Finding and Using Your Gift
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
~ Pablo Picasso
We all have a mission in life. That mission is to use our gifts to make the world a better place. How we do that is unique to each of us, just as our gifts are unique to each of us. Our mission is not our job or career, although we may have chosen a job based on our gifts. Our mission doesn’t end once we retire.
The hard part is figuring out our gifts. I have struggled with this for years. My gifts are not the obvious talents of being musical or artistic or athletically endowed. I used to want the flashy gift of baton twirling (back in the days of talent shows on beauty pageants) only to learn that I had the gift of organizing drawers, which is much less of a spectator activity. I think I’m getting better at understanding what my gifts are and how to use them, but they continue to evolve and change. It takes time and many life experiences to look for and be open to discovering our gift and then be able to accept, even claim it, as our own.
Even when we have an idea of what our gifts are, it may still be better to think in terms of how we can be helpful to others, whether that is others in our immediate surroundings, or others in need in the world, than in what we can do with this specific ability. We can get too caught up in believing we have a certain gift and it’s only that gift that’s of use. Yes, the world certainly needs our gift, but perhaps what we believe to be our gift is just the wrapping around our real gift. Perhaps our real gift is the ability to connect with someone else in a way that is authentic and validating. That’s a gift that could heal the world and one that everyone can develop and share.