Yes, You Have a Professional Superpower

10 min readDec 12, 2020

Photo: Thomas Barwick/Getty Images

I used to work with someone who remembered absolutely everything. She never failed to follow up on each wisp of an idea mentioned in a meeting; she could recall work-related issues that had come up years earlier and how they had been resolved; she remembered every colleague’s name and birthday and partners’ names and partners’ birthdays. Not only did her industrial-strength memory make her a wonderful and reliable employee, but it had a way of making everyone she encountered feel special and valued.

Everyone has some sort of professional superpower. My co-worker, while looking over this draft, informed me that mine is having excellent jokes. (I feel bad not putting a joke here? It’s a lot of pressure! Sorry.) Manoush Zomorodi, host of NPR’s TED Radio Hour, writes on Medium about hers:

I know how to READ a script aloud. No matter how basic or run-on the sentence, I can usually salvage it with the right delivery. In other words, a multitude of crappy writing skills can be covered up with tone and voice, making a dumb-nothing phrase like “you know what I mean?” sound saucy, conspiratorial, plaintive, or instructional. It’s my superpower.

Knowing Your Superpower

And introducing myself here

manoushz.medium.com

Your professional superpower may be something huge, like “inventing the iPhone,” but it’s likely something really specific like Zomorodi’s. It’s the one thing you know you are always going to crush. It might not be what you’d choose — like I would love if my superpower were “launching great and lucrative businesses” — but whatever it is, pinpointing one thing you’re reliably great at can help you focus your workdays and guide you through each step of your career.

WRITTEN BY

Amy Shearn

Senior Editor, Forge @ Medium // Bylines: New York Times, Oprah, Slate // Latest novel: Unseen City https://redhenpress.org/products/unseen-city-by-amy-shearn

158

1

Sign up for The Forge Daily Tip

By Forge

A quick morning email to help you start each day on the right foot. Take a look

Get this newsletter

By signing up, you will create a Medium account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.

158

1

Make this small tweak for a pep talk that works

🗣️ Today’s tip: To psych yourself up to tackle something, ask, “Will I do this?”

Self-talk was once seen as something reserved for motivational gurus — Forge editor Michelle Woo recalls the SNL character Stuart Smalley staring into a mirror and proclaiming: “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!” But it turns out there are practical, measurable benefits to adopting a positive inner narrative: It can reduce stress, help you make decisions, and keep you motivated.

How exactly you talk to yourself makes a difference. According to the latest research on self-talk, asking “Will I do this?” produces better results than making the statement “I will do this.” Try it with your goals. Ask yourself: “Will I walk 10,000 steps today?” or “Will I pitch my story to five publications?” or “Will I nail my next presentation?” …

8 Ashley Abramson

·Nov 12

Quarantine Is a Skill

We’re getting better at pandemic life every day

Photo: Jessie Casson/Getty Images

“If the kids interrupt me one more time,” I hissed to my husband. I didn’t finish the sentence. I didn’t know how to. I was already at the end of my rope.

This was about a month into quarantine, and my anxiety was roaring into high gear — we hadn’t had childcare in weeks, and I was at max capacity trying to juggle my kindergartener’s distance learning, my preschooler’s constant emotional outbursts, and my own freelance writing work. Something had to give, and I had a hunch it wouldn’t be the pandemic.

The moment felt like a crossroads. I had a choice: I could keep living in frustrated denial, or I could find a workaround. With support from my husband, I scaled back on work, hired a pandemic-safe babysitter, and let my kids watch entire seasons of Paw Patrol when I was on a deadline. That wasn’t necessarily the reality I wanted to live in, but after a while, I realized that being more honest with myself about my own limits — as both a worker and a parent — made this less-desirable reality at least a tolerable one. …

Yes, You Have a Professional Superpower

Knowing Your Superpower

And introducing myself here

manoushz.medium.com

Amy Shearn

Senior Editor, Forge @ Medium // Bylines: New York Times, Oprah, Slate // Latest novel: Unseen City https://redhenpress.org/products/unseen-city-by-amy-shearn

158

1

Sign up for The Forge Daily Tip

By Forge

By signing up, you will create a Medium account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.

158

1

More from Forge

Medium’s publication on personal development.

Cari Nazeer

·Nov 12

Make this small tweak for a pep talk that works

Read more · 1 min read

8

Ashley Abramson

·Nov 12

Quarantine Is a Skill

We’re getting better at pandemic life every day

Written by tson