unwrap the gift
Hi Friend
Well, today I'm back on an airplane but instead of heading home I am flying to Monroe, Louisiana. It's late Friday night. I was supposed to be on this flight at 6am this morning, but it got delayed so long I had to cancel it and book an entirely different flight on an entirely different airline. The only one I could buy gets me in around midnight tonight.
Unfortunately it was an hour delayed taking off so I don't think I'm going to make my connection. I'm anticipating getting stuck at DFW tonight and having to get a flight in the AM, so I don't think I'm going to be able to write. I love a good adventure. Instead of sitting around Monroe today, I busted out so much work, it was like a week's worth compressed into a day.
People in the speaking business say they don't get paid to speak, but to travel, because it's such an unpredictable endeavor. It's fraught with delays, changes, cancelations and the humans smashed all around. I learned quite some time ago, to roll with how it goes. It is SO FAR out of my control. It's probably the only place I'm actually cool with being patient.
You have to get me 30,000 feet in the air before I'm willing to relinquish the belief that I can do something about the situation to make it better. 🙂 I like that about myself. In most gatherings of humans, in any setting, I have a knack for enhancements and improving the experience. It sounds like I'm being facetious. I'm not. I don't have control issues, I have a determined persistence to enhance.
GIFT AWARE
I don't think it's a strength on strengthfinders, but I'm an amplifier, catalyst, magnifier, booster, elevator, and lifter. I naturally attempt to improve on most environments I enter into. What is something you're naturally good at and like about yourself? We talk and think so much about our deficiencies, failures, shortcomings and setbacks, it's refreshingly reviving to cherish our gifts.
You're gifted! Not everyone may appreciate, understand or acknowledge it, but you are! I was never in the "gifted" program at school and no one ever suggested i was academically advanced. I think the gift we're each endowed with is our personality. We're entrusted with this amalgamation of desires, interests, skills, dispositions, traits and aspirations that we're responsible to mature, develop and expand over a lifetime.
MINDSHIFT
What if you focused exclusively this week on all the positive attributes you possess and only talk about what you like about yourself?
GIFTED PROGRAMMING
I'm sitting on this flight in a middle seat (did I mention I purchased this ticket today?). I'm in between a woman who does not speak english and a man who is spilling over into my seat. What if I considered those on my left and right, in front and behind, to be "gifted"? I'm not a teacher and this isn't one of those situations where i could get more out of them because of my belief. I'm saying how would I be affected?
We tend to see aspects of others as lacking. I use the term #RiffRaff. I certainly didn't board thinking "look at all these gifted people!" What if I had? What if my programming noticed traits that were unique to them and probably contribured to society and other humans in some way? How different would I act? How curious would I be? How much gratitude would I have?
MINDSHIFT
What if you not only focused on your positives this week, but drilled down on the positive aspects of those in your family and at work? Make it specific!
GIFT UNWRAPPING
I know this letter feels a bit perky. I'm going all in on the positives, the people and the possibilities. I'm convinced you and I still have aspects of ourselves that we haven't accessed. Unwrap that gift! If that's true of us, it's true of others as well. When we get frustrated with someone, what if instead of irritation we felt compassion because we thought "Oh dang, their gift is still wrapped up. I wonder how I could help them unwrap it?"
You are gift! They are a gift!
Both may only be partially unwrapped.
Have you experienced someone "coming into their own?" No wrapping remains. Confidence, joy and peace are available on-demand. When we encounter people unwrapped it inspires us to do the same.
SHIFTING
I hope this week you see every person you encounter as gifted, just in different phases of unwrapping. It may just give you an extra beat before you lose your patience with them. Let's find out. #ShiftAway
