Natural aptitude or skill. Hmmm. There was a time when I was sure I had none of those.
I was not right.
I do have talents. And you do too.
Whether you are a Bible reader or not, you’ve probably heard Jesus’ parable about the Talents. Short summary (from wikipedia):
The parable in Matthew 25:14-30 tells of a master who was leaving his home to travel, and before going entrusted his property to his servants (property worth 8 talents, where a talent was a large unit of money). One servant receives five talents, the second two talents, and the third one talent, according to their respective abilities.
Returning after a long absence, the master asks his servants for an accounting. The first two servants explain that they have each put their money to work and doubled the value of the property they were entrusted with, and so they are each rewarded. The third servant, however, has merely hidden his talent in a hole in the ground, and is punished.
Do you get it?
God has given you talents. You are a genius at something. Have you found it yet?
Get on it. You only have so many days in this life you are living. And if you aren’t using your talents, you aren’t doing it right.
I’m going to leave you with some awesome quotes from some amazing people. They get it.
“Hide not your talents, they for use were made, What’s a sundial in the shade?”
― Benjamin Franklin
“Everyone has talent. What’s rare is the courage to follow it to the dark places where it leads.”
― Erica Jong
“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Human tragedies: We all want to be extraordinary and we all just want to fit in. Unfortunately, extraordinary people rarely fit in.”
― Sebastyne Young
I think some of us (myself included, sometimes) are afraid that if we let too much of our talent out that it will disappear and be gone forever. The more I live with intention and spirit, the more I realize that the beautiful thing about talent is that the more of it we put out into the world, the more it grows and comes back to us!
So, so true! Like you, it took me a long time to reach the point that I felt I had any special talent. Still, some days, I have doubts but deep down I know it’s true. Why else would we be here, if not for that? It’s been great fun teaching my kids about this and helping them discover their own talents. And professionally, it’s pretty amazing to see someone change everything about their health and fitness when they finally tune in to the fact that the world needs what only they can bring. Fabulous quotes at the end, too — I’m borrowing some for my wall! 🙂
Lovely post. Enjoyed reading this as I have recently been becoming aware of my talents. It’s so easy to hide them that we forget that they are the gifts we have to share. Great quotes too!
Sadly, this is true, but what’s more sad is when you have a great deal of talent and you KNOW that you do, but what you do is such a competitive and over saturated industry that it’s nearly impossible/hard to make money because so many people are trying to do the same thing. It’s sad and this country sucks right – terribly!!!!!!!!!!!!