How To Discover Your Unique Gifts – Part 1

by Silvia Pencak
(PO Box 39540, 579A Lakeshore Rd. E., Mississauga, Ontario L5G 4S6)

I love conversations with my girls. They just “get” it. Most of our talks happen in the car as we turn on the music super loud, sing together and then it all starts. Simple questions is what I look for as they usually lead to some wonderful discoveries. Yesterday we discussed the topic ‘how to discover gifts’ with my 10 yr. old. She is a super smart girl of million questions, reads with a speed of the light, some of the books she gets her eye on are just unbelievable.

But back to the topic. I believe this conversation is super important for anybody out there, especially if you struggle with discovering your own gifts. Let’s have a closer look at the highlights..

As we were talking about some fun stuff, the question came up… “Mom, what do you think

1. Does everybody have a gift?

Like a super power, something that you can do better than anybody else?”

I instantly knew that this is important. You know, there are times when as moms we “sense” the importance, put on our supermom cape and step up our game.

If you spent enough time in my space, you know my answer. I strongly believe that each of us was given a gift. Not necessarily a super power, but yes, you are better in some stuff and I am better in something else. We are all unique and we all can be a contribution.

On occasions it might look like some people only have gift to annoy others while others seem to be super talented. But the truth is that even the worst person on this earth can do some things well and the best person out there isn’t good at everything. You are strong in some areas and need help in others – just like everybody else out there. This has nothing to do with education, past experiences, how good or bad you are, this is simply who you are. None of us can use 100% of our energy in every area of life, yet each one of us has potential to improve in some area.

This is all wonderful, but sometimes we might feel confused when it comes to defining our own gifts, talents or strengths. This is when the next question came… “Mom, I can see others’ gifts, but

2. What if I don’t see my gift?

Does it mean that I’m not good in anything?”

This is such a great question. I struggled with it myself most of my life. I could see everybody else around me being wonderful and brilliant, but me? What can I offer? Some people even told me how much I helped them, but it all seemed so trivial to me, so easy that I couldn’t see it as gift or strength.

Here are some biggest lessons I’ve learned in this area:

Your gift or strength is usually something obvious to you. This is probably why it’s so hard to define it. It’s so easy for you that you have a tendency to disregard it. I find that many people get stuck in trying to be like somebody else simply because they can’t see their own brilliance.

Your strength can’t become stronger if you don’t use it. Some time ago I came across this image (see below) and it stuck with me. I’m not sure where it originally came from, but it’s brilliant. We all think that to succeed in life (or discover our gifts) we need to get from point A to point B in a straight line. I need to sit down, make a note in my journal about who I think I am and voila, couple minutes later I discover my gifts. I’m unstoppable! This is wrong on many levels.

First of all, you can’t discover your gifts by sitting down and writing about it (ok, unless you start writing a book, report or something else and discover that you’re a writer, blogger or correspondent).

The best way to discover your gifts is to be and do your best right where you are right now. Be who you are, do what you can, make a difference. Don’t wait until you have it all figured out. Take action!

Once you take action, you’ll be able to see what works for you and what doesn’t. Pay attention to where you create your best results with least effort. Look at the image above. Stop worrying about mistakes. Turn your mistakes into lessons that move your forward. Stop trying to create a perfect line. This is NOT how the life works!

If you enjoy this topic, click here to discover the last question my daughter asked which made all the difference in this area.