More than 80 years ago, there was a young girl studying at school. And even though she was eight years old, but her future was already at risk.

Her schoolwork was not good. She was turning in assignments late, and her exam results were bad. Besides all of this, she was disturbing the whole class because of her continuous movement and fidgeting.

When the school failed to handle her, they decided to contact her parents. They told her parents that she has a learning disorder and that it’s maybe better for her to join a school with children with special needs.

The family of the girl was concerned and decided to take her to a psychologist. In the psychologist’s office, the psychologist took the girl and made her sit on a sofa, and for the next 20 minutes, he listened to her mom. And even though he did not direct any words to the girl, he was watching her carefully almost all the time. This made the girl feel uncomfortable.

After finishing the discussion with her mom, he went to the girl, sat beside her on the sofa, and told her that she was patient with them, and he appreciates that, but that he will still need to speak to her mom alone outside and that she needs to wait alone. But before leaving the room, the psychologist opened the Radio in the room and left.

After the psychologist went outside the room with the mom, he told her to stay in the corridor and to see what she will do, as there was a window into the room where they can see the girl from one side of it, without her seeing them. In the next seconds, the girl got on her feet and started moving around the room with music with signs of pleasure on her face.

The Psychologist then turned to her mom and told her, ‘’your daughter isn’t sick. She is a dancer. Take her to a dance school.’’

The mom took the recommendation of the psychologist and took the small girl to a dance school, and after years of practicing and learning and using her talents, she became Gillian Lynne, one of the most accomplished Choreographers of our time.

In our days, I see a lot of people trying to search for their real strengths and talents, even though if they focused a little bit, they will discover that their best talents are clear in front of them. But because the people around them ‘’packed’’ those behaviors and threw them in a box called ‘’criticism’’, they were not able to understand that these behaviors are the foundation of talents that they have and are their biggest strengths. Exactly like the story of Gillian that I just told you.

So here is the outcome of this story:

1-If you want to discover your talent, the first step to take is to recall what you heard from your family and close friends when you were young. Ask yourself:

1. Do I recall a common pattern? A specific set of words that I used to hear a lot?

2. Is there a specific behavior that the people and my family were criticizing me for doing?

3. And if yes, is this behavior a bad one? Or did the people label it as ‘’bad’’ because it was different or because they did not understand it?

4. Based on today’s view and my current life experience, can this behavior be a useful one that I can use to help myself and others?

2-If you have a family, and you are a father or a mother, then do not just judge or criticize your kid because he or she is doing something that you do not understand or seems odd, or because he or she is not behaving exactly like other kids or meeting the expectations of his or her teachers.

Learn from the story of Gillian and ask yourself ‘’could this be the seed of a future special talent that our kid possesses?’’