You were born with five Superpowers.

We all come into this world with five Superpowers. By Superpowers I don’t mean things like being able to leap over tall buildings like Superman, we have machines that can do that. By Superpowers, I mean things that machines can’t do.

1. Enthusiasm. Everyone was born with enthusiasm. We came screaming and hooting and hollering into this world full of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is contagious. People for whom life is a struggle, dampen the enthusiasm of others. Successful people rub off on other people and inspire them.
2. Curiosity. This basic human survival skill allows us to explore and learn increasingly more and more about our environment and world. People for whom life is a struggle have all the answers. Successful people ask great questions.
3. Feedback. The ability to process feedback helps us evolve and improve. This Superpower allows us to figure out quickly if what we are doing is working or not: everything from not touching a hot stove a second time around to how to better our careers or love life. It’s part of the “design it–do it–feedback–re-design it” (the life cycle) loop. Strugglers are inflexible. Successful people Know what they want, Find out what they are getting, and Change what they do until they get what they want.
4. Empathy. The ability to connect, understand and relate to each other. One-day old babies cry when they hear other babies cry! Did you ever stop to figure out what that is all about? We come into this world loaded to the brim with empathy and, with the exception of psychopaths, it just keeps growing (even though many people try and bury it).  Why else do you think a movie can make you happy or sad: laugh out loud or scare you stiff – it’s just a movie! Strugglers think it’s all about themselves. Successful people know it’s all about others people.
5. Imagination. This is simply the ability to distort information that comes in through our five senses. Strugglers use their imagination to talk themselves into inaction, Successful people use it to lift themselves to great heights.

If you, or those you care about, are having problems in any area of your life, look first to your natural-born Superpowers. I can almost guarantee that one or more has been crushed or shut-down.

Reactivate your Superpowers.

Make a note on next week’s calendar to spend one day focusing on one of your five Superpowers. As you go through each day ask yourself, “is it working as it was intended, or not?”

Monday: get excited and enthusiastic again like a child. Tuesday: ask questions, explore more, get up and go outside, talk to strangers. Let your curiosity can feast on the world. Wednesday: show more flexibility in all you do. Look for alternatives. Thursday: Switch off your logic and reason for a day (you learned that stuff you weren’t born with it) and talk about the way things look, sound, feel taste and smell. Tell stories again to get what you want like you did when you were a child. Friday: assume the best all day – no matter what. 

Saturday – celebrate!!