Each and every one of us is sitting on a gold mine, an absolute mother lode of treasure—but most of us don't know it! Some of us have an inkling and have begun to dig, though we're not quite sure how to go about it or what is the best way to get access to this treasure. Some of us lucky folks know exactly how to mine this cache and reap the rewards daily. The rest of us spend a fair amount of time wondering what they've got that we don't! Have I got you curious?

So what are these gold mines and how do we get at the bounty? The gold mines are each of our unique sets of strengths—life strengths. And when you learn to identify them and hone them to a fine point they become your most powerful treasures. Getting clear on your strengths doesn't sound like such a tough task, but in practice it turns out that most of us spend a lot more energy focused on our weak spots than on our strong points.

Why do we do this? Well, for starters, we live in a world completely obsessed by fixing what's wrong. We give lip service to expressions like "lead with your strength", but the truth is, we focus on fault, on failing, on weakness so that we can 'fix' what's wrong and buff up our muscles where they're not robust. We feel real pride and accomplishment when we can pinpoint a weakness because then we know where the problem lies! All that's needed is some remedial work: If we find our ability to manage others is not up to snuff, we throw ourselves into leadership training; if we've been told we're curt, analytic and sometimes abrupt we read books about developing our softer side; If our kid comes home with two As two Bs and a C, we applaud the As and make a high-speed beeline for the C.

The underlying thinking in our culture goes something like this: our greatest room for improvement lies with our weaknesses. So that's where we zero in. Once we "fix" weakness, excellence and success must be just a hop, skip and a jump from there. Right? When we correct our weaknesses we will by definition be strong. Right? Well, not so fastÖ

Now, there's nothing wrong with studying and improving on our weak spots—there's always room for progress. But the truth is that each person's greatest room for growth lies in the area of his or her greatest strength. Why? Because that's where the potential for excellence lies! Benjamin Franklin called wasted strengths "sundials in the shade." A wasted strength, or an underdeveloped strength cannot do what it is intended to do.

• If you're blessed at birth with two healthy legs, you don't decide to walk around the planet on your hands just to develop the "weakness."
• Opera singers who are gifted with a melodious and soaring soprano voice do not spend their time trying to become great altos.
• If your child runs like the wind, it would never occur to you to tell him to slow down when he's running a race, or hobble him with shoes too small.

Granted, these examples are no-brainers. Talents that well up within in us are thankfully tough to ignore, and so we give them air, light and fertilizer. We grow these talents into powerful strengths without thinking twice.

Why then are we so stymied by the challenge of identifying and growing our "life talents?"—talents like strategic thinking, or individualism, or empathy, or the talent of being a learner? One key reason may be that the kind of talents I'm talking about are harder to detect. We live and breathe these innate aptitudes and so we take them for granted. In fact you may even be bristling at my calling being a 'learner' or being a person with a gift for creating harmony, talents. But make no mistake about it: talents they are.

A life strength is something you can rely on—it's part of your nature, it bubbles up naturally. You can improve upon a strength, but if the talent that is the strength's foundation isn't there to begin with, you'll never have excellence in that area. You'll have 'alrightness' or 'OKness.'

Let's say you're the kind of person who is drawn toward making a connection with strangers. You like striking up a conversation and building rapport. You love breaking the ice and creating a link. Though you may have never given it this label, your delight in charming and cultivating new connections is a talent. It arises naturally in you. You don't even have to think much about it. It's more than what you 'do.' It's who you 'be.'

What must be added to the mix to turn this natural inclination to woo and connect into a powerhouse strength? Knowledge and skills are the missing ingredients. The key to building a bona fide strength is to identify your dominant talents and then refine them with knowledge and skills.

Let's take the example of this person who connects so easily with strangers. If he has taken this natural flair and built a network of supporters who know him and are prepared to help him, that's the application of skill to a talent. If he further combines his natural knack of connecting with his experiential knowledge of how best to work a networking function or how to create and maintain strategic alliances, the raw talent of wooing starts to have weight, productive purpose and power. It has become a life strength that can serve this person in countless ways.

So, if you have the natural talent of connecting with all sorts of people and you haven't found a way to develop that talent into a strength, you're sitting on an unexploited asset. There's gold for you in this talent, but you need to refine it to the level of a strength for it to work its magic.

One of the tools in a coach's kit is what we call the Powerful Question. It's a big one with surprising impact. We use these questions to spark introspection, rethinking, new awareness or new possibilities. A fresh perspective is often the catalyst for change and action. So, look at a project, relationship, work challenge or long-held dream that is not moving forward and ask yourself:

Where is your gold and how can you mine it?

About My Coaching:
As a personal, professional and executive coach, it is my goal to bring dynamic leadership, a compassionate heart, and powerful insight to the lives of my coaching clients. I work to help clients identify and pursue what is deeply meaningful in their lives, and collaborate with them to transform vague yearnings or explicit goals into realities.

You can count on me to challenge you, inspire you and support you. I will be a relentless advocate of your dreams and ambitions and help you take bold steps with your life.

My Background:
I am an optimist with a penchant for finding solutions to complex problems in unexpected places. The daily opportunity to use my pragmatism, smarts, humor and heart to help people create lives they truly love gives me tremendous joy.

After graduating from Princeton University, I spent almost 20 years as a feature film, video and CD ROM producer guiding projects to success. By the late 1990's, I decided to channel my action-oriented approach to life into coaching, with the express goal of helping people live lives by design and not default. I completed my professional training at The Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, California.

Call me at (310) 393-8082 for a free 1/2-hour coaching session to explore how coaching may benefit you.

Contact Information:
Dina Silver, CPCC
361 21st Street
Santa Monica, CA 90402
Phone: 310.393.8082
Fax: 310.395.7999
dinasil@earthlink.net