Your It factor may be hiding in the help people repeatedly ask you to give. You are searching for something extraordinary, while someone else already values how you explain a difficult idea, notice an overlooked possibility or make a daunting task feel manageable.

The clue is not simply that they praise you. It is that they return for something specific.

The Problem

The Nobel Prize in Literature announcement is scheduled for 8 October, according to NobelPrize.org’s 2026 announcement calendar. Such recognition turns attention towards an author’s work. For anyone developing a voice, it also offers a useful question: what becomes recognisable across the things you create?

You do not need a literary prize to investigate that question. But you do need to look beyond the moment when somebody applauds.

After a hard season, it is easy to assume that discovering your potential requires a dramatic reinvention. You might search for a more impressive personality, a stronger stage presence or an experience nobody else has had.

Meanwhile, you dismiss the abilities you use regularly because they feel ordinary to you.

Perhaps you can organise a confusing experience into a clear sequence. Perhaps you ask the question that helps someone understand what is holding them back. Because those actions do not feel spectacular, you overlook them as evidence.

That creates a costly habit: searching for a hidden gift while leaving an observable strength undeveloped.

The Solution

In the spirit of the discovering-your-It-factor theme in Gerard Grogans’s Unlocking Your Unique It Factor, begin with discovery rather than performance. The practical question is not how to appear remarkable, but what contribution you can recognise, develop and deliver deliberately.

Use one tool: finding the common thread.

Start with actual moments rather than flattering descriptions. Being described as inspiring tells you little about what to practise. Someone asking you to explain a difficult transition because your earlier explanation helped them understand their own experience gives you something more concrete.

Look at three elements: what the person needed, what you actually did and what became clearer or more manageable afterwards. Keep your conclusions proportionate. One appreciative response is a clue, not proof of a calling.

Then look for repetition across different settings. You might discover that your strength is not simply speaking. It could be making complicated ideas usable. That ability might appear in a work presentation, a workshop contribution and a conversation about starting again.

Finally, test the pattern through a small act of service. Build a short explanation around that strength and share it with someone who needs it. Ask what helped and where they became confused.

This is not permission to let other people define you. Requests can reflect convenience or expectations as well as ability. Look for a contribution that is useful to others, meaningful to you and worth practising.

The Key Takeaway

Your It factor becomes easier to develop when you identify a recurring, useful contribution and practise delivering it deliberately.

Your Homework

Today, set aside twenty minutes to examine three occasions when someone sought your help or returned for more of it. Write down their need, your action and the response you actually observed.

Underline the action that repeats. Then record a two-minute explanation that uses it: clarify a confusing idea, organise a difficult process or reveal an overlooked option. Share it with one willing listener and ask which part helped most. Record the answer without defending your performance.

Do not wait for a grand discovery. Gather the evidence already within reach, test one strength today and keep becoming through the work of developing it.