Welcome to the 7-Day Say Goodbye to Survival Mode Challenge. Each day this week, I’ll be blogging through the 7-Day Challenge. If you’ve not signed up yet, enter your name and email in the orange sign-up box at the top of the page here and you’ll get the daily emails and challenge in your inbox.
Recognize & Appreciate Your Gifts
It’s so easy to look at other women and feel like we don’t measure up. I know this, because I’ve been so guilty of it.
In fact, not too long ago, I was speaking to a group of bloggers and I confessed to them that if Pinterest had been around when I first started blogging, I probably would have been too discouraged to even try blogging.
Because these bloggers on Pinterest can be inspiring… and yes, intimidating. For instance:
- I’m just thankful to have gotten a fairly nutritious lunch on the table for my kids where they are making homemade Goldfish crackers, homemade fruit rollups, and arranging their child’s food in a way that it looks like a work of art.
- I’m just happy to have gotten our Christmas presents wrapped and they are making hand-stamped Christmas wrapping paper, handmade gift bows, and hand-sewn gift tags.
- I’m just happy to have gotten a showered, gotten dressed, and put on a little makeup while they making videos on how they do their hair in some amazingly fancy up-do, blogging about how to put together incredible designer-knock-off outfits from thrift store finds, and doing red-carpet-worthy makeup tutorials.
- I’m just happy to have my bed made and the house picked up and they are re-upholstering their couches, painting murals on their kid’s bedroom wall, and building custom shelves in their closets.
Yes, it can be discouraging to look around (or online) and see so much talent and skill. And we can start to feel like we have nothing to offer. But that’s not true at all!
I was reminded of this just yesterday. One of my children was struggling with learning a new skill and they finally got so frustrated that they stormed into their room saying, “I’m just not good at anything!”
My heart broke for this child. They have so much skill, so much talent, and so much creativity. But they didn’t see any of that; they only could see the one thing they couldn’t seem to do.
And that’s how we are often. We focus on what we can’t do, what we’re not good at, and how we don’t measure up. All the while missing the incredible gifts and talents each of us have.
Today’s Challenge
This challenge is all about you. I want you take 10 minutes to brainstorm your innate gifts, talents, and abilities. Think about what really lights you up, what people rave about or what you may even take for granted because it comes so easily for you. To get your creative juices flowing, stand up and stretch or turn on some music if you like. Maybe even step outside for some fresh air.
Then, set a timer for 10 minutes (I use Online-Stopwatch.com or the timer on my phone) and write down what you like, admire, and appreciate about yourself. If you get stuck, call a family member, friend, or colleague and ask them to tell you your top three strengths. You DO have talents and gifts, you just may need a little help recognizing them.
Today’s Project
1. Read Day 2 of the 7-Day Say Goodbye to Survival Mode Challenge (type in your name and email address in the orange box at the top of the page here if you haven’t signed up yet).
2. Leave a comment telling us about 5 of your gifts. If you’re anything like me, this can be a hard exercise. But it’s so good and so important. You can figure out what you’re passionate about and how to use your gifts and talents in a way that blesses and impacts others if you can’t even see them in the first place!
5 of My Gifts:
- The gift of organization — I love to look at the big picture of a project and figure out the bite-sized steps one needs to take to complete that project.
- The gift of a good memory — I rarely forget things (though it does happen occasionally!) and I’ve only recently realized what a gift this is — especially because I have a lot of irons in the fire right now and a lot of details I’m overseeing as a wife, mom, and business owner.
- The gift of perseverance — I’m very determined and focused and don’t give up easily.
- The gift of writing — I can’t not write. It’s how I process things and am beginning to realize writing is one of the ways I “make art” — even if the final product sometimes feels less than stellar. 🙂
- The gift of encouragement — I love to be a cheerleader for others and am always looking for ways to uplift and affirm others.
Your turn! What are five of your gifts? Leave a comment telling us about them!
The gift of loving to learn – it’s true, I LOVE to learn. I am constantly trying out new things (right now I am trying to learn Hebrew). I like to watch documentaries, read non-fiction books, and scour the web for interesting facts that will help me be better. Not to mention teaching myself to tat and crochet.
