Your Gifts: Use ‘em or Lose ‘em

​Each one of us was given unique gifts and talents when we were born.  There is no one of us exactly alike in our life experiences, emotions, perceptions, thoughts and talents.  There was no one left out of the gift giving process either.  No one was in the bathroom when the gifts were given out and no one was skipped.  We all have them.  

Some gifts we received right away, our heart beating, breath in our lungs, etc.  Others we learned along the way.  The gift of patience when we had to wait for something that we wanted, the gift of forgiveness when someone let us down or the gift of speaking up when we spoke when we were scared to say it.  

Take a minute to reflect back on your life to see what gifts you have.  A clue is in the things that you are passionate about.  Is there anything that you could do all day long, even if you weren’t paid for.  Is there something that you enjoy doing so much that it keeps you up at night or gets you out of bed first thing?

Once you become aware of some of your gifts, you get to start using them.  This is important because that which you don’t use, you lose.  For example, the majority of us were born with the gift of physical flexibility.  Babies can do the splits and move in ways that we can’t when we’re older.  You had all the ranges of motion in your body as a baby.  As you grew older, if you didn’t continue to use those ranges, you started to lose some of them.  Most adults, can no longer to do the splits.  

What if you had the gift of writing?  At some point in your life, you wanted to write and share that talent with others.  If you started to lose focus on your gift, or got distracted by something else and eventually stopped writing, you would stop sharing this gift with the world.

Losing a gift starts of slowly.  You used to do something everyday and then you’ll drop to a couple days a week and then 1 every other week.  Your mind will make other things seem more important until eventually, you stop.

The good news is, it’s always there in the background if you want to re-vitalize it.  It may time a little time to get back into it, but your gift can be there.  If you lose it, you can work hard to regain it.  You can re-learn to do the splits as well...though it may take you a while.

The world needs more people to share their gifts.  Find your gifts and share them to make the world a better place.

Having trouble finding your gifts?  Come to one of our complimentary workshops.