style=”width:600px !important;” Photo by Kate Taken at The Butterfly Place in Westford, MA
I think every single person on this earth is here for a purpose. We each are given certain gifts and have a responsibility to find out what they are, and capitalize upon them. Too often, and I am a seriously guilty party on this one, we decide that our gift isn’t what we SHOULD be and we retreat into what we think are other’s expectations of us rather than what we know to be true for ourselves. I am a super, hyper, ultra, mega, creative person. I think in swirls. I was raised by two of the best people on this earth, both of whom are math-quantitatively gifted. I decided that was what I should be too, and got myself all wound up because it didn’t come naturally. The gift in this is that I became a hyper organized Aquarius creative. There are few people on this earth like me. I am business minded, understand qualitative life, and work well with the math minds even though I am mostly an art fart. In fact, the very vast majority of my friends work in math-related fields. Literally my best friends in the whole world work as pilots, operations researchers, aero/astro engineers, rocket science, fire protection engineering, civil engineering, accounting, marketing (statistical side), mathematics, and other science related fields. There are few liberal artists in my crew but me. I used to think that made me less than worthy. I used to think that because I wasn’t math-passionate, I was less intelligent. Quite the opposite is true. I have the privilege of being the coordinator of the scientists, a communicating voice amongst them, and bring color and creativity into their world. I don’t mind being an artist anymore. It is quite the change, and took 30 years in the making.
I think its a shame that in our society we tell people what their gifts should be, when they should use them, and when they are worth something to the world. Everyone has something their passionate about, and something that they are really good at, but often times we just say “yeah, but I can’t do this OTHER thing”… In my business, I was speaking to a coworker and said “Yeah, I write well, and I coordinate resources well, but I need you to teach me to code better”. She laughed and said, “Ok, but the things you just said are more valuable. I figured I was doing the coding because that’s what I’m good at. I’m not as good at the other things as you. Why not just have both of us do what we are great at, and we can move faster that way?” It’s sad that it took so long for me to realize that my social skills are invaluable, and being able to talk/write is important too. It just comes so natural to me (can’t you tell?). I’m not a natural blonde, but I can dye it. I’m not a natural math-mind, but I have learned to have the skills needed to hang in those circles. I am an artist, a photographer, a graphic and web developer, a talker, a writer, a reader, and a lover of anything that communicates one’s heart-song to the world. That’s fine with me. I no longer need to be any of the things I am not. I can learn skills to help use the gifts I have been given, but I don’t need to do that to please anyone else anymore. What a gift!
How are you the fish thinking you should be climbing trees? Maybe you need to appreciate the fact that you can breathe underwater, swim, and do your fishy thing. How can you better realize your potential by appreciating your gifts? Start now.
