Chapter 3 – Discovering your Superpowers

In this chapter, you will identify your best qualities and create an action plan to allow you to transform these qualities into superpowers. This forms the third step in the framework for the creation of an intentional life. Below, we set out a general overview of our approach; the step-by-step methodology that forms the basis for this book.?

At the start of each new chapter, we will show the above diagram to identify where you are in your journey. In addition, we will also set out a list of key points that summarise the objectives of each stage, things we hope you can achieve during each stage, and things to remain aware of as you read each chapter.?

Key Points

• Find your strengths
• Discover your favorable blind spots: the “superpowers” you don’t even know you have?
• Transform your strengths into superpowers

Introduction

If we were to ask you to think of something about yourself that you’d like to improve, what would it be - something you’d categorize as a strength or a weakness??

In all likelihood, you would choose a weakness. As demonstrated in various studies, we tend to consider our weaknesses more malleable or easier to improve than our strengths.?

These studies include Motivated Implicit Theories of Personality: My Weaknesses Will Go Away, but My Strengths Are Here to Stay, by Andreas Steimer and André Mata.?

This study concludes that people generally expect that their strengths will remain stable into the future and that their weaknesses will improve. When we identify something as a weakness, we are more motivated to improve in that area. However, this isn’t the case with our perceived strengths.?

People Tend to Improve Their Weaknesses

In her article Work on Your Strengths, Not Your Weaknesses, the author Jessica Greene reinforces the conclusions of this study and mentions two factors that end up driving us towards improving our weak points instead of developing our strong points:?

• An impression that it’s easier to change our weaknesses, and
• The fact that we are more motivated to change whatever appears easier to change.?

Despite us generally being more motivated to improve our weaknesses, many other studies confirm that, by focussing on developing our strengths, we grow faster than we would if we were to dedicate our efforts towards mitigating our weaknesses.?

Where Do You Focus Your Time and Energy??

Do you focus more time and energy on what you’re not good at or already good at??

Suppose you ever feel like your goals and objectives are sliding away from you. In that case, it’s worth dedicating more time and energy towards identifying what you’re already good at, an area in which you have great potential, and perfecting these abilities. In this way, you avoid falling into the trap of believing that your strengths are already at their maximum level and the fixed mindset this generates. In the words of Carol Dweck, professor at Stanford and author of the book Mindset, a fixed mindset can be defined as believing that our talents are innate gifts, things we were born with and will always have.?

This mentality causes us to believe that there was no effort to bring our abilities to their current level. Consequently, we think it’s not necessary to put effort into learning new things. According to Dweck, a learning mentality is tied to a growth mindset. Only once we accept the need to improve what we’re already good at will we open up the possibility to continue learning and growing in other varied areas of our lives.?

Discover Your Strengths

Usually, the strength in which we invest most time and effort is what will become our superpower. What begins as a propensity or potential, when developed, is what will make a difference in achieving what we most desire and overcoming obstacles or interferences.?

We can define a strength in three possible ways. However, based on any of these definitions, when we use our strengths, we feel good; we’re confident; it gives us the sensation that we’re fulfilling our role and serving our group or society. This makes us feel able to achieve whatever it is we desire.?

We can identify our strong points in a few ways:?

Talents

Something that we are naturally able to do without a considerable amount of effort. It’s as though we were born with the seed of a certain quality, and throughout our lives, we nurture that seed; perhaps we even allow it to sprout into something that will become our profession.?

Attitudes that set us apart

Something we do very well, and others perceive that.?

Strengths

Something we’re very good at (a talent or an attitude that sets us apart), which we’ve developed and perfected, either consciously or unconsciously, and that is recognized in us by ourselves and others.?

Where to Begin?

Begin by listing what you consider to be your strong points, be they unique talents, attitudes that set you apart, or strengths:

• Try to think of things that you have always done well or with ease from an early age.?
• Think about something you did in the past which generated real value for others.?
• It isn’t the time to be humble. List all the strengths you can think of.?
• To help, you can imagine yourself in a setting in which you feel a sense of confidence.?
• Think about what you do that makes you feel good, something that you do naturally.?
• Think about an activity you already perform well and could therefore imagine yourself performing outstandingly well.?

If at any point you’re in doubt, you can identify your strengths by comparing different qualities. For example, you may consider yourself to be intelligent, but intelligence is relative. You may be more or less intelligent depending on the context and whom you’re surrounded by. If you spend much time with intelligent people, your intelligence is likely above average. However, you’re unlikely to perceive your intelligence as a superpower. However, if many people recognize that your intelligence sets you apart, then maybe your intelligence could be a superpower in some contexts and not in others.?

When we’re in the discovery stage, comparing our qualities or strengths with those of the people we’re surrounded by is a fundamental tool we can use to gain greater awareness of our potential superpowers.?

Sometimes, having a particular superpower in excess ends up turning this virtue into what we call a villain, something we’ll discuss in more detail in chapter nine of this book, named, appropriately, Villains. Everything, therefore, has an ideal dose; as pointed out by the Swiss-German doctor and physicist, Paracelsus, in the 16th century: the difference between a medicine and a poison is the dose.

Review and Finalise Your List of Strengths

Below, we set out a list of possible strengths which you can use to review and finalize your list.?

• Select, from your list, the abilities that produce the most value for you and others. It’s no use, for example, being a peaceful person if this quality doesn’t generate a valuable outcome in your personal or professional life. Superpowers have to have a streak of action.
• Which of these qualities make you feel powerful when you embody them?
• Which items on your list make you feel good and like you’re living your best life?

Try and come up with a list of a maximum of five strengths.?

Your List of Strengths

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How to Remain Motivated and Develop Your Strengths?

When you think about transforming a strength into a superpower, how does it make you feel??