The gift of teaching – I just can’t keep it to myself. Whatever I am learning, I have to share with others. Whether it is my children or my friends, I tell them what I am learning and sometimes even drag them into the learning with me. 😀 (Like pulling my daughter into learning to tat with me – she’s REALLY good!!!)
The gift of not being afraid to fail – I take chances, and am not afraid for looking silly because I tried.
The gift of reading – I am able to read quickly. Not everyone is and not everyone likes to read. I am thankful to be able to read quickly because it allows me to finish books. And I am thankful I love to read.
The gift of having some computer knowledge – it allows me to be able to tweet, and email, and stay on top of social media changes so that when my children are old enough to be a part of it, I will not be a lost dinosaur, but will be able to participate WITH them and be a godly example of HOW to use that media.
I just shared the facebook post about coveting…one of my new year resolutions is to be content, what I have and who I am is enough. No, more than enough…I’m awesome:)
1. The gift of patience – I have learned to wait for God’s timing, not my schedule.
2. The gift of teaching – I am a high school teacher who teaches children, not just a subject.
3. The gift of an open mind – I have been judged and it’s so hurtful when people don’t know your motives or history or opinion, and don’t bother to ask, to just assume. I strive to recognize that I don’t know the whole story or what’s in someone else’s heart.
4. The gift of humor – sometimes finding the humor in a difficult situation is a stress relief.
5. The gift of grace – for myself, my family, my friends but also to acquaintances and even strangers…giving grace to those around us.
I just shared the facebook post about coveting…one of my new year resolutions is to be content, what I have and who I am is enough. No, more than enough…I’m awesome:)
1. The gift of patience – I have learned to wait for God’s timing, not my schedule.
2. The gift of teaching – I am a high school teacher who teaches children, not just a subject.
3. The gift of an open mind – I have been judged and it’s so hurtful when people don’t know your motives or history or opinion, and don’t bother to ask, to just assume. I strive to recognize that I don’t know the whole story or what’s in someone else’s heart.
4. The gift of humor – sometimes finding the humor in a difficult situation is a stress relief.
5. The gift of grace – for myself, my family, my friends but also to acquaintances and even strangers…giving grace to those around us
This is a good challenge because it MADE me find five gifts, which at first felt difficult to do. Here are 5 gifts that I’ve found:
1. A very good cook
2. Adventurouus
3. Helping Others
4. Love of learning
5. Compassionate
My 5:
1. Encouragement
2. Writing/words/language/expression
3. Service
4. Laughter
5. Empathy
Glory that was hard!
The gift of…
– details
– organization
– encouragement
– serving
– teaching
1. The gift of being a good listener. Not just a shoulder to cry on, but an active, interested listener focused on the other person and not simply waiting for my turn to talk.
2. The gift of humor. Being quick with a clever turn of phrase. To lighten a tense situation. To add a different perspective.
3. The gift of speaking truth to power. If someone needs to say “but the emperor has no clothes,” I will probably be the one to say it.
4. The gift of analysis and process discernment. Probably why I became a lawyer.
5. The gift of gentleness and tenderness toward animals. As they say, we’re ALL God’s creatures.
Okay, here goes….
*Encouragement
*Helping
*Teaching
*Patience
*Cooking
🙂 Thanks
My gifts are
1. Organization
2. Encouraging
3. Cleaning-I love to clean & help others clean too!
4. Helping others
5. Prayer
It has just been very recently that I have learned to see the good/strengths in myself. My gifts are :
1~The ability to organize and clean. I love keeping my home clean and organized.
2~My love of learning. I would study and research things all day if I could. 🙂
3~Being compassionate and understanding of others. I have experienced a lot in life and am able to feel the emotions and pain of others.
4~ Cooking and baking. I love making my family and friends happy by cooking and making bread for them.
5~ Making jewelry. I have only begun making jewelry in the last year and a half and have realized that I have been giving a talent and passion for creating beautiful jewelry.
Thank you for this class Crystal. 🙂
Thank you for your posts! I have admired the purposefulness and discipline that you have to work towards your goals. It inspires me too!
