What You May Not Know About Sharing Your Gifts

Hint: You don't have to be ready or perfect or all knowing

Photo by David Iskander

Why are you here? 

What are you here to do?

What is the best, highest and most joyful version of you?

Many of you may not have clear answers to those questions. Having amnesia about our soul’s growth, evolution and purpose is completely normal, and is built into this human experience.

The good news is there are ways that we can move out of the amnesia and begin to remember our true Self and our Soul’s Plan and Purpose, which is so much more than our human identity.

The not-so-good news is that along the way to sharing our gifts, we have to face ourselves: our limiting beliefs, our self-sabotage, our trauma, our self-doubt and fears and so on.

It’s a rite of passage.

I know, it sounds terrible. Why would anyone want to do that?

One reason is that it’s part of our soul’s journey to grow beyond whatever isn’t serving us. Another reason is that the call to share who we are authentically grows stronger over time, and at some point, it becomes more painful to ignore that call that to honor it.

Joseph Campbell told us to “follow our bliss”.  He wrote, “What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea.  It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by someone else”.  

We are unique. Our potential for experience is unique. Therefore, at any given moment, we can put ourselves in the way of our destiny, so to speak.

Many of us resist the very idea that we have unique gifts and talents to offer the world.  

Most of us have heard the call, but for one reason or another, have chosen to ignore it. Perhaps, we were never encouraged as children. Or we were told our ideas and dreams were impractical. Whatever the reason, we may now find ourselves at a crossroads in our lives wondering why we feel lonely or unhappy or unfulfilled. Perhaps, we simply feel an inner knowing that something is not right. A kind of itchiness, restlessness or sense of being unsettled, and we have no idea why.

Along our journey through life, we’ve been discouraged about pursuing our dreams, so we’ve simply dropped them along the side of the road, and forgotten about them.  What many of us don’t realize is that those dreams are still there inside of us and that in order to lead a fulfilling life, we need to go back to the various crossroads, retrieve these shattered visions and bring them back to life.

We believe that pursuing our dreams is too difficult and risky.

We believe that it isn’t possible to do what we really want to do. 

We’re so enmeshed with obligations and responsibilities, we don’t often take the time to even think about it.  

The cost of ignoring our need to be creative, self-expressive human beings is difficult to measure, but I am sure that many conflicts in human relationships could be resolved if people were simply able to follow a different path. 

True inner power is the result of a feeling that one has found his or her place in the world, and that he or she is making a worthwhile contribution to it. There is a free flow of energy with this type of power: one is in a position of both giving and receiving at the same time, taking care of the human need to not only receive love but to express it as well.  

If I could give every man, woman and child on this planet one gift, it would be to teach them to listen to and follow the unique song in their hearts. I’ve seen that work miracles in peoples’ lives. I’ve felt it transform my own life.  

Nothing is more beautiful that seeing others “doing who they are”. 

Nothing is more powerful than a person who knows what he or she wants.

There is no lack here.  

Incredible things happen when people arrive at this place. The right connections, money and opportunities tend to move toward them in a magnetic way. 

This is all welcome and wonderful.

And…the tricky and messy parts show up the minute we being to move in the direction of that sacred and holy place that is uniquely ours. As we follow our desire to share our gifts, we must travel through a passageway filled with the contents of our excuses, our inner doubts, our feelings of unworthiness and the core beliefs and wounds that tell us that we aren’t enough, we don’t know enough and we don’t have what it takes.

No wonder we hold back!

Resistance and procrastination come from not believing we’re ready or strong enough to hold that new vision of ourselves. This quest to share our gifts then becomes a healing journey filled with blessings but also lots of discomfort as we find our footing in this new experience. From afar, it’s easy to get to see becoming a creative profession or a healing practitioner through rose-colored glasses and romanticize what our lives will look like once we’re put ourselves and our gifts out there.

That’s why it can be a bit of a shock to experience the thorny part of that journey—the painful inner work required to be able to be the person who can stand in this new way of being.

With that said, we don’t need to wait until everything seems perfect and wrapped in a neat and tidy bow before we begin. We can begin when we’re open and willing to take the inspired action that can respond to those that need our gifts.

Is it worth moving through all of this stuff to get to that readiness?

Absolutely! Plus, what better motivation to do that inner healing than knowing on the other side of it you’ll be living in alignment with your true Self and your Higher Purpose?

Years ago, when I stepped onto this path of following my heart, I certainly didn’t know that this was part of the process. If I had known what was in front of me, I may have been too intimidated to continue on that path. In that case, a little bit of ignorance was a good thing. Thankfully, I’ve had lots of support along the way from others who have also been through this rite of passage.

One more thing: it’s a work in progress. With each evolutionary leap you take, especially when you’re doing a big stretch outside of your comfort zone, there will be some old insecurities stirred up. The difference is that this time, it will be familiar territory and you can respond accordingly.

Where are you in this process? In the beginning? The messy middle? Or have you come out on the other side?

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