One day they took a decision.

They took a decision that there was more to life than the hum drum, more to life than day to day, 9 to 5, making a living and they struck out to be something. They struck out not to be anything, but specifically to be themselves and to be all that that meant.

When people ask what I do and I reply that I help people to be themselves, it seems a bit daft. I mean why would anyone need help to know who they are? And yet somehow we have created a way of bringing kids up, a way of educating, a way of working and a way of living that divorces us from ourselves. A way of being that motivates us to define ourselves by our 'ego' rather than by ourselves.

The irony is that all any of us want is to be happy. And happiness comes from security, love and fulfillment and these things are very difficult for our egos to find.

Our ego is based around acquired skills and behaviours. Acquired skills being the things that we have learned to be good at rather than the things that come naturally to us, acquired behaviours being the defence mechanisms that we have built up to protect our fragile ego from attack.

No one ever excels with acquired skills - the best you can hope for with acquired skills is to be good at them, but not to excel. We can only ever excel with our innate talents and only then if we practice, practice, practice.

Anyone who has ever excelled at anything is working with their innate talents and not with acquired skills.

David Beckham, Lance Armstrong, Jamie Oliver, Jack Johnson, Banksey did not use acquired skill to excel in their field. They understood their gifts, their innate talents, went with them and practiced, practiced, practiced.

For most of us the challenge is that our education, upbringing and career to date was almost specifically designed to mask out innate talents and set us to work on acquiring skills.

No wonder so many of us lack confidence.

If we want our lives to go somewhere other than around in circles we must decide to connect with our gifts our innate talents and don't believe for a second that you don't have any - we all do.

Our gifts may be things we got told off for as kids, the sort of thing that we just could not help doing. Or perhaps they are the things that our friends come to us for.

Once you know what your gifts are, practice, practice, practice until you can excel.

Are you ready to be brilliant?

"Fulfillment is a by-product of making something that means something. You don't go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit." (misquoted from Banksy - see www.banksy.co.uk"

If you want help understanding and using your innate talent in your life, drop me a line. neil@authentictransformation.co.uk