Three cases of talent being well-used:

• My niece, Taylor, is in high school. She’s wired to think logically, do in-depth research, and articulate well-formed arguments. (Comes from my brother–who has a keen memory and at times, a sharp tongue.) This past year, she took an AP class on Constitutional Law. As part of the class, she and 26 classmates were in a national competition, debating parts of the Constitution as it applies to modern societal issues. After thousands of hours building their cases, practicing and competing, Taylor and the rest of the Denver East High School team won the national championship in Washington, DC.  Personal note: It’s a thrill to see my niece on CNN.

• My son, Andy, is in middle school. He’s wired for math–loves it, gets the concepts right away, and knows how to apply it. He participated in several math competitions this year (MathCounts, University of Northern Colorado math competion, American Mathematics Competition) and took home a lot of hardware.

• While competitions are an obvious way to observe talent well-used, it becomes even more important to use our talents in our day-to-day life. I had a chance to see talent in action yesterday, when several tornados touched down near Denver. With several hundred parents and students assembled in a gymnasium for an end of the year awards ceremony, the executive principal used his StrengthsFinder talents of Activator, Focus, and Strategic to move people quickly and efficiently to interior rooms suitable for a tornado drill. Only it wasn’t a drill. His clarity and order in which he gave instructions ("please don’t talk, we will be moving everyone in the next 15 minutes, adults move first to the auditorium, then all girls to my left move to the girls’ locker room….") was useful in what many would consider a small crisis situation.

The good news is that we all have talents. Figure out what your talents are and find ways to make them well-used.