What’s your superpower?

We all have a superpower.

That’s my belief. 

Every human being on this planet excels at something. 

Something that makes this person stand out around the people around them.

Having a superpower is not exclusively for people with a high IQ. That’s an assumption some people have that could not be further from the truth. 

Our brain is one of the factors of superpower. 

And our body, hands, feet, and persistence in building a skill (involving the brain) are other factors.

So the question is not if you have a superpower but whether you have found it yet.

And if not, why not? 

Allow me to get personal a little.

My superpower is working with teams and their leaders.

I love team dynamics. I love helping teams to get better. I ‘see’ dynamics within teams sooner than their members see them themselves. I can read between the lines. I hear what’s not being said. And I know it when something that’s being said is inauthentic. I know what questions to ask and when. 

I was lucky to find my superpower fairly early in my career. 

I started facilitating groups because a good friend asked me to help him grow his team.

Then I met my mentor Joyce who recognized my talent and helped me grow and improve. 

Today, I love working with groups and making them better. It’s the work that gives me the most energy. 

Facilitating and coaching teams also inspires me in my writing. 

I wouldn’t call my writing a superpower, but I enjoy doing it. It provides me with energy. 

The past few paragraphs may not have been the most humble paragraphs I’ve ever written.

I had to learn that it’s ok to promote yourself. 

Our four years in the United States helped me to see that it’s essential to be self-aware and ‘sell’ yourself at moments.

As long as it’s done authentically.

Also, I’m from a part of the Netherlands where people consider you arrogant when you’re self-confident and ‘brag’ about your skills.

But is the above really bragging? 

Or is it being very self-aware?

I’ll leave that up to you to decide. Call me arrogant; it’s fine. Call me confident; it’s fine. Call me anything you want.

I wrote a bit about myself to highlight my point.

If you have yet to find your superpower, what’s stopping you from going after it?

You owe this to yourself. 

Let me repeat; you owe finding your superpower to yourself.

When your work sucks the energy out of you, you’re probably not leveraging your superpower. 

I know this sounds philosophical and naive, but I wish every human being could live life using their superpower.

I’ve said this many times.

It’s ok to be supportive of the people around you and to spend your years in service to them.

It’s ok to make a deliberate choice to raise your children and help them start their journey in a good way.

It’s even ok when you consider that your superpower.

But what will you do once they’re on their own and don’t need you anymore?

How will you use your superpower, then? Or perhaps this was not your superpower, and you were ‘just’ in service of others.

You’re the most important person in your life. You are.

Erikjan Lantink

Other people may need you, but they will likely survive without you. 

You owe it to yourself and the rest of the world to find your superpower.

Can you imagine if everybody would? 

Your turn: start your superpower journey by asking yourself what gives you the most energy in life. There’s something there. 

Do more of what makes you happy!

Erikjan