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Being an empowered male, someone who has uncovered their gifts, means you now have something to share with the world. Having a gift, whether it is the ability to help others with realizing their dream homes or just their dreams, is also a responsibility. Not to the world or the universe, as some of the New Age Gurus would have you believe – but to yourself.
The point of realizing your strengths, your gifts, is that they enhance your life. In the grand balance that is the Universe, you cannot give away what you do not have, but also, the more you give away your gifts, the more of them you have. It is a funny twist of a paradox, that the more I hold on to my gifts and don’t share them with the world, the less useful they become.
My favorite personal gift is my ability to see other’s strengths, and how to turn them to maximum usefulness. I’ve always been good at getting people to open up to me. I’ve heard deep dark secrets since I was a child. Professionally, as a divorce lawyer, it’s been useful with the men I represent because as they open up to me, I am able to plan a strategy for their needs, but also to provide a sounding board for their emotional battles.
As a Digital Marketing Mentor I have been able to take that same skillset, and apply it to my students. They come to me with vague ideas and feelings, and within an hour I help them see how they share their gift with the world and provide for their family.
We often need someone outside of ourselves to see clearly and communicate what the next steps are for us to fully bloom into the man we were meant to be. Many of us have a shell of old ideas, false concepts and misinformation about what man is, and is supposed to do and be. In order for us to grow past our calcified self-concept, we need to have an outside voice and vision clarify for us what we are seeing that is wrong, false and ill-informed.
Once we have been informed of the truth of who and what we are, it is time for us to grow into that person. This is where it is crucial for us to understand that it is not for the benefit of others that grow, but for ourselves. I cannot become the Mentor to many, of maximum usefulness to others unless and until I shed my old image of self, like a lobster that has outgrown his carapace.
This is why I say it is not for others but for us, that we must grow, for only we live in our shell. Others may, and most likely will, benefit from our growth, but they are the not the reason why we need to find and expand our skills and gifts. We do it so that we can experience the meaning and value of the growth. We reach out and help others, because it is our way of exercising the muscles of our skills and gifts.
The more we help others, the stronger we become, the more skilled we grow, and we help others along the way, but they are unintended beneficiaries. We sharpen our skills on the problems and conflicts of others, and in the process become the person we were meant to be all along.
Find your gift. Give it away. Give it freely and often and you will find that you will suddenly be who you were meant to be all along. You will find yourself happy, fulfilled and most likely, being handsomely rewarded from those who can now see you for the awesome person you have become.
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Photo Credit: Getty Images
