“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.” – John Ruskin
A skill is the ability to do something well. For all of my life until now, I have struggled to think of myself as “skilled”. Thankfully, through the pre-program section of Praxis, I have been challenged to take a deeper look into my life and work to see how I can create value and make myself indispensable to businesses and how to truly define what my skills are and how to market them.
This has really broadened my perspective on what “skills” are, as well as how to build a personal brand through capitalizing on your specific skill set and not comparing yourself to those around you.
So, after some thoughtful consideration, these are what I consider my top three skills to be:
1. Adaptability
My life has been a wild journey. If you’d like to know about it in some more detail you can click here to see my about page. Long story short, I have lived in 10+ houses and have had to deal with plans changing almost daily. My family has moved into a house just to move to a different state three months later. We’ve built a house we thought we were going to stay in forever to then move to a new state less than a year later. This was tremendously difficult when I was younger. But I’ve grown to love being thrown into a new town/state or position/job and soaking in all the information that I can get from it.
Being able to adapt to new environments and people is a talent that I’ve gained from these life experiences. Even though at some points it felt like I was being propelled into the unknown. I’ve been able to develop skills that I know have helped me grow and mature quicker than a regular teenager. I’ve taken advantage of some incredible opportunities that have approached me. Such as the Praxis program, working full time at seventeen, and not having a fear of moving or change.
I have also experienced how it can be helpful in a workplace environment. I work at Panera and recently have often found myself being the only cashier. This means I go from working in the bakery to working in the dining area, as well as from working independently to part of a team. All of this takes a lot of quick adapting. These adventures have been truly humbling, and I cannot wait to see where I can go from here.
2. Self-Motivation
I have always had a well-built drive, constantly striving for better and this has nurtured a very strong work ethic in me. I’m never satisfied with the good enough mentality; I go all-out and do not like to take “no” or “that’s impossible” as an answer. I am continually searching for things that I can do to make myself a more valuable person to those around me. I’m often on the lookout for ways to improve myself and reaching for a bigger goal than the previous one. My mindset is goal-oriented and I’ll find a way to achieve the task is put in front of me.
I thrive whenever I am going the additional mile, staying the extra hours, and being as dependable and positive as possible. I have worked multiple twelve-hour days when people have called in sick, or sometimes just didn’t show up. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make sure everything runs smoothly and am always willing to come in early or stay late. Almost every week I get at least one text from someone asking if I can cover their shift because they know that no matter what I will work as hard as hard as I can. I try to put myself in a position that helps everyone else succeed and achieve all that needs to be done and more. I am willing to do whatever it takes to get everything done on time, or the preferred option of being early, and in peak condition.
3. Time Management
Time management has always played a significant role in my life, as I was homeschooled from fourth grade until graduation. On top of the regular high school struggles a teenager deals with, I danced quite a lot and for my last two years. I was dancing 30+ hours a week at the Kansas City Ballet. This hectic schedule made finding time for school particularly difficult. With some days my only time being on our lunch break.
Through this, I learned how to manage my time well and keep myself accountable so I wouldn’t fall behind. The opposite happened, and thanks to my work ethic I unintentionally ended up graduating a year and a half early. So I had the opportunity to go to community college for the spring semester of 2019! I was still dancing so it only added to the busy schedule. During this time I’d do as much schoolwork as possible into lunch breaks and between rehearsals. I don’t think my professors were aware of what my schedule looked like. I was thrilled to see how far I had come from struggling with the first year of homeschooling and can’t wait to see how much further I can go now.
Where will these skills take me? Not sure yet, but that’s part of the adventure! Let’s talk and find out how we can work together.
Either click here to go to my contact page, or email me at mialiang@gmail.com