Unused Gifts
We all have them . . . somewhere.
And for the most part, the giver may never know we didn’t use their gift.
But what about the gifts you were given at birth – the ones gifted to you to fulfill your purpose here on earth, earn a living, share with others and experience life with – are you using those?
And why might you not be using your gifts?
For the most part, I’ve found two answers to that question.
One, is that sometimes the “gift” comes so natural to you that you really don’t think of it as anything special. It’s simply “that thing” you like to do, that you do all the time and are good at doing.
The other is fear. We don’t feel confident using our gift. We worry what others might think of us, of what we’re doing or what we’re pursuing. So, we put our gift aside and play with it secretly when we have free time.
Admittedly, I’ve suffered from both.
Have you?
Have you put your dreams aside and just play with them in private?
Ya, me too . . . until one day when I stumbled upon something and I realized I had a lot of unused gifts way down in my soul that weren’t meant to be “played with” but were meant to be used in my life to earn a living and help others with.
Do Something with Your . . . Gift
When a repetitive strain injury took me out of the field of Court Reporting I wandered around aimlessly, trying desperately yet unsuccessfully to find a new line of work.
Then someone looked me in the eye and said “You should do something with your writing.”
And just like that the shift happened. Every cell in my body “felt” something when that comment was made to me.
And while I always knew what my “dream writing job” was, that comment made me realize that my love of and ability to write was not something I was given as a hobby. to just play with. I was given it to use for a purpose.
From that comment forward I began pursuing ways to use my writing professionally. It took time. It took courage. It took disappointment. But it didn’t take me long to feel like I finally figured out what I loved to do and what I was good at.
That cellular revelation was followed with becoming a freelance writer. I wrote marketing copy. I wrote website and newsletter content. I created a journal writing course and taught the art and benefit of journaling to others. And at one point I combined my love of writing verse with my love of country music and studied songwriting. And while that didn’t lead (yet…lol) to my writing any number one hits, it did lead me to becoming a writer and editor of a country music blog. And for two years I wrote articles, interviewed artists, reviewed songs, albums, videos and concerts and played a huge part in the creation of a country music podcast.
The Gift of Hardship
If not for the repetitive strain injury that took me out of Court Reporting I never would have pursued writing professionally.
Sometimes it takes what seems like a hardship (my repetitive strain injury) to force us to dig deeper, uncover and use some of the gifts we’ve been given but have hidden.
What gifts do you think you might have hidden somewhere unused – that down deep you know you are meant to do something with?
Don’t wait for hardship to hit before putting your gifts to use. If they are something that you’re “meant” to utilize in life then you may find yourself struggling to move forward until you finally accept the fact that that “gift” was given for a purpose.
Rediscovering Your Unused Gifts
Pursuing things you love to do and feel gifted to do can be scary when you feel unsupported. But sometimes you’ve got to just take the plunge and do it.
If you haven’t used your “gifts” in a long time you may forget that they’re even there deep inside of you. So let’s take a look in the basement of your soul and see what we can uncover for unused hidden gifts.
- Close your eyes and visualize three gift boxes.
- Visually place inside each box something you enjoy doing or that you thought of pursuing. (Don’t worry about onlookers. No one can see what’s inside except you)
- For now, choose one of those boxes and do something with what’s inside of it, “use” that gift in some way.
You’ll know you’re onto rediscovering your gifts when you become excited at the thought of using them.
Give the whole process time. Enjoy the journey of figuring out what to do with your new found gift. The more you use it, the better you will get at it and the more opportunities you will encounter for you to put it to use.
What Will it Take for You to Realize . . .
I’ve been writing since I was old enough to hold a pencil and a thought™, journaling since childhood when I received one of those “diaries” with a lock and key, and I oftentimes wrote in verse. Yet I never pursued writing as a profession simply because it was not something that was supported as a practical career path. Choose a real career, get a real job, you can write little stories on the side.
That was the sound of the advice that surrounded me and I followed it.
Now, I am in no way the only victim of misguided advice. Somewhere in all of our lives is or was the voice of someone convincing us that something we’re dreaming of pursuing is, well, just a dream and we should act more responsibly.
It took a repetitive strain injury to force me to take a look at dreams and goals and gifts I had been given, all just sitting around unused, before I realized their value to my life, purpose and prosperity.
What will it take for you to realize yours?
Conversation Starters:
- Do you like getting gifts?
- How would you feel if you gave someone a gift and they didn’t use it?.
- What is one thing you know you’re “gifted” to do but aren’t doing?
