WHAT IS YOUR UNIQUE ABILITY?

What is Unique Ability? Unique Ability is the essence of what you love to do,
and do best. There are 4 characteristics of Unique Ability:
1. Its superior ability that other people notice and value;
2. You are passionate about using it and want to use it as much as
possible;
3. Its energizing both for you and others around you;
4. Theres a sense of never-ending improvement

The Unique Ability Discovery Process

Th e
U n iqu e
A b ility
Q u estion

Th e 10
B est
H abits

Th e
U n iqe
A b ility
S tate m en
t

A sk o th e rs in D eriv e a list of A rticu la te you r

yo u r life for
you r "b e st
U n iq u e A b ility th eir
h a b its" - h ow
th e esse n ce of
exp e rien ce o f
you
w h a t yo u d o
yo u r U niq u e
co n siste n tly
w ell a n d th e
A b ility
g e t yo u r be st
u nd erlyin g
results
p a ssio n th a t
m o tiva tes an d
d riv e s you - in
o ne sen ten ce.

Th e
Activity
In ven tory

Th e
Activity
Sn ap sh ot

Th e
U n iqu e
A b ility
Actio n
Plan

List, then
D istill a n d
C re ate a pla n
cate g o rize a ll
org an ize yo ur
to m a xim ize
th e activ itie s in activitie s b y
th e tim e you
yo u r life to g et cate g ory to
spe nd a p p lyin g
a n o ve rall
b e com e cle ar
yo u r U niq u e
p ictu re of h ow ab ou t w hich
A b ility
yo u sp en d your on es b est u se
tim e .
y ou r U n iqu e
A b ility and
w h ere yo u
need
tea m w o rk a n d
su p p o rt.

The 10 Best Habits

Your best habits are the things you always do automatically to produce
your best results. For example, you always take action; you always strive for
excellence; you always try to make people happy, etc. Use your DISC results
to help you with this exercise.
Exercise:
Complete your list of the 10 Best Habits that describe how you get your best
results.

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1) I always___________________________________________________
2) I always___________________________________________________
3) I always___________________________________________________
4) I always___________________________________________________
5) I always___________________________________________________
6) I always___________________________________________________
7) I always___________________________________________________
8) I always___________________________________________________
9) I always___________________________________________________
10)
I always
___________________________________________________

The Unique Ability Statement

Now use the material from the previous exercise to write one sentence that
expresses your Unique Ability. The formula for creating a Unique Ability
Statement is as follows: It starts with the words My Unique Ability is
followed by action words that describe what you do (your talent) and then
words that describe why you do it (your passion). Here are some examples:

My Unique Ability is connecting with people in a fun and lively way to

empower them to be confident in themselves and experience the joy
of new possibilities.
My Unique Ability is figuring out a future vision and creating a flexible
plan that can be implemented today to achieve the best results.
My Unique Ability is empathizing with peoples individual experiences
and taking action so they feel cared for.
My Unique Ability is making authentic and enthusiastic connections to
motivate people to have fun and make improvements to lead a
happier life.
My Unique Ability is perceiving the essence of a situation and providing
practical strategies to align peoples thinking with whats real.
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Exercise
Now start to write your Unique Ability using the following formula: My
Unique Ability=Talent (what I do) + Passion (why I do it). First, start
with the Talent part of the formula what are you doing? What are you
providing?

My Unique Ability is
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________...
Now the second part of the formula Passion. Why do you do this? Whats
your motivation? What result are you hoping to achieve?

to
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________
Finally, put these two parts together, the what and the why and you have
the first draft of your Unique Ability Statement.
The Activity Inventory
Its time to take a closer look at what you spend your time doing and how
much opportunity you have to apply your Unique Ability. The Activity
Inventory allows you to create a comprehensive summary of all the activities
in your life so you can analyze them.
Exercise:
Start by making a list of the things you do in the course of your routine, both
at work and in your personal life. Make sure to look at the micro scale of
our activities daily tasks like organizing your schedule, answering e-mail,
family duties, etc. Come up with as many things as you can as they occur to
you. You may want to revisit this list during a week as activities come up.