This is challenging for me, as I tend to see my faults more than my gifts!
1. The gift of teaching: I enjoy the challenge of putting concepts and ideas into words or finding creative ways to communicate them to others–kids and adults alike.
2. The gift of seeing the big picture: I don’t do well with details, but I do see the big picture…and am slowly learning how to work with details to get there!
3. The gift of authenticity: being able to share honestly and from the heart, even when I fail or fall short. Ironically, it is these things that have helped others more than my successes.
4. The gift of writing: I am still trying to work towards being authentic in my writing as I process life, but I it is one way that I am learning to minister to others.
5. The gift of connecting people: God has often used me as a “bridge” to bring others together who may not otherwise connect or meet.
Thanks for this exercise! It more than ten minutes, but it was worth the time!
I am so over comparing myself with others! lol I have tried to stop doing so for several years now. This exercise was still difficult. Though I dedicated the ten minutes, I came up with very few points. I think it was difficult because I felt a bit vain when doing it.
Here are five of my gifts.
*I’m Inquisitive. I love to know the “whys” behind anything that interests me.
*I am a great researcher. This goes hand in hand with the first one, but I added it because I am great at researching anything. It might take me some time, but I am almost always able to come up with several sources to answer whatever I am inquisitive about.
*I am friendly. I love to smile at others and chat for a bit with anyone. I love it when I encounter people who are just as fond of chatting, too 🙂
*I love to encourage others through genuine compliments. Though I have trouble doing it for myself, I am very good at seeing the best in others. When they don’t see it in themselves, I like to point it out to them.
*Putting myself out there to really being thought of as vain….I love my hair! 🙂 It has taken me a lifetime to be able to say what I like about my physical appearance. I’d always been made to believe I had no physical grace. It has been in the last year that I began to realize I don’t need to be perfect to love my body and appearance 🙂
Thank you, Crystal, for another great challenge 😉
Oh my.. 5 gifts.. That’s a tough question to answer. But I guess this is me… It’s not much. I try my hand at lots of stuff but never seem to succeed as much as I’d like. But after much thought….
I love to cook and can cook quite a bit on a very modest budget.
I am compassionate.
I am dependable & loyal.
Being a mom to my 6 yr old which I home school and newborn girl. I often get compliments on my sons behavior.
Being a wife. For many years, I focused on my job and my marriage wasn’t as successful as it has since I’ve been able to stay at home.
1. The gift of caring – I can’t stand to see people suffer, whether it’s losing a game or out in the rain… I always want to care for others when they are down and help them some way.
2. The gift of encouragement – I love to help people move out of their yucky places, whether it’s sin or despair and encourage them to take hold of the promises of God.
3. The gift of forgiveness – I have been forgiven much, this was not how I used to be, but now I find it very easy to forgive and keep forgiving.
4. The gift of cooking splendid meals – I love to cook! My family, church and friends rave about it… that is difficult to point out, but a true talent.
5. The gift of learning – I LOVE to learn new things! I am always learning and I believe that anyone can learn anything! It is a joy to experience so much!
And…. Thank you for asking us to do this… It was not an easy task, but a necessary one! 🙂
Here’s my list.
– I am a good cook.
– I can home school my children and teach kids bible class at church.
– I can do a lot with very little. We live on a very limited income.
– I can be helpful.
– I can love.
It has been too long since I thought of all the good things I can do. Just writing this list has tears streaming down my cheeks. I did not realize how I have been bullying myself.
What a gift to be able to love others. This does not come easy to many including myself. You must be such a blessing to your family and friends.
Dearest Amber,
Your transparency just brought tears to my eyes!! Thank you for sharing your strengths and recognizing that we are too often our own worst critics. I often do this, as well. In fact, I think I have been doing this so long that it has become second nature and I do not realize how much it impairs my daily routine and those around me.
Thank you again for sharing as you have inspired me to change!
I thought this was great! As women, we often downplay our strengths. Why is that? Anyway, here are my top 5:
1. I’m a really good proofreader and I’ve made a successful career from doing this.
2. I have an excellent memory and this has helped me in various ways – remembering dates, times, directions, etc.
3. To go along with #2, I’m good at remembering people’s birthdays, anniversaries, and so on with cards, gifts, a note on Facebook, etc.
