Everyone has a superpower.

Really … trust me, you do. Everyone does.

Apart from making some things infinitely more complicated than they should be (my super anti-power?), my superpower is fact-checking and research. Ok sounds boring, but it’s ingrained from years and years of practice. Librarianship instils it in you … have you ever met a reference librarian or a business librarian (or any librarian for that matter) who doesn’t know where to find the stuff you need … or knows someone who does?

It’s not a natural superpower, it’s one honed by years and years of study and attention to detail … and years working in an academic library full of needy anxious students.

Most superpowers emerge because they become second nature; so much so that they become invisible to you until you run into that phone box, fling aside the geeky specs and emerge with your knickers over your trousers, ready to save the day.

photo acknowledgement: Brett Jordan, Flikr

Superpowers are great because they allow you to get on with your life; you never notice them until they are needed, or until someone gasps at your prowess and skill. Mind you, when your powers become known to others, you are likely to shrug them aside and dismiss them as “just one of those things I can do”. Like Clark Kent you fiddle with your glasses, become uncomfortable that you may have been found out and shuffle out of the room as fast as your legs will carry you.

Never underestimate your superpowers.

So how do you figure out what your superpower is? It may be well hidden, so here’s a fun (?) quiz to help you find yours if it’s still hidden.

1. You are in a crowd, all around you is chaos … how do you help? What are you most likely to do to alleviate the situation?
2. What do you feel most comfortable doing? (No, I don’t mean sitting in front of Corrie munching on chocolate digestives while sipping tea) What comes easily to you?
3. What can you do that those around you can’t, or are less than competent at? (You may need to think out of the box with this one).
4. You have a large bunch of friends, what kind of problems do they come to you with?
5. Which Marvel Superhero do you feel most fits your situation? (or DC, or Independent … I don’t discriminate when it comes to comics).
6. When was the last time someone gasped at your prowess … what were you doing at the time?
7. When was the last time you said “oh, it was nothing” and meant it … what was “nothing”?
8. What would your Superhero outfit be?

Once you’ve answered all the questions, along with associated doodles and free-association words that will no be doubt be scattered around your pad of paper, you should see a pattern emerging.

Not only will you be on your way to tapping into your unconscious and figuring out your superpower, you should also have a pretty good idea of what outfit you’ll order from your local Superhero outfitter.

Sooty slowly realised he was more than your average cat

My superpower helps enormously with my editing work … I’m your go to gal for fact-checking and researching a whole heap of stuff. There’s a bit of a silly example over on my other, genealogy, website, where I found a postcard and managed to figure it out from a few visual pointers.

Your superpower may help with work or play, but what is important is that you unleash it and never say “it was nothing” again.