When You Feel "Underutilized", What Would You Do?
Have you ever had moments in your life that you feel you can do more, a lot more but you're not?
Have you ever felt you're not fully utilizing your strengths and you're just doing mundane tasks?
Have you ever thought what your limits will be if you're at 120% - 150%?
I am at this moment right now.
This moment came into light when I've been doing the same set of tasks for the past 7 months and my learning has stopped.
I did learn about new products but I felt irrelevant because I don't foresee myself supporting those products in the future. I no longer see myself staying in what I'm doing right now.
Whenever I learn those products, I felt purposeless.
Eventually, I became wanting to do more, more of my strengths and enjoyment.
Well, what are my strengths?
What am I good at?
What do I enjoy doing?
I'm having a hard time figuring out what am I actually good at and enjoy doing at the same time. Something that will get paid for. Something that is needed.
So what am I really good at?
I begin searching my memories, my past events, things I've done, and things I've been complimented for.
The first thing that comes into my mind is my ability to write pieces that are easily relatable. I am good at writing and I enjoy it but this skill is not sought after in my current company. But there're other opportunities out there that I'm willing to try.
Then, a flashback keeps popping out even though I'm afraid. The time I was managing projects and events, I was making schedules, handling clients and replying emails.
Why am I afraid?
Because project management stresses me out. I'm afraid the stress will take its toll on my physical and emotional health, again!
But that was me who wasn't able to cope. I am a changed, improved, and better person now.
Will I win or the stress wins?
I am not sure but I am willing to test. I want to try reaching and breakthrough my personal ceiling.
Being aware of my strengths and what I enjoy doing is the beginning. The next point is the most important yet easily get stuck at, materialization.
How am I going to materialize my ideas?
This stage has consumed a lot of people, I believe. Taking action and be consistent at it is one of the biggest challenge all of us are facing. 95% of them are stuck here and only 5% managed to
Am I going to be part of those 95% or the remaining 5%?
The obvious answer is the 5%. So, I'm going to work hard and work smart like the 5% as well.
So, how?
For my writing ability, I will sell my Ability as a Service. My partner has given me a few ideas to start optimizing my writing ability. My first idea will be featured in my next few posts. Stay tuned!
For my career, I will talk to my manager to explore opportunities within the company. Else? I'll think about it later :P
Notice how I've cut off "will"? This is a hack.
Write down what you want to do in simple present tense. Reading it gives you a stronger sense of accomplishment because you're in the presence of your goals.
What was Tifa saying?
If you ever in the same pinch as Tifa has experienced, you have the ability to change.
Her real-life story has shown us that she took an introspective path by looking into herself, creating a sense of purpose in her personal and career life. When she felt "underutilized", she felt purposeless. When she is "fully utilized", she felt she is living her pupose, that she is contributing to something bigger.
Then, she translated that sense of purpose into realistic action steps. She's going to sell her Ability as a Service and talk to her manager. She is willing to test things out, to breakthrough her personal ceiling.
You have the ability to change yourself. And trust me, all changes starts from within.
How willing are you?
Small Daily Practices is Tifa's mission to invite you to live an extraordinary life. She is not an expert, not a coach, not certified but learning is constant for her. She shares what she has learned in hope that you live your version of extraordinary life.
You will find her past works on Simple Daily Practices below,
Why did she started this?
Hi @tifaong, yes, you do have a knack for writing, but creative/narrative writing is one of the lowest paid and mostly overlooked type of writing (unless you got a nice book contract.)
If I may, try to venture into other forms of writing, like business/howto/instruction/technical writing, and at the some time, pick up copywriting skills. Usually, a copywriter knows how to make a normal article "sell", but may not necessary be able to write a whole piece like what you do. A combo of the both will make you an effective business writer.
You've already got the part about writing in a conversational style. The trick now is to make it more business-centric, and your skills will be paid more.
That's what content marketers do, though. They tell a good story, engage the readers, inject the brand message, and sometimes, promote a product or service.
I notice from the pictures you picked, you have an eye for design too. On your spare time, try our illustration software, or even infographic ones. That is also another sought-after skill that you can branch off from your writing skills.
Truth be told, writing is hardly a talent; it's just a skill. A talent is to articulate your thoughts will enough, to link stories into sales, to engage your readers etc.
All the best!
Hey @maverickfoo, thank you for dropping so many great ideas!! You are one of a few that gave me confidence in writing hehehe ;)
There's a technical writer position in my company and I told my manager that I want that position, but very unlikely there'll be an opening soon. People tend to stay long in my company, you see.
I'm also exploring copywriting skills as well, do you know any good sites that I can learn from the best examples?
Illustration right? I read that's one of the skills as well, where do you recommend me to start? Hopefully not something as complicated as Adobe photoshop or illustrator hahaha.
Illustration softwares like Canva, Stencil and Pixteller are good enough for basic stuff. I am actually quite bad at free hand vector drawings, so I try to keep my designs simple and clean, and leverage on nice pics (stock photos that don't need to edit), good font combination and icons (flaticons.com).
There are many sites when it comes to copywriting, like Neville from KopywritingKourse, Neil Patel, the Appsumo team, The Hustle.co are a few good gurus and examples. Copywriting involves you understanding the reader's psyche well, so you can "connect" better with them. Sadly, copywriting is a very hands-on skill and can be very subjective as well. A good practice is to constantly be on the look out for banners and headlines, and ask yourself if you can come up with 3 different and better ways to word it. That's a good mental exercise.
Don Miller from 5minutemarketingmakeover.com, through not a copywriter per se, has a very good approach to coming up with brand messages that "sticks".
Aim for clarity, then sexify it.
Bingo
Hi @maverickfoo, thank you for your advice. Sorry for late reply :(
okay, I'll try something else other than Canva.
Copywriting course?? Looks like I need to invest on a really good course to get the most out of it. I'll look around and check them out :D
"Sexify"?? How do you do it?
I felt exactly the same in my current job, to deal wi that I just started doing other things that help me evolve and learn in my spare time and I don't feel underutilized now in my work since every spare moment I have is now filled with constructive actions, like writing this comment.
Hey @eugenekul, that's a great way to be alive! Constructive and productive actions really make us feel the day is not wasted, right? ;) Glad to to think the same as yours hehe
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