4. I’m great at returning movies and library books on time to avoid fees. Ditto with paying bills on time.
5. I’m dependable. If I say I’m going to do or bring something, you can count on it.
I agree with Crystal’s thoughts on Pinterest, and don’t even go there very often. Too overwhelming. I’m not crafty at all and admire those of you who are. I’ll stick to the basics and my family seems fine with that. 🙂
1. The gift of money-management. I am not sure if it’s my upbringing (mom and I used to clip coupons together), or my finance/accounting background, but I am a good steward of our family’s money. Money is never an issue we have argued about in our marriage. I bargain-shop, research for good deals, and am generally frugal with my purchases, although I do like to indulge in a good quality luxury item from time to time. I have never lied to my husband about anything I have purchased and think this is key in our successful marriage.
2. The gift of an elephant’s memory. Names, faces, events in the past…. I never forget anything! Long-term that is….. my short-term memory is sometimes lacking, but I think that is because of Gift 3.
3. The gift of multi-tasking. I am able to have a million things going at once. Cooking dinner, helping with homework, working on laundry, I’ve got it all in the air.
4. The gift of perseverance. When my kiddos started having problems reading in school, I put all my energies into researching and figuring out the best plan of attack to help them succeed. I did not stop! Unhelpful and unwilling people in my path be warned, I will not let anything keep my kids from success!
5. The gift of dependability. I am nothing if not dependable. Ever a slave to my watch and my to-do list, I am where I say I will be, with promised goods or tasks in my hands or completed.
Here are my five:
– Gift of planning – you give me the vision and I will put together a plan with timelines, milestones and required resources
– Finances & Numbers – I love math. I can create spreadsheets that take raw data and transforms it into charts and graphs so that it can be analyzed and understood.
– Communication – In particular, speaking in front of large crowds of people.
– Focused – when needed, I can stay on task and focused for large periods of time.
– Christmas tree decorating – I had to throw in a fun one! I am good at the art of decorating Christmas trees so that each decoration is hung just right. 🙂
This is such an important topic because as women we focus so much on improving ourselves and our weaknesses. Instead we should be focusing on our strengths that we were given that make us unique and that we can truly help others with. I read a book last year about strengths and it was life changing. My 5 strengths are:
1. Focus- I’m goal oriented and good at planning. I’ve always been that way and have always had a futuristic thought approach (sometimes that is a weakness though when it comes to living in the present!)
2. Learning- I love to learn new information and when I find an interest I have to learn all about it.
3. Communication- I’ve always been a writer and I love to talk 🙂 (My poor husband lol)
4. Problem Solver- I am good at helping find a solution.
5. I’m family oriented. We have 5 kids, I’m real. I tell it as it is. What you see is what you get. 🙂
My husband and I recently did something similar to this as part of a post-conference marriage challenge. The wife was to come up with 10 attributes/gifts about herself. In turn, the husband was to take that list and find opportunities to acknowledge them over the weeks to come. My husband not only took time/effort to compliment me but also wrote out why he loves each of my attributes/gifts in a letter I opened Christmas morning. It was such a sweet and thoughtful way to be acknowledged, especially because I can read it and be encouraged when I am feeling down about myself. Here are my 5:
1. Organization/Detail
2. Cooking
3. Serving others in practical ways
4. Dependable/Loyal
5. Creative
Problem solver – love finding the solution
Smart – people are always saying “you are so smart”
Cooking – I love to cook and people love to eat my cooking
Helper – Love to help with activites at church, school and in organizations
Calm- good at handling tough situations with out too much fuss
Some of these were easy but had to think to get all 5…
1. I can create with my hands. Whether it’s crocheted things, fixing an item of clothing in disrepair, cooking… I can do it.
2. I can write to any reading level. I work from home as a freelance writer and ghost writer.
3. I am able to put people at ease.
4. I can talk to anyone. I don’t care whether they’re homeless or a CEO or a high ranking politician. I can strike up a conversation… and yes, I’m actually an introvert and strongly dislike crowds.