When attempting to discover their superpowers, some people may feel undistinguished, i.e., they may notice that they have many abilities but that nothing stands out in which they are outstanding.?

Others, like, for example, those who are good at problem-solving, may not know how to train this ability if they’re not confronted with a problem to solve.?

Others still may enjoy recognizing their potential superpowers. However, the thought of developing them further may represent a considerable burden, especially when that person already sets high standards for themselves.?

For this reason, it’s fundamental that we:

• Know why we’re choosing to develop a given superpower, and what feeling is linked to perfecting this quality,
• Expose ourselves to circumstances that allow us to train our chosen strength, for example, by finding games that require us to use our problem-solving abilities,
• Understand in which context our chosen strength can be applied so that we don’t annoy those around us by failing to respect their limits.?

Whether you feel motivated or overburdened when you think about your superpowers, the idea behind reflecting on them is to drive you towards developing those abilities for which you already have talent, abilities in which you have the potential to be extraordinary.

Ask Your Friends, Colleagues, and Family Members?

As a final step on this journey to discover your potential superpowers, you will ask 15 different people from three different social groups (friends, colleagues, family) what they consider your strengths (you can use the message templates set out below).

Based on their responses and the strengths you listed about yourself above, we will create a final list and prioritize the most relevant points.?

As a result of this last activity, we’re able to identify our blind spots, which are located within what Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham refer to as the blind quadrant of the Johari Window (see the image below). Our blind spot contains attributes that others can see and possible cannot be seen by ourselves.?

First, send the message below:

Hi (Name of a friend, family member, or peer), I’m carrying out an exercise in self-knowledge, and I’d like your help. Could you send me three words that define me? Thanks!

After receiving a response, send the following message:

Taking things one step further, what would you consider to be my superpower??Something that could help make my life easier or more interesting?

Once you receive all the responses relating to your qualities, strengths, and potential superpowers, you are going to organize the information in a table, like an example set out below:?

To fill in the table above, will be easyer to answer the following questions first:?

• Which of the superpowers that appear on your list did others also identify?____________________________________________________________
• What are things that others identified about you that don’t appear on your own list, but that make sense to you??____________________________________________________________
• Which strength was identified several times by different people, even if they didn’t use the same word?____________________________________________________________
• Out of the qualities listed above, identify those you consider capable of generating a real impact and producing results that take you towards your desired goals.?____________________________________________________________
• Place in order of priority a maximum of five strengths. ____________________________________________________________
• Do the five words selected above really inspire you to achieve your goals??____________________________________________________________

Create a Plan of Action to Allow You to Transform Your Strengths into Superpowers?

Imagine you’re an Olympic swimmer, and that you achieve your best scores swimming butterfly. Therefore, it’s logical that you concentrate your training on this stroke while incorporating complementary exercises that also help you perfect your butterfly technique. In this way, you will transform what is already a strength into a superpower, improving your time in the butterfly race until you create a new world record.?

During one of our conversations, a subject I mentor who works in the wine trade identified that one of her greatest strengths was communication, which consistently yielded excellent results in her professional relationships. Based on this, she decided to enroll in an acting course to transform this strength into a superpower. When she began her acting course, she soon realized that many of her fellow students were much better communicators than she was, while others would never attain her level. This motivated her to keep perfecting her art while, at the same time, it reinforced her confidence with regards to this skill that set her apart.

What’s more, this experience also revealed to her that this same quality was not as well developed for her personal relationships. She, therefore, perceived that she still had a lot to learn about how she could apply this superpower in other areas of her life.

Another subject I mentor recognized, as a potential superpower, her charisma. This was something that came naturally to her. Based on this, her plan of action consisted of meeting new people to train this strength and transform it into a superpower. Nonetheless, if you happen to share this trait, it’s essential to ask yourself how exactly meeting new people will help you achieve this purpose. What are the objective actions in your day-to-day life you can take to meet new people, and as a consequence, generate the desired increase in your charisma??

To take another example, say you identify as being very assertive. What can you do to leverage this strength? We recommend you ask yourself:

• What makes you assertive??
• When are you most assertive??
• What do you need to feel to be assertive??
• How are you able to stimulate this feeling?

Plan of Action

• Begin with two strengths (fill in the table below).
• Try to identify the moments in which you embody each of these strengths; think about why they manifest at these times, how you feel and what you’re doing. Try to list what you could do to create more opportunities to demonstrate your chosen strengths.

Remember that you will need to test your plan of action and make the necessary adjustments until you have complete clarity regarding developing your superpowers. What’s more, developing the strengths you prioritized above so they reach their maximum potential is a fundamental factor that will help you achieve your main goal in life, something we will discuss in more detail in the next chapter.

7-DAY BEHAVIOURAL CHALLENGE

In each chapter, you will be given a behavioral challenge to be performed daily for a period of at least seven days. This task is fundamental for you to assimilate and understand everything you’ve just learned. After all, having knowledge and acting to put that knowledge into practice are two different things altogether.

Implement, in your day-to-day, the plan of action you created to develop your strengths and transform them into superpowers.?

Takeaways

In this chapter, you learned:

• Why it’s better to direct your energy towards developing your strengths rather than improving your weaknesses
• What your potential superpowers are
• How to create a plan of action that will allow you to transform your strengths into superpowers

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES

This material is for informational and educational purposes only and is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any of the services mentioned. This information is not directed at or intended for distribution to or use by any person or entity located in any jurisdiction where such distribution, publication, availability or use would be contrary to applicable law or regulation or which would subject the authors to any registration or licensing requirements within said jurisdiction.?

No part of this material may be (i) copied, photocopied or duplicated in any form by any means or (ii) redistributed without the prior written consent of Gustavo Oliveira and William Camara.

?2021 Brain & Body Academy, LLC. All rights reserved.