You might be relying on your strengths more than your gifts.
Just because you’ve built a career around something you are highly skilled at—but that depletes your energy or leaves you in burnout—doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it.
After working with thousands of high-performing leaders in workshops, trainings, and my coaching programs over the past decade, I’ve seen a common pattern: Many professionals mistake their strengths for their gifts. Through my career coaching work, I’ve developed a key distinction between strengths and gifts:
💡 Strengths: Skills you’ve mastered, but they drain your energy.
✨ Gifts: Your natural brilliance—what lights you up and creates the most impact.
Here are more details on how to distinguish between strengths and gifts:
STRENGTHS
💡 You’ve likely developed these skills through education, experience, and repetition.
💡 You’re highly capable at using them, but they drain your energy rather than fueling you.
💡 You don’t enjoy tasks that involve using these skills.
💡 You often procrastinate on the tasks and projects when you have to use them.
💡 Using these skills may be accompanied by a slumped posture and a lack of engagement in facial expressions and body language.
GIFTS
✨ You lose track of time when using them.
✨ You feel naturally drawn to continue to develop and refine these skills.
✨ Even when tackling challenges, there’s a sense of ease and flow.
✨ They energize you rather than drain you.
✨ You create impact with ease and flow (even with challenging work) when your gifts are in action.
✨ Using these skills is usually accompanied by an open, relaxed posture, radiating a sense of engagement and expansion
If you feel disconnected from your work and want to align your gifts with your current role—or transition into a career that truly energizes you—I’d love to help. Apply to work with me here.