5. I tell it like it is. I don’t see the world through rose colored glasses.
I love the quick reference to Emily Freeman’s “A Million Little Ways.” I’m nearly finished reading and it’s really helped to put everything I do, big and small, into perspective!
Yes! Her book was so good to open my eyes to the fact that my art is writing/blogging!
This was kind of hard to do…..but here goes!
1. The gift of dependability (my husband told me this one). He said that no matter what, I always keep my promise until it is fulfilled 100% and the quality is always above par.
2. The gift of music. I am a musician and even though I don’t play as much as I like, I know how to spread it, feel it, and love it.
3. The gift of imagination. I can always put myself in a positive situation and make the best of things.
4. The gift of always being positive. I do have problems like mentioned above (I always feel jealous) but I never give up. I always know things will work out.
5. Lastly, I have the gift of planning. I know how to make sure everything gets done and everyone is happy!
This was very hard to do:
1. Gift of humor. I can make people laugh.
2. Gift of editing. I am usually the one that proofreads for my friends and family. I also am asked to help other people at work with proofreading.
3. Gift of “going with the flow.” I can handle just about anything without breaking down.
4. Gift of mothering. I have five kids. Being a mother is all I ever dreamed about. I am the “baby hog” of the family. I love taking care of the babies, and it just comes naturally to me.
5. Gift of multi-tasking. I can have several things going at once, which is good in my job as an assistant.
My gifts are organization, hospitality, cooking, creativity and perseverance. If all of you are like me you just feel better and more confident about yourself as you get older. After I passed the age of 50 I just felt relaxed about myself. It will come for all of you, too! 🙂
LOVE THIS POST!!
I’ve asked my friends to tell me…I do not do well at this at all!
Leanne
1. I’m good at connecting things. I observe what people are like and can make good suggestions as to what they might also like.
2. I’m a very good, self taught cook.
3. I’m brave ( I stand up for what I believe in, sometimes people don’t like that and it’s been difficult for me to reassure myself that standing up for what I believe in is a virtue)
4. I’m strong
5. I’m loyal
Oooh, I like this! Thanks for the encouraging post. Three of my 5 gifts are a little similar:
* organizer & planner: Not always, but I’m really good at taking a huge project and breaking it into smaller chunks; and home/life organization.
* writing: It’s a gift to myself, and my offering to others
* photographic memory: which is so helpful, since I stink at remembering names, lol! Plus, I can easily remember details or where stuff is. And if I write it, I’ll remember it.
* humor/making others feel at ease
* teaching – I homeschool our kiddos and seem to have a knack for teaching concepts & explaining stuff, and I love to teach women’s studies at church.
Thanks again – great post!
You do have a gift for writing. I am always blessed by a visit to your blog.
Crystal,
I have a favorite blogger in the home decorating category. She reupholsters lots of things.
She also just wrote about how she spends so much time doing those types of things that she didn’t realize that she had pajamas in her son’s drawers that were a size 2 T–and her boys are 5 and 7!
We only have so much time. For her, the choice hasn’t been organization (though she is working on that now)–the choice has been to work on those projects. Your choice is to be more organized and do less projects.
A food photographer works in a very small, controlled space for photographing. The rest of the kitchen can be filled with a hundred pots and pans, but you don’t see those in the photographs.
I recently found out that someone whom I admire for her many talents admires me for some of my talents. It was eye-opening, because I always felt like she was a better person–especially because she excels at something that is one of my struggles. Hearing her words in a casual remark about not having some of the talents that I did made me realize that just because I struggle with something that she does well doesn’t mean I’m not good at things. I just need to work on that skill. Interestingly enough, I admired this same woman for another one of her talents years ago, and I have since learned how to do that thing and made it one of my talents.
I find that a lot of women say, “I’m just not good at______ (cooking, photography, sewing, gardening, etc.)” and then they decide that that is who they are. If we instead decide to learn about those things, we can become good at them. I have increased in all of those talents since being married because I have made the time to do so. I took gardening and photography classes. I read sewing magazines that taught me new techniques. I have tried new recipes and learned to bake–something I didn’t do at all before getting married (I cooked, but I had never made bread).
