Think about a time when you really enjoyed what you were doing.

Maybe you lost track of time, because you were so absorbed by a task, or so focused you didn’t even think about taking a break. Maybe a friend had to remind you to eat something, because your energy to keep going was so great you didn’t even notice your rumbling stomach!

Have you ever experienced that kind of motivation?


What about the opposite… can you think of tasks or environments you’ve been in that really didn’t suit you?

Maybe something you were trying to learn, or a project you had to work on, where it didn’t matter how hard you tried to force yourself to get it or to finish the project, it just felt like an impossible task requiring superhuman energy beyond what you were capable of…

Have you ever had that feeling, like your brain was going to start dribbling out your ears if you had to spend another moment working on ____? (Some of you I’m sure will fill that in with subjects like Maths or Chemistry or English Lit, but it might also be spreadsheets or graphic design or giving presentations…)


You see, we all have stuff that energises us, and drives us to keep going! …And we all have stuff that saps our energy and drives us into the ground…

Understanding what works for us, and what doesn’t, is a very important step in understanding where and how we can develop our talent; because talent is largely the set of skills you are willing to commit yourself, relentlessly, to developing.

It might be cutting hair, it might be splitting atoms - it’s probably something else entirely; but the best place to find it is within the things you are passionate about and absorbed by.

If you try to develop skills in areas you don’t care about, you might do well enough, but you will never be able to put in the sustained effort required to really shine.


hoozyu doesn’t measure your skills (and you may not have acquired the ones that matter yet). What it does measure is what matters to you and what you feel passion about.

If you look at the My Headlines page on the hoozyu platform (you’ll need to log in to access it) under Motivation, at the top of that page, you should find three bullet points on a green background. These are summaries of your top 3 motivations.

There is another bullet point on a green background immediately underneath that, about tasks. Make a note of all 4 of these points and then compare them to what you thought about at the beginning of this post, when I asked about a time you felt highly motivated.

Do they match up? Can you see connections? And what might these different aspects of motivation tell you, about the areas you could be developing talent in?


If you haven’t already, check out our worksheets on the hoozyu platform - they’re great for getting clear on different areas around Talent, Identity and Career Options!