What are your main talents?

To piggyback on bluebicyle's nice thread on people's "good qualities", I thought I'd start a thread to ask about people's main talents. What talents have you either always had or later found or developed as a hidden talent?

My main talents:

• Dancing, of course
• Flower arranging (a hidden talent I discovered at about 40 years old)
• Cooking and baking
• Identifying a song after only hearing a small number of notes, and being able to hum a very large number of songs exactly, from memory (I'm not as good at remembering lyrics)
• Making myself laugh

Good thread. I can only think of a few talents off hand. We share the ability to easily recognize songs except I'm great at the lyrics. I can only claim that for songs from the 80s and 90s though.

I'm a talented system designer. I can quickly break down and learn all of the parts of any system, analyze the system for strengths and weaknesses and then develop a strategy for incrementally altering the system to make it more effective. I'm also good at dreaming up systems where none exist. This all requires me to be a good problem solver. I love puzzles!

I am a good planner. I can manage complex initiatives and keep all of the moving parts in check.

I'm a talented leader. People often remarked that working on my projects was a great experience. I was able to keep people motivated and made sure we had a good time while we were working. I also made sure to be fair and reward everyone. I spent a lot of time championing people and helping them move up the ladder. Work is work, but its not so bad if you can rock out a solid project and have fun doing it.

I would have loved to have worked with someone like you, fern!

We'd probably make a good team. You have good energy and you're smart. I have worked on similar projects and they make such a huge difference.

I know the feeling of being sensitive about having to leave work behind because of being ill. It doesn't sit well with me that I had to give it up due to mental illness. I wanted more time at home, but I had to walk away to take care of myself and it feels like I failed myself. I'd like to think I could go back now and handle things, but it is just too soon after my first episode to know what will happen. My husband and I just don't think it is a good idea to push myself for a while.

I miss stretching my skills though and I really miss my teams. I was fortunate to work with so many truly talented and amazing people. I was consulting in my last job and I was honest with my employer about why I needed to leave. They were very shocked because I never displayed any signs of illness at work. My episode came on fast over a weekend and it was difficult for them to understand how I could become so ill so fast. I honestly don't understand either, but I am grateful they never had to deal with my manic state or psychosis. They told me I could come back any time I wanted to in the future and that I should consider myself part of their 'family'. That was nice to hear. I don't know if I could ever go back there though. I still feel so ashamed of myself. I'm trying to let that go, but I guess that's the deal for a perfectionist who crashed hard.

I'm glad you shared these talents about yourself. You should be proud of them even if it is hard to talk about. I don't talk much about how I feel about work, but I felt safe here amongst friends. In a way, we're kind of like one of the teams I miss working with. Amazingly talented people working together to solve difficult problems. Lifting each other up to help each other climb a different kind of ladder.

remembering/ telling jokes

finding weird music (novelty stuff)

creative writing

drinking lots of doctor pepper in a day. (lol.)

You're such a lovely person, fern! I hope that everyone here reads at least the last two sentences in your quote above. It's so extremely true!

I'm glad that no one at your workplace witnessed your manic state or psychosis. Some of mine were witnessed by many at mine. Those were traumatic times.

I hope more people feel comfortable sharing some of their talents in this thread. This has started to get pretty intense. I'm sorry I sparked that.

doing an impression of an old woman (seriously, it's sooo funny!)

giving big hugs

You're good. You caused me to smile.

Don't think I actually have any I can't play an instrument, I can't draw or paint, i can't act or dance. I'm a loose canon i guess this is why i feel I'm not bipolar I'm talentless

I am good at reading music- especially sight reading choral music. I am good at keeping my money tree healthy. I'm good at memorizing music- especially singing.I am good at keeping the apartment clean. I am good at being a friend. (But I'm also good at not letting others take advantage of me- like today I just grabbed my stuff and left when it was clear an old acquaintance wasn't going to go away and give me my space! )

Thanks for creating this thread, it made me reflect on what's good about me. Here's my short list...

I like writing a lot and have always been good at it.

I'm also a leader but haven't been in that role for a few years at work.

I sometimes draw.

I'm a good problem solver. I'm able to work with very little information and come up with solutions.

I'm not sure if these are talents...

I'm very patient with others and myself.

People tell me I'm very calm and collected just about all the time.

I have a stick-with-it attitude.

Art, drawing, color use, color differentiation (fine gradations, not as in this is purple, this is green, lol!), jewelry, remembering music, making things, making something from nothing, being funny, and putting together my own style.

And remembering dialogue in shows for some reason.

And spelling. And correct use of homonyms and apostrophes, while we're at it.

Guess that's enough. There's plenty I suck at too...

I wouldn’t say I’m particularly “talented” at any one thing, but I do enjoy tinkering with electronics and have developed strong enough engineering skills to be able to take on semi-difficult electronics projects. Though at the same time, I did study computers and electronics in undergrad and grad school, so not all of my skills are self taught. I have a strong engineering background.

I’m also halfway decent at hacking things (for good reasons, like to figure out how to improve an existing piece of software by trying to find vulnerabilities before hackers do). Though again, I studied these things in school, so part of my skill set comes from that.

I’m actually not even that great at math. lol. I took an IQ test on two different occasions, years apart, and my results showed that my analytical skills were significantly stronger than my logic skills. I have slightly above average logic skills, but one would think that, as an engineer, I would have very strong logic skills. But nope. The IQ tests showed like 114-116 for logic and above 134 for analytical skills. Then overall IQ score was brought down by attention and concentration (92 IQ subscore on the latest IQ test, which was for an ADHD assessment). Not that I put much stock in IQ tests, but it was interesting to see lower logic scores relative to analytical scores.

I do that too- memorize dialogue in tv shows and movies- nuances and everything- as if it were music.

Exactly! It can be like music!

I can write short stories. According to my English teacher, I had a real talent for that. Also, I am really good with animals.

I’m musically inclined and know how to play 7 instruments.

I’m good at strategy, planning, problem solving and writing.

I type 124 wpm and speed read quickly as well often going through a book a day.

I’m ambidextrous (self taught so I could be more efficient).

I’m good at accounting and finance (MBA/CPA). I loved working in that world.

I'm draw fairly decently, I used to do it constantly but kind of stopped for a few years but I'm back at it again and am constantly learning and improving.

Writing too, I don't do it often but when I actually put the effort into it I can do really well. I've received many compliments from English professors and they've used some of my papers for examples for future students.

I used to be good at violin, played solo in front of a judge and won a medal, was first violin in my orchestra class. I would love to get back into it, it's been a long time so I'd have to start with the basics again.

I pick up languages fairly quickly, always do well in foreign language learning classes I've taken.

Not sure if this is a talent or an obsession lol but I'm extremely well organized. I keep a few different calendars, one on my wall, a pocket sized one, and my phone calendar. I make lists all the time and organize what I need to do during the day/week/months, goals for the month, etc stuff like that.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Baking and making any kind of desserts. I really just got into this the past couple years but it's so much fun

I can somewhat play the mountain dulcimer
Relating to people who I’ve just met
Connecting with others
Listening

Listening, art, coloring, writing, poetry, blogging, photography, advice, drawing and helping others.

Art is my main one. Seems like a lot of bipolar people are artistic!
I also play the harp, and I love writing.