If there is a talent you want, pursue it! If you don’t succeed, don’t give up! Keep trying. Figure out what went wrong. Know that even seasoned gardeners have crops that don’t grow, seamstresses keep their seam rippers handy for mistakes, photographers throw out the bad photos, and most people don’t tell you about the meals that they burned. Keep trying, and your talents will increase!
“seamstresses keep their seam rippers handy for mistakes, photographers throw out the bad photos, and most people don’t tell you about the meals that they burned. Keep trying, and your talents will increase!” This is so encouraging and inspiring! I need to go think about my gifts now. Thanks
I left a really thought out comment, and then my computer flipped out on me! Here are my 5 gifts, not the greatest, but they are mine. =)
The gift of cooking- I love to cook and pretty much cook anything I would like to without problems.
The gift of list making- I can make a list for anything that could ever need a list and more! I have notepads and notebooks laying around everywhere, just so I can make a list.
The gift of Crafty- I can recreate almost anything that I see, and I love it!
The gift of starting things and not finishing them- I don’t know if this is really a gift- but my husband says I am the best at it!
The gift of reading- I LOVE to read, and can read a novel within hours ( when time permits) I also can read articles and blogs and can reiterate them with amazing comprehension. I find this to be one of my biggest strengths.
Like I said, not anything crazy, but they are mine. =) I love all your posts!
“The gift of starting things and not finishing them” I really laughed out loud reading about this gift. I guess I’m very good at this too, but I think this year we should both throw this one away and acquire a productive gift to replace it. God bless you.
Here are my “gifts”. Thanks for making us go through this exercise!!
1) Optimism – I often expect the best in people and situations. I tend to look on the bright side of situations.
2) Planner – I love to look at the big picture of my life/a project and figure out the bite-sized steps one needs to take to complete that project. I love to plan out times to work on such projects.
3) Working toward organization/Driven – I love the motto “A place for everything and everything in it’s place.” I tend to be always working towards this goal in my home. It’s a never-ending process, but I LOVE it!
4) Encourager – I like to take time to write notes of encouragement to others. Written form is the best way I communicate.
5) Mothering a baby – I’m not sure how to pinpoint this gift, but I LOVE being a mother to my son. I love interacting with him as he is growing, leanring and developing skills.
There are many things on the internet that are very intimidating, for me it’s not pintrest it’s blogs. I’m the worst at writting things more complicated than my To-Do List. I love how others can let things flow so freely and beautifully. I do very much appreciate you providing your readers with this challenge, even though it is only day 2 I have already had to force my self to do a few things out of my comfort zone. Thank You!
My 5 Gifts:
1. The gift of being Crafty.- This is why I’m not intimidated by Pintrest. It comes very easy to me to see things and replicate them. My craft room is my relax zone and actually feel withdrawals when I have not been there in a while.
2. The gift of Humor- I love to see people laugh. I seem to be a bit witty and can make people laugh easily.
3. The gift of being (somewhat) Adventerous- While it may not be the same kind of adventure that others may define such as Skydiving (EEK!!), I do like to try new things. It’s mainly recipes and pushing myself to create something different (like turning a dresser into a entertainment center).
4. The gift of multi-tasking- This is a gift I have not always had. It is almost essential though when you have children. I’m thankful that I can be making a mental grocery list and menu plan as I’m cleaning, or performing some of the various other tasks.
5. The gift of Helpfulness- I enjoy helping others. I’m still working on drawing the line between helping and keeping them from helping themselves.
I also find it intimidating when someone else is gifted in an area I find challenging, like writing. I was fortunate to have an experience last fall that changed how I approach these areas (although not I how I feel about them – it’s still scary putting yourself out there!).
What I realized was that we only ever see someone’s end product, so we assume that other people are so much more talented than we are. In reality, the blogger that you found intimidating probably spent several hours on the piece that seems to just flow naturally by the time you read it. And of course she probably also enjoys writing and has quite a bit of practice.
Last year I participated in a writing seminar where we wrote several short pieces that were stylistically far outside of our comfort zone. The first week I was scared to share my draft; generally I don’t like to share my work if it doesn’t meet a certain standard, but I had no idea how to fix it! Fortunately some of the other participants were more confident, which made it even more shocking when I discovered that their drafts were just as bad as mine.
