The Importance of Identifying Your Gifts

Your gifts are what will guide your life path. 

That’s great, but what if you don’t know what your gifts are?

Your gifts are generally things that come very naturally to you. They are also likely the things that people ask you to do for them. 

In the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, organizational maven Mari Kondo discusses her childhood spent organizing her family’s spaces, annoying everyone as she moved their things without them knowing. Her natural inclination to tidy spaces was her gift – it was annoying to those close to her and it was what ended up becoming her career.

When I was a kid, I was really shy about singing even though I loved it. Later on when I started studying Sanskrit, I grew more confident with my singing, and eventually I had people asking to record me singing invocations. They liked how I sang and were asking to use my voice as an example – a validated gift!

Often our gifts were exposed as children, then either suppressed or malnourished or forgotten as we grew up. Think back to when you were a child – what was the thing(s) you did that just made the day fly by? What activities did you get lost in? If you can’t remember, ask a parent or sibling or someone who knew you when you were little.

Our gifts are also two-sided. On one side is the gift itself, and on the other side is the liability of the gift. One of my gifts is teaching – I always knew I would teach because I’ve been doing it in one way or another my entire life and I love it. On the flip side, my zeal for teaching can sometimes come across as bossy, sharp, or even intimidating. I’ve had to work on this my whole life, and still do!

One person may have a great gift of caring for others. The liability side might be invading others’ space or getting “up in their grill.” Someone else could come across as aloof or cold, which might be the liability of a gift that is a thoughtful, creative, or even funny person.

When you know your gifts, you can offer them fully. This in turn leads to fulfillment. Real happiness isn’t random bursts of serotonin, or trying for sustained enthusiasm – real happiness comes from the degree to which you can offer your gifts to the world. 

Go, share your gifts!