What are your skills? Most have never given this much thought before. But think it through—as if you were writing a resume or were asked during a job interview.

Your knee-jerk response may be that you do not have any skills. Yet, be assured, you do. They are there waiting for you to recognize them.

So why does this matter? Your teenage years afford you the best opportunity to maximize your growth. Analyzing your skillsets now will help you identify your strengths and the areas you want to develop.

All of this will make it much easier when you start to apply for jobs, pursue a career, manage a household, and raise children to develop their own talents. It will also increase your ability to cope with challenges you face every day.

Yet this cannot stop with just identifying your abilities. You must also take advantage of your youth to develop them.

If you want to become effective and successful—especially with rapid changes in technology and society—you must build up your ability to acquire and develop your skillsets.

God instructs us to apply ourselves with all our might in what we set out to accomplish (Ecc. 9:10). Look at what happens to those who do: “See you a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men” (Prov. 22:29).

The word diligent here means skillful. Here is a different translation that clarifies the verse: “Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank” (New International Version).

In other words, those who become skillful in what they do find greater opportunities and advancements in their lives.

So, let’s learn how to identify and develop your skills so you can make the most of your talents and abilities.

Categories of Skills

Skills can be categorized into three types: life skills, hard skills and soft skills.

Life skills are those you acquire through life and are required to face the everyday demands and challenges. These are abilities you have been developing since you were born such as time management, cleanliness, problem-solving, communicating effectively, and building healthy relationships. These are some of the most essential skills to focus on developing, as they are transferrable to the workplace and your personal life.

Hard skills, also referred to as technical skills, include technical knowledge and abilities gained through life experience, whether in a career or through education. These are quantifiable and specific such as competency with Microsoft Excel, computer programming, the ability to change a car tire or engine oil, operating a lawn mower, writing an essay or speaking a foreign language.

When you are pursuing a specific job or career, hard skills are what you need to fulfill the position. For example, if you want to be an accountant, you will need to know how to use accounting software, understand the standards and regulations of accounting, be practiced in arithmetic, and have general business knowledge.

Soft skills are used in any career and are described as soft because they do not define your work and are not easily quantified. Most of these encapsulate how you work such as how to communicate effectively and work with others. They can also include the ability to think critically, learn quickly, be punctual, resolve conflict, use teamwork, and be creative, adaptable and professional.

Soft skills are the most transferrable and are often what employers consider when deciding to hire or promote an employee. Online resume-builder and career website Zety listed the most important soft skills for entry-level candidates to put on their resumes are problem-solving, teamwork, written communication, and leadership.

As you research the specific skills you want to focus on developing, you will find many are interchangeable. For example, practicing effective time management by completing homework assignments on time, never showing up late to class, and seeking to fulfill house chores in less time without reducing your quality of work require overlapping skills. Time management is an important hard and soft skill in the workplace. It is what gives employers the assurance that you will show up to work ready to go before the start time, complete assigned projects by their deadlines, be prepared for meetings by their scheduled time and respond to communications in a timely manner.

Take Inventory

It is important to understand what skills you already have to not only be successful in your pursuits, but it will also help you realize what areas you can continue to develop.

Identifying your talents takes some time, reflection and hearing observations from others. Be honest with yourself, but also be objective. If you find you are lacking in a certain area, it simply means you need to learn more and practice applying yourself in it. There is no need to get discouraged or feel like you are inferior to others who may be more skilled in that area.

We often use skills without realizing it. These include technical skills you develop by actively participating in Church events: cooking, drawing, writing, public speaking, languages, babysitting, caring for pets, fundraising and keeping finances.

Then there are the interpersonal or soft skills you have already been applying. These include being able to facilitate and maintain a conversation, flexibility, being a quick learner, self-motivation, and being team oriented.

So how do you know how you are doing in these areas? Think about some of the activities you have done in the past, or how well you get along with others in your family or at school. For additional info, ask others what your skills are, or think of what your parents or colleagues compliment you on.

Learning about yourself requires much time, reflection and effort. Taking a self-assessment can help speed things along. The tests on careeronestop.org and onetonline.org can be a good place to start. Or a quick Google search will also yield several results of specific skills and their uses.