One of my completely unfounded fears was that my peers would think poorly of me if I had a less-than-stellar paper. Instead, our mutual struggling created an environment where we could honestly and openly discuss what worked and what didn’t. With time it came out that we all disliked our own writing for some reason or another; yet, every time someone would disparage their own work the rest of the group would point out a host of things that person did well.
Since then I’ve been working on appreciating the time and effort that go into things I wish I could do instead of being frustrated that I can’t do them as well as I would like. At best my own skills in those areas might improve from exposure and a gracious attitude, and at worst I might find new hobbies or friends, or just have a few less sources of stress in my life.
1. Solving complex problems in unfamiliar areas. Understanding and piecing together concepts has always come easily to me. I have had people come to me for help on many occasions, starting with, “I know this isn’t what you do, but you’re good at figuring things out and I don’t know who else to ask.”
2. Big picture goal-oriented. It helps that I have always had a very clear career goal (which shaped the rest of my life goals), so as long as whatever I was doing was beneficial to my long term goal I considered it an investment in myself. Sometimes it was an investment in my physical & mental health, other times it included taking travel opportunities in college because it would be hard to do it during 8 years of grad school. My uncle described it once as taking “positive risks”.
3. Compassion & being humble. I have joked for a long time that my empathy comes from reading so much as a child, and now there is a (rather limited) scientific study showing there actually is an correlation between reading and empathy. I love hearing other people’s perceptions of situations – even if I disagree I like to understand where they are coming from. (A fascinating book on the difference perspective makes is “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”).
4. Helping Others. I like to do things to help the people around me, but I make a conscience effort to only do things that are actually helpful (as opposed to intrusive or would leave someone else with an obligation). Personally I appreciate when others care enough to help me, but I am also fiercely independent so I try to respect other people’s boundaries.
5. Communication of complicated information. I seem to understand concepts in a simplistic, but amazingly useful, way. The conceptual understanding makes it easier to explain science and medicine to people who don’t know much about them. However, it means that I learn things relatively “backwards” compared to my peers, who seem to take details-first approach. As I see it, I can always look up the details if I know what I’m looking for; it’s much harder to find a context for random facts.
It’s so hard to not judge myself relative to others’ strengths! Here are my five:
-I make lovely quilts to warm my family and children in need
-I sew pretty dresses that my daughters look cute wearing
-I enjoy teaching Sunday School to teenagers, and they seem to like my class
-I have a talent for combining technical research and effective communication of our findings
-I breastfeed my baby and should have a small surplus to donate to a milk bank soon
This spoke right to my heart!! I don’t know how many times I’ve felt “less than,” and I’m going to do the project right now. It’s so easy to get discouraged when we see the larger-than-life talents of others shining in our faces. My own kids also talk about finding the things that they’re great at, when all around them they see friends who have really amazing talents. I want to encourage them to be so content with the wonderful people that they are already!! Thanks for this post.
Is that a violet? I read my devotional this morning from “Streams in the Desert” and it talked about the little violet, being content to be itself, and not wishing it was something else in the garden. This little poem was part of the devotional:
Others may do a greater work,
But you have your part to do;
And no one in all God’s family
Can do it as well as you.
Thank you for this challenge! I agree about Pinterest. If it had been around when I was a young, new bride I would have felt like a failure constantly. I love the ideas I get from Pinterest, but I don’t go on very often because I want to live life rather than viewing life; I want to actually cook things instead of just pinning recipes.
We are all amazed at how much you get done and how you motivate and inspire other women, Crystal! You are a gifted writer and businesswoman! Your readers here are all glad for the unique gifts you have that have helped us all so much!
I forgot to add what my gifts are. Ironically, we share most of the same gifts! Although instead of perseverance I put, “motivated, or disciplined.” The other 4 you listed are also my strengths too. It was helpful to do this exercise considering how often I engage in negative self-talk about how I should be more like so-and-so or I should lose weight or try to decorate my house like my decorator friend or try to dress like my fashionista friend, etc. etc.
It’s not a violet.