Beyond Goals: Discovering and Using Your Gifts

I’ve talked about goal-setting for the last two months, and today, I’m hoping you’ll go beyond goal-setting – not to a place of giving up, but a place of letting go.

All of us, regardless of how achievement-oriented we’ve been, are struck with a blinding flash of the obvious when forced to face our own mortality. We realize that our relationships and the simple joy of living are all that matter. As the cliché asserts, “On their deathbed, nobody says, ‘I should have spent more time at the office.’” And in “Sweet Surrender,” John Denver observes, “It’s more than enough just to be here today.”

Your new life begins with a stupefyingly simple mantra: “I am enough, and I have enough.” I’m not saying that you should never set another goal for yourself, never aspire to something greater. But we’re so much more than our accomplishments. Life can be exquisitely meaningful, joyful, and rich, whether we achieve goals or not!

But to create a life with guaranteed abundance, you must tap into your gifts. Yes, you do have them; different from abilities or expertise, your gifts have been with you from the very beginning. They’re the qualities other people compliment you on, which you discount, because you think they’re no big deal; you believe everyone can do what you do.

Successful business consultant Michael Jones learned this lesson from an elderly man overhearing his random piano playing from a hotel lobby bar. This “seer” pointed out that Michael’s gift for composing and playing were unmatched, but Michael shrugged off the compliment, insisting that he wanted to change the world through his consulting and that playing was “nothing” — just something he did to relax. But the wise man was insistent, too: “Who will play your music, if you don’t play it yourself?” Fast-forward 25 years, and Michael’s music, available on 15 recordings, has become the benchmark for defining contemporary instrumental music worldwide. He inspired me to chase down my own gifts, and if you’re interested in his work, see www.pianoscapes.com.

Your gifts needn’t be in a field we usually call “creative.” They may involve a quality of caring or listening that you offer. Perhaps you’re a superb craftsman, a gifted athlete, or a chemist with the infinite patience needed to discover the cure for a threatening disease.

I’ve become aware of my gifts through the feedback I get on almost every speech and training program I present. I also have honest, insightful friends. I’ve discovered that my strongest gift, empathy, allows me to truly connect with almost everyone in almost all situations. And that gift translates to my passion to help people succeed, whether I’m conducting training, authoring a book, volunteering with children to help them learn to read, or listening attentively to a friend facing some challenges. Because I have daily opportunities to use my gifts, my life is rich beyond measure.

Once you’ve discovered your gifts (and thus your passion), you’ll know what you were put on earth to do. All you have to do is apply these gifts to both enjoy and bring joy to each day.

If you ignore your gifts, your life becomes more and more constricted, until you’re just one more tired little animal scrambling on the non-stop hamster wheel of life. And now you’ve complicated all the happiness right out of your life.

In his book, Creating an Imaginative Life, Michael offers, “an invitation to a wedding – a marriage between the ambitions of your intellect and the glorious bounty of your gifts which live in your heart.” I like that metaphor a lot.

As we allow our gifts to flow through us, our strengths blossom into a work of art and an act of grace. And we set in motion a continual cycle of contribution and appreciation between ourselves and others.

It’s nice to know that in applying our gifts, “We will be guided by the silent intelligence that beats deeply within each of our hearts.” Another eloquent Michael Jones statement.

So make the commitment today, to dis-cover your gifts—to remove your own “cover,” and reveal what is most authentic, precious, vibrant and fulfilling about yourself. Please don’t spend one more day on that hamster wheel!

If your organization would like a keynote speech on this or other topics, contact Jeanne at (402) 475-1127 or (800) 410-3178, see her website at www.cts-online.net, or email her at jbaer@cts-online.net.