How Your Superpowers Can Transform Work into Something You Actually Enjoy
Do this to increase happiness at work by 20%
What if the key to greater joy at work wasn’t a promotion or pay rise—but something you already do brilliantly? This post explores how uncovering and using your personal superpowers just 5% more each day can ripple into real fulfilment, inside and outside of work.
For many midlife professionals, the question “Is this really it?” arrives quietly—often at the end of another busy week, after yet another meeting that drained more than it delivered. You’re good at your job. But it doesn’t feel good enough. Something’s missing.
The good news? That “something” might not be external at all. According to career redesign consultant Lucia Knight, joy at work can increase significantly when we start using more of what she calls our superpowers—those unique strengths that light us up and energise us.
What Are Superpowers, Really?
Superpowers aren’t skills listed on a CV. They’re the qualities that come so naturally to you that you often don’t notice them. They’re the things people ask you for help with repeatedly, the tasks that leave you feeling energised, not drained. They’re the sparks behind the moments when time disappears and your body says a full-bodied “yes”.
In Lucia’s words, a superpower is something you "do better, faster, and lighter than most people you know"—and when you use it, it delivers a jolt of energy and meaning. These aren’t just enjoyable activities; they are central to experiencing fulfilment at work.
Why Superpowers Matter More Than Promotions
Lucia references both psychological research and her own midlife work satisfaction study, where 100% of the happiest participants had one thing in common: they had become known for their 3–4 unique strengths and intentionally used them in their daily work.
This isn’t about fantasy careers. It’s about designing even 5–10% more of your workday around tasks that make you feel alive. The payoff? More energy, more motivation—and often, better performance and recognition too.
In fact, many of Lucia’s clients report promotions, pay rises, or exciting new opportunities within six months of making small but deliberate shifts towards their superpowers.
Three Ways to Uncover Your Superpowers
Lucia shares three practical exercises to help identify your hidden brilliance:
1. The Energy Audit
Look back over your week. When did you feel most energised? What activities made you lose track of time? Where in your body did you feel that sense of “yes”? For Lucia, one clue appeared during a weekend with friends—when her relentless curiosity (even if mildly annoying) felt electric.
2. Pattern Tracking
What have people complimented you on throughout your life? What were you doing when you felt proud, confident, or completely yourself? The patterns from childhood to adulthood often reveal recurring strengths that you've been using all along—just not consciously.
3. Ask Trusted People
Ask close friends or colleagues: “What do you think I do better than most?” Then go deeper: which of those things do you genuinely enjoy doing? One client discovered her gift was creating emotional comfort through visual details—something she hadn’t considered a strength, let alone a career asset.
How to Use Superpowers at Work—Without Changing Jobs
The goal isn’t to quit and start over. It’s to design deliberately—to inject just a little more joy into your existing role.
Lucia suggests booking “Superpowered Time”: 30 minutes of blocked-out space to use just one superpower. Pay attention to how it feels in your body, how much you get done, and how much satisfaction it brings.
You can also:
Say yes to projects that align with your superpowers
Experiment with them in mundane or frustrating tasks
Track energy shifts over time
These micro-moments of alignment create macro shifts in joy, performance, and self-connection.
From Work to Life: The Ripple Effect
Perhaps the most compelling reason to use your superpowers at work is what happens after you log off.
When you're energised by what you do during the day, you come home with more capacity—for your loved ones, for yourself, and for the gym session you’ve been putting off for months. Lucia describes this as “15–20% more energy to do whatever your little heart desires.”
This isn't just a work upgrade—it’s a life upgrade.
Want to Start Right Now?
Lucia has created a free worksheet to help kickstart this process:
👉 Download the Superpower Starter Worksheet
It’s packed with prompts, reflection cues, and practical exercises to uncover your top superpowers—and start using them on purpose.
Final Thought
You’ve likely been using your superpowers all along—just not consistently or consciously. But when you design your work around what already makes you you, everything starts to shift. Your team notices. Your energy changes. And work feels more like a space where you belong again.
Maybe that quiet “Is this it?” is actually the call to uncover the joy that’s already within you.
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[00:00:00] Is This Really It? Why work that Looks good on paper might still feel misaligned.
Lucia Knight: Have you ever sat at your desk wondering, is this really it? You're good at your job, but it doesn't feel good enough, something's missing. What if I told you there was one thing? Just one thing that you can do over the next 12 months that has been proven in research to increase your work life satisfaction?
What psychologists call happiness, it's not a promotion, it's not a pay rise. It's this uncovering and using your three or four unique superpowers daily.
[00:00:42] The One Shift That Changes Everything #
Lucia Knight: If you've been here for a while, you know, I bang on about superpowers a lot because they are the corner pieces of every single Happy Work blueprint I've ever helped any client to create.
Today I'd like to show you exactly how to identify yours, how to design them into your workday, and how that seemingly teeny tiny shift can ripple joy into not just your work life, but your entire life.
Let's dive in.
For some of us, some of the time, work can feel like something we survive, not something we truly, madly deeply enjoy. But what if you could spend your days doing activities that you enjoy, activities that you are brilliant at, and get well paid for it. That's not a fantasy. It's what happens when you start intentionally using your superpowers, those unique strengths, ultra, ultra strengths that give you energy in your body, that light you up intellectually and make a real impact for others.
Today we're talking about how to find them, how to use them, and how to design just a little more joy, 5%, 10%, maybe even 20% into every workday.
[00:02:15] What Are Superpowers (Really)?
