Find Your Gold

We all want to know what we’re good at. We want to know who we are and what our gifts are. And we want to know how to use our gifts in meaningful ways.

I have found, both for myself and my clients, that our greatest gifts and our greatest challenges are two sides of the same coin.

I am thinking of my client who is brilliant at weaving diffuse threads into powerful narratives that change people’s lives. She is able to immerse herself with singular focus in the mess of life in order to bring forth beauty. But this gift if intense focus and total abandon quickly turns into chaos at home. A of more metered, present way of being allows the never-ending task of parenting little ones to be nurturing and sustainable for all.

I am thinking of my client who doesn’t want to ruffle feathers or make others ‘feel badly” and therefore takes on way too much and is left perpetually exhausted and resentful. It is this woman’s huge heart and generous nature that has her caring for others at the detriment of her own well-being.

What is the relationship between what you do best and what you really want to change?

Does viewing your challenges or limitations through the lens of your strengths give you a sense of confidence and hope that change is possible?

Change is possible. What you want for yourself and your life is possible.

Shifting our way of being and our behaviors takes practice. It doesn’t happen with the flip of a switch-one minute we’re this way and the next minute we’re the way we want to be.

You have to first know who you want to be and what you want to create.

There is hope and motivation and confidence in viewing that thing you don’t like about yourself as a strength run amok.

Is it true that you are ‘always disorganized?’ Or are you simply a big-picture person with multiple interests who hasn’t yet practiced how to plan ahead?

Is it a fact that you are ‘not good in social situations?’ Or could it be that you are a sensitive, caring person who needs to build some behavioral muscle around speaking up in a group?

Take a look at ‘the truths about me’ that you carry around and use to judge and limit yourself.

Get curious about them. What is the gift at the core of the challenge? And what might you practice in order to more closely align your life to your vision of how you want it to be. Change is possible.