When we’re not consistently using our natural talents, we feel like the first photo—an empty rock-scape from a dystopian movie set.

However, when we have the opportunity to use our talents on a daily basis, we feel like Niagara Falls in all her glory—and superior results follow.

Why are your natural talents so crucial to your work, health, relationships and success?

One of the leading indicators of workplace engagement is whether a person gets to use his or her natural talents on a daily basis.

(For more insight into the powerful ripple effects of engagement, click here, here or here.)

Using our strengths engages and emotionally connects us to the work at hand. This yields improved productivity, higher levels of creativity and better results.

However, if our work doesn’t provide the opportunity to do what we do best every day, disengagement will accumulate like barnacles on the hull of ship.

As you can imagine, the gap between engagement and disengagement is a remarkable predictor of employee and workgroup performance.

For a five-alarm wake-up call, consider this harrowing statistic: 70% of global workers are disengaged in their jobs.

How we naturally think, feel and behave is integral to who we are as human beings.

Gallup research shows people who use their strengths daily are three times more likely to report an excellent quality of life, six times more likely to be engaged at work, 8% more productive and 15% less likely to quit their jobs.

Conversely, if we’re prevented from using our talents, we dry up—just like Niagara Falls without water. Our stress levels spike and our health suffers. Our creativity plummets and our most important relationships get short-changed.

Being denied the opportunity to give our talents to the world leads to an agonizing physical, emotional and spiritual death.

There are few destinations in this world as commanding and awe-inspiring as Niagara Falls.

Journeys, however, are a different matter.

There is a journey more awe-inspiring than any world wonder.

It’s you—in action—owning, living, and breathing your unique strengths into your work, life and relationships.

In the wild, eagles can fly up to 125 miles in one day. Wild African elephants can even migrate 50 miles in a day.

Eagles aren’t meant to sit in a nest or suffer flightlessly in a metal cage. Elephants aren’t meant to live trapped in a concrete urban animal park.

Eagles are designed to fly. Elephants are created to roam. Niagara Falls is supposed to flow.

You’re designed to live life using your unique, natural talents.

At this point, you may be thinking, “I’m starting to get this now. There have been moments in life when I’ve felt totally alive, in the zone and doing my best work…

A common thread was I felt like I was doing what I was made to do. I was executing, building relationships, influencing others and thinking strategically in ways that felt very close to me. Almost as if I was super human…

How do I start living a life that has more of those moments, more of that fire, more of that energy and passion?”

As James Allen shows us in his best-selling classic, “As A Man Thinketh”: “Only by much searching and mining are gold and diamonds obtained, and man can find every truth connected with his being if he will dig deep into the mine of his soul; and that he is the maker of his character, the molder of his life, and the builder of his destiny.”

I created and started StrengthsLauncher to help people discover, develop and focus their natural talents.

After 20 years in the corporate world, I realized a key difference between those who had received strengths training and those who had not.

The strengths cohorts delivered better results, increased engagement and improved wellbeing every single time.

If you’d like to improve your work, life and relationships using tangible, results-based strengths coaching, please click Get Started and schedule a free Get Acquainted appointment today.

If you are seeking strengths-based team workshops or a fun, dynamic, perspective-changing event speaker, please send an email via the Contact tab, and we’ll be in touch shortly.

Start with Talent. Finish with Strength.