Lucia Knight: So let's start with what is a superpower? I define a superpower. As something that people often come to you for help with, you do it better, faster, and lighter than most people you know, and when you do it, it gifts you a jolt of energy. It's the opposite of draining activities. Now when you use a superpower, it gives you a jolt of satisfaction.
A little dopamine hit like you are pointing your skills and talents at something meaningful to you personally. And it's something that you enjoy doing so much that you probably already do it for free in your life beyond work. And if someone promised you you could do it every single day at work, you'd probably accept a lower salary, happily.
And here's the most important part. Using your superpowers consistently has been shown to increase happiness and meaning in work, and it reduces sadness, dullness and chronic boredom in work.
In my recent midlife work life satisfaction study, 100% of the happiest, 1% of participants reported that they clearly understood and had become known for the three or four things that they do uniquely well.
[00:03:48] 3 Ways to Uncover Your Superpowers
Lucia Knight: So here are three practical ways to uncover yours.
Number one, the energy audit. Look back on your last week. When were you doing something that your body responded really positively to?
What tasks made you lose time? What gave you that internal yes feeling? Most of us feel it somewhere central in our bodies. For me, it's in my lower belly. For others, it's around the heart or the bottom of the throat.
So in my situation, the first time I noticed this was a celebratory girls weekend in the French Alps, my friends were exhausted by my deep probing questions.
Lucia give us a break. They moaned, but I felt alive. I felt like I couldn't wait to hear their answers. I was brimming with curiosity to understand what makes them tick, even if it didn't feel socially acceptable. That's a superpower. That's one of my superpowers asking one more question than is socially acceptable to try to understand an important behavior or pattern at a deeper level.
Believe me. Not everyone enjoys it, but it lights me up. When was the last time you felt that electric at work or beyond?
Number two, pattern tracking. Asked yourself, what have people complimented me on repeatedly throughout my lifetime in work and beyond work in all the roles I've held over the course of my lifetime.
What was I doing in moments when I felt pride, confident, or truly seen and appreciated? What was I doing when I was off task, but felt highly engaged even as a child? Then dig into how those activities made you feel.
Here's an example. One of my clients realized she was energized by convincing resistant executives to adopt change. Long days of persuading, cajoling, influencing towards the very best decision for all. She came home buzzing with satisfaction and energy from the process and from making tiny steps of progress. That's one of her superpowers.
Number three, ask others. You might be surprised by what they say. Ask a few trusted friends or colleagues or siblings.
What do you think I do better than most? What would you call my thing? But then go deeper. Which of those do you actually love, love, love doing? I have a client who could make any space feel warm and inviting within a couple of minutes and just with a few personal touches. Her gift, her superpower is creating emotional comfort through visual and touching cues. But she wasn't using it at work yet.
The joy is in realizing these powers are already within you. These are not skills you need to learn or invest time in getting better at. You've been mostly practicing them for years and decades, often since childhood, sometimes in work, almost always outside of work. Just for fun. You don't need to get paid to use your superpowers, but that's an added bonus.
I didn't notice it at first, but when a whole range of clients reported back to me within six months of us working together, that they had received a promotion, a pay rise, or an invitation to move companies and get paid more, I began to see the connection between using your superpowers very regularly in work and getting paid more.
So there's really no downside.
If you need more help with uncovering your superpowers, I'll include a free resource from the never too Old, never too Late community, and I call it the Superpower Starter. It's a little worksheet to make the pattern finding easier for you. Download it from the episode notes.
[00:08:38] How to Use Superpowers at Work
Lucia Knight: So once you've spotted a few superpowers, now what?
You design deliberately, design your workday around them, just 5% or 10% more at first. Here's how to go about doing that.
Book Superpowered Time. Schedule, for example, 30 minutes for a task that uses just one of your superpowers. Block it out completely. Do the work. Then notice how much you get done in that short period of time. Notice where you feel the satisfaction in your body and in your brain. Notice how great it feels to enjoy some control over your satisfaction levels.
Next, say yes to projects that use these unique talents. When new opportunities come your way. Ask will this let me use a superpower, and if so, which one? Even tiny alignments add up. And over time you naturally evolve towards a role that feels really good and way more like you.
Finally, micro moments give major shifts. You don't need hours, although, that's really nice. To start with pick one superpower at the beginning of the day and see how you can play around with it or experiment with it, bringing it with you to that frustrating meeting, that dull interaction or that very normal segment of your week.
It's the deliberateness that most of my clients get really attached to. It feels like freedom and control wrapped up into one SUPERPOWERED bundle.
[00:10:32] Using Your Superpowers Changes More Than Just Work
Lucia Knight: And here's what's really wild. When you use your superpowers at work, it changes how you show up everywhere else. You come home from work less drained with more energy for your loved ones, so you can be more generous with your time and energy, or you can be more selfish if that's your thing. Maybe going to the gym after work has felt totally impossible for you for a while.
When you find yourself using your superpowers 10 to 20% more during your workday, you get to gift yourself 15 to 20% more energy to do whatever your little heart desires. Your home life benefits because you're not so drained by your work. I warn you, this can become a little addictive in a good way.
[00:11:29] Your One Thing for the Next 12 Months
Lucia Knight: So here's your one thing that will bring you more joy in the next 12 months.
Identify your three or four unique superpowers. Design just a few more minutes of them into each and every work day. Track how you feel. I guarantee you will notice a shift. And if you want help getting started, download the free superpower starter guide from the episode notes.
It's packed with prompts and patterns and exercises to spark your curiosity. The world needs, the results and the impact that your superpowers deliver, and your team and loved ones need to see you at your best more often, and you need your precious energy to stay fit, sane, and energized for yourself and for everyone you care about.
Here's to a superpower, 12 months ahead.
