Chapter 2:
Find Your Unique Strengths, Gifts, and Talents
Synopsis
Discovering your strengths and talents is like first building the basement for your house. It's your foundation. It's like the soil from which a strong and beautiful tree can grow. It provides you with your unique potential. It's a unique gift that came with you when you were born. You are being asked here to nourish it until it's strong enough to guide you in your life.
Talents
Do not waste your time chasing somebody else's dream or goal or anything that is not given to you that you can't claim first as your own. Use the talents you came in with or the ones you developed along the way.
You may become very good at something but you'll never find true, lasting happiness with it if you cannot own it completely. You'll always have to compensate with something else so as not to feel the void in your life - a void that is only filled by your own inherent strengths and talents.
If you do not know your talents and strengths, make getting to know them your major project in life. Use any tools you feel comfortable with. Try to find a way to dig deeper into yourself. This is your life - and you are worth it!
Recognize your unique blend of talents and gifts is the first step in discovering who you truly are. Think of your childhood dreams for clues about your early conditioning. Ask your friends to help you identify your gifts. Keep a journal of questions and answers and refer to it often as a way of focusing on the specific characteristics of yourself and the dreams you hold dear. Learn to use any tool that helps you find a way to dig deeper into yourself.
Finding The Courage to Step Out of Normality
If you've found your talents and strengths, you know you're unique. It gives you confidence and a sense of stability. That does not mean that you go around telling individuals how different you are. It's just a recognition of what you brought into this lifetime. Make a commitment to follow these gifts and talents; let them guide you. Do not let anyone tell you what you should do. Do not let anyone tell you that you're not good enough to fulfill your dreams. Identify as much as possible with your dreams, as they're the surest guides in your life. They'll show you where to go. There's no guarantee at all that everything will be fine and easy when you follow your dreams. It could be the opposite.
You may find yourself alone in the world with the feeling that everybody else is doing the right thing but you. Your gifts, talents and strengths are your ultimate potential, but they can also be your pitfalls. You'll need to cultivate them over time. In the beginning, they are also your weaknesses and you'll be tested by them. The more you withstand them, the stronger they grow inside you, until they become your life force.
Discovering your own unique blend of dreams and personal talents helps break loose layers of conditioning and initiates deep changes in your life. Realize that all change, whether positive or negative, is necessary and will in the end support you in ways that sustains your growth. Inner understanding is infinitely more significant than external accumulation. Be nonjudgmental - don't impose artificial standards on yourse