Write out a list of your skills and give a specific example of using each one. For instance, if you wrote that you are skilled in mathematics, mark down all of your experiences, classes and achievements in that area. If you do well with writing, keep a catalog of your works.

You will also gain valuable information by discussing your list with others. Ask your parents, minister, trusted adults and close friends about how they perceive your skills.

Some more questions to ask yourself: What do I consider my top three skills? What other abilities do I want to develop and improve? What are some other areas to explore to get more experience?

Again, discuss your answers with others to help you get the most out of this exercise.

Where Should You Focus?

You may have certain areas you are most passionate about. By all means, develop these abilities! But there are also essential life skills with which everyone should be familiar.

An article by Harvard Health Publishing highlighted five abilities that are crucial in all areas of life: “According to Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, it’s less about grades and extracurricular activities, and more about a core set of skills that help people navigate life’s inevitable challenges. These skills all fall under what we call executive function skills, which we use for self-regulation. Most people who are successful and happy in life have strong executive function skills.”

The article detailed five core skills…

Planning: the ability to make and carry out concrete goals and plans.

Focus: being able to concentrate on the most important things at any given time.

Self-control: how you manage your emotions and stressful situations.

Awareness: not just observing the people and situations around you, but also understanding how you fit in.

Flexibility: being able to adapt to changing situations.

Take an honest look at how you rate in each of these areas. Perhaps you realize you are good at adapting but admit you struggle coming up with and carrying out goals. One approach to improve would be sitting down at the start of a week and writing down your goals for the coming day. Then, evaluate and mark your progress on those goals daily or weekly.

If you are good at making plans but lack the self-control to follow through on them, a solution is to have a family member or friend hold you accountable.

Any way you approach them, prioritize these five essentials because they will make building other skills much easier. Also, you can incorporate these life skills into the more challenging talents you want to develop.

During your teenage years, make sure to try out a wide variety of activities. Now is the time to answer an important question: What types of things do you enjoy doing?

The skills you gain from hobbies and personal activities can then be expanded to other areas as you approach adulthood. For example, perhaps you enjoy art such as sketching or painting. As you hone your artistry, you are also growing in appreciation for design, creativity, completing quality products, and critical thinking. There are many career paths this skillset can take you down.

Think about how you spend your time. What do you look forward to doing when you come home from school? Have you ever been involved in an activity in which you lost track of time? That is something you naturally enjoy. Of course, the skills you pursue should be worthwhile and edifying.

Above all, when endeavoring to grow your abilities, go to God for help. Pray about it! Remember that He wants you to be happy and excel in all your pursuits.

Do not forget God’s role in all of this. He created the entire universe—including all the mathematics, physics, chemistry and other laws that govern it: “He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by His discretion” (Jer. 10:12).

The word “wisdom” can also mean skillful.

As the Being with all power and wisdom—or skill—God can provide you with many different abilities or enhance ones that you have.

Notice this example from the Old Testament. When God commanded the Tabernacle to be built, He imparted extra skill to the craftsmen Bezaleel and Aholiab: “And He has filled him [Bezaleel] with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship…Them [Bezaleel and Aholiab] has He filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any work, and of those that devise cunning work” (Ex. 35:31, 35).

God gave so much skill to these two men that they were set up as the masters and teachers for the service of the sanctuary. If you seek God and desire to use your skills toward His purpose, He will help you not only succeed but to excel.

Next Steps

Once you realize the skills you have and determine which you want to develop, be prepared to devote ample time and effort on them!

Start small and chip away at the skills you want to hone. Keep exposing yourself to new experiences and increase your interests.

Even Albert Einstein had to develop his talents. He never considered himself a born genius. As he wrote in a letter to a patron: “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” He made a pattern of pursuing his interests and attributed his scientific findings to being inquisitive.

Always seek methods or tools to continue educating yourself on your abilities. Watch masters at their craft via classes or videos available online. Delve into new subjects and take a wide variety of classes in school.

Even if you think you will not enjoy something, give it a go—you might be pleasantly surprised!

Regardless of what your next steps are, remember that self-assessment is an ongoing process. Review your skills list regularly. Think of ways to widen your interests by adding new abilities you plan to explore and develop.

Assessing your skills is something you can and should do throughout the years to help you continue growing and learning. Build the habit now, and you will reap the benefits throughout your entire life.