What are You Doing with Your Gifts?
By Leopold Llonch
American author, Henry David Thoreau, is most frequently quoted as saying “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
I believe what he meant was that many people roam through life without intention or purpose. Some desperately try to find happiness by easily drifting from one job or purpose to the next, although they may be of entirely different disciplines or industries.
They appear to chase the promise of a “white shiny object” like a fish chasing a lure.
Then there are those who take the time and use their energy to discover their in-born, natural gifts and talent.
Stay with me on this…
Each of us is born with seeds of one or more latent qualities. These seeds are the gifts and talent in each of us that have not yet been developed or manifested. They are hidden or concealed within each of us, waiting to be discovered and cultivated.
The problem with those who keep chasing the “white shiny objects” is that the lure is mostly a ruse or a deception to distract you from your real purpose.
One of the great deceptions in today’s culture is the extreme “Vanity Game”; that plastic surgery will transform you to the real you, or that your life will change for the better.
Doctor Maxwell Maltz was a Plastic Surgeon who helped victims of auto-accidents and sports, or work-related injuries. He also had patients who weren’t happy with their outer appearance and wanted a different look to transform their lives to another level of happiness.
What he found was that after surgery and healing, some of his patients didn’t notice any improvement. They thought they were still ugly or imperfect as before their surgery. They thought so negatively about themselves that they didn’t notice the positive change in their appearance.
Many of them focused their energy on their superficial appearance and gave little or no emphasis to the beauty of their innate gifts or talent. There are many reasons for this thinking, but Dr. Maltz had a prescription for his patients who had this low self-esteem.
His prescription was a process to help them re-program their thinking and how they think about themselves.
Whenever they had a negative thought, they should use a success mechanism known as CRAFT:
- C-ancel
- R-eplace
- A-ffirm
- F-ocus
- T-rain
- Cancel the old, negative idea. Any time you hear yourself thinking or speaking a negative idea or word, say the word Cancel out loud.
- Replace it with new, positive idea or word.
- Affirm your new image or idea to yourself. Write out a description of the best you on a 3×5 card and keep it in your wallet or purse and read it often daily.
- Focus on an image of a successful you. See yourself as already having this attribute.
- Train yourself for lasting change. As the saying goes, “fake it till you make it”.
Remember that your thoughts can create your circumstances and your circumstances affect your life.
“What you think about, you speak about, and what you speak about, you bring about”
Make it a Great Day!
Leopold