal.
   2. This group can be divided into: to do with time; to do with resources; to do with people and tasks.
   3. Examples of organization/management skills include: (to do with time) forecasting, planning, predicting, scheduling; (to do with resources) allocating, budgeting, grouping, purchasing, sorting; (to do with people and tasks) administrating, coordinating, delegating, monitoring, networking, recruiting, reviewing, supervising.
5. Information Processing
   1. Working with facts, figures, concepts; using thinking/computing skills.
   2. This group can be divided into:’key’ thinking skills; language and ideas; facts and figures.
   3. Examples of information processing skills include: (‘key’ thinking skills) comprehending, thinking, studying, perceiving, reading, judging, listening, identifying; (language and ideas) appraising, preparing, conceptualising, defining, reporting, editing, summarising, theorising, revising; (facts and figures) analysing, auditing, assessing, compiling, estimating, evaluating, recording, quoting, processing, mapping, measuring.

How do you know if you have identified a skill?

Skills can be so many different things. In the book mentioned above, the author listed over 300 unique skills. Each skill is identified as an action verb, and in the lists presented in the book each skill generally ended with an -ing.

To begin identifying your skills, try completing the following sentence:

I am good at _________________________.

Now that I have Identified a List of Skills, What do I do Next?

Use the skills you have identified in the 5 basic skills groups to develop a skills portfolio by identifying:

1. which skills you are best at;
2. which skills you enjoy using the most; and
3. which skills you would like to improve.

Now, using your skills portfolio, try answering the following questions:

1. Can you identify any patterns emerging from your skills portfolio? Any activities that you enjoy doing, have strong skills in, and can be used to enhance your lifestyle?
2. Are there a group of skills that you have identified that can be associated with a specific natural talent? Are there other skills that you can develop that will help you enhance this natural talent?
3. Are there skills that you can use that will help you identify activities you would like to try, new activities that you can use to help you design a new authentic lifestyle with?
4. Are there skills that you can build on in order to develop an enterprise with? One that you have already developed skills in so you know that you would enjoy doing, and feel confident you could turn into a successful money-making enterprise?
5. Have you identified any new skills that you would like to develop? Or old skills that you absolutely want to have nothing more to do with?

Tip: If you are having difficulties identifying your skills, ask friends, family members, co-workers, etc., if they can identify some of your skills for you, to get you started. We tend to devalue or overlook skills that are associated with natural talents because we find them so easy and effortless to do, whereas people who know us would easily be able to identify these skills for us.

TTFN

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“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” asked Alice.
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cheshire Cat.
“I don’t much are where —” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cheshire Cat.
“— so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.

Lewis Carol, Alice in Wonderland…….

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I love that quote from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. In fact, I have probably lived that quote far too many times in my life. Movement became the benchmark through which I gauged progress in my life – as long as I was moving forward, I was getting somewhere and making progress, or at least that is what I used to think.

Then I started learning about life purpose and how to find my life purpose – that quality or passion that I wanted to center my life around. That ‘thing’ that I wanted to build a career on, or spend time studying, or spend time doing. That ‘thing’ would make me feel like I was accomplishing something with my life and not just going somewhere; anywhere!

OK, so I’m not the only person that is seeking to identify their life’s purpose. Seems that there are a few other baby boomers, and Gen Y’ers that are currently searching to define their life’s purpose.

There are numerous techniques that people use to explore and identify their life’s purpose. Many techniques involve answering questions, like the one’s below.

10 Questions That Can Help You Discover Your Life’s Purpose:

source: florindasdesigns Flickr, Cretive Commons

1. What do you love to do, whether in your spare time or at work?
2. What parts of your present job or life activities do you thoroughly enjoy?
3. What do you naturally do well?
4. What are your ten greatest successes to date (in your eyes)?
5. Is there a cause about which you feel passionate?
6. What are the ten most important lessons you have learned in your life?
7. Are there some issues or perceived problems that have occurred over and over again?
8. What do you daydream about doing?
9. Imagine you are writing your epitaph? What things do you want to be remembered for at the end of your life?
10. What would you do if you know you could not fail? What would it take to achieve that?

There is another technique that I really enjoy using to identify topics that I am interested in, but that could be because I am more than just a little bit book obsessed. Try spending some time wandering around a large book store. What topics are attracting your attention? History? Architecture? Travel? Look for a pattern in what book topics attract your attention.

You can also look at the books you own. What topics have interested you enough that you have actually bought books about the topic – and spent time reading them?

And you can look at what magazines you subscribe to. What are the topics of the articles that caught your attention and you enjoyed reading?

Once you have all of this information collected, see what patterns you can identify, what topics keep popping up. These common interests and patterns will point towards your life’s purpose and will help you set life goals, help you design your lifestyle, or help you maneuver through a major life transition.

With your life’s purpose, a goal and a plan in hand, you can begin building your best life. Or at least that is what I plan on doing

TTFN

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This article was originally published on my other blog Ageless Explorer, on July 17th, 2009, under the title Would You Tell Me Please, Which Way I Ought To Go From Here