My Activity Inventory

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Work

Home

From your list above youll begin categorizing each one into the following
four categories Unique (U), Excellent (E), Competent (C), Incompetent (I).
After reading the following descriptions, youre going to place the letter U, E,
C, or I beside each activity. Here are the descriptions:
Unique Ability Activities: Superior Skill; Energy; Passion; Never-ending
improvement.
Of the activities on the list, which ones are your favorites, the ones you love
to do?
Excellent Activities: Superior Skill; Reputation; No Passion; Teamwork.
Of your activities, which do you recognize as something you do better than
most people? You find these activities satisfying, and you find the result you
can create rewarding. People count on you for what you do in this area. You
have developed a reputation for your ability. But deep down, you dont have
a real sense of passion for the activity. This lack of passion is what
differentiates excellent from Unique Ability activities.
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Competent Activities. Meet minimum standards; Anxiety; Competition;

Repetition.
There are other activities on your list that youre merely adequate at you
reach minimum standards. Youre simply okay, and because you are not
distinct from others, you face a lot of competition. The activity seems the
same, day after day. You dont feel inspired to get better.

Incompetent Activities: Failure; Frustration; Conflict; Stress.

Which activities on your list make you feel frustrated or stressed because
youre not good at them? Which activities would you be happier never to do
again? If you were going to be good at them, you would be by now but its
just not happening.
The Activity Snapshot
Now that youve categorized your activities, its time to reorganize and
rewrite them by category so you can clearly see all of your areas of Unique
Ability, excellence, competence and incompetence. Start with one of the
four quadrants below, and review all the activities you labeled an I, for
example. Study them and find a common theme, grouping similar activities.
Having a simple overview of the activities for which you have a particular
strength or weakness will give you clarity to avoid situations that waste your
time and to spend more of your time doing what you love to do.
Example:

My Activity Snapshot
Unique
Researching
Managing projects
Client communication
Problem solving
Hosting events

Excellent
Writing
Managing money
Team management

Competent
Routine activities
Scheduling
Admin/paperwork

Incompetent
Anything mechanical
Cleaning
Training

Exercise:
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My Activity Snapshot
Unique

Excellent

Competent

Incompetent

The Unique Ability Action Plan

Now lets look at your Activity Snapshot to see what you can do differently to
free up your energy. How can you do less of your incompetent or merely
competent activities so you can concentrate more on your excellent and
unique ability activities? Use the following template to begin your Action
Plan, starting with Incompetent first. Under Improvement Ideas, write down
the changes you could make to eliminate non-Unique Ability activities and
free you up to spend more time working on your Unique Ability. How do you
stop doing incompetent activities? Give yourself the permission to delegate,
knowing that you and the rest of the world are generally better off when you
get rid of incompetent activities in favor of your Unique Ability.
Delegation strategies are:
Stop doing it
Find someone else to do it
Trade with someone else
Use technology
Hire someone
Give up guilt

My Unique Ability Action Plan

Improvement
Ideas

Benefits

Specific Actions

Deadline
Dates

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Unique Ability Growth Strategies:

Give yourself permission to spend time using your Unique Ability
Talk to as many people as possible about it. Get the word out.
Seek new opportunities and audiences
Ask others for support, suggestions and ideas.
Look for resources you need to grow your Unique Ability
Put structures in your life that supports the development of your
Unique Ability.
Make time for thinking, learning and personal awareness.
Reshaping your life.
Any increase in the amount of time youre spend using your Unique Ability
will noticeably improve your life because youll be replacing activities for
which you have no passion with things that give you energy and generate
great results. Once you get started, youll find it easier to identify even more
areas where you can do this. Youll develop a much stronger understanding
of what your Unique Ability is and how its best delivered to the world.
Stripping away non-Unique Ability activities is the first step on this path.
Michelangelo once said, As the marble wastes, the statue grows. As the
sculptor of our own life, you must systematically chisel away all the extra
marble that obscures who you really are.

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This handout was taken from the book, Unique Ability: Creating The Life You Want, by Catherine Nomura
and Julia Waller.

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