In summary
I wrote and published my book titled ‘Do Yourself a Favor. Get Up! and Move!‘. It is about your unique gifts.
In a nutshell, the book is about a fundamental truth. Every human born on earth comes endowed with a natural gift. Your gift, I argue, is the reason you were born; in other words, you are alive to exercise your gift because it is your assignment and contribution to humanity.
Your gift, therefore, I suggest, ought to act as a pointer to your career/job/work. You ought to exercise your gift in your lifetime.
My book is replete with examples of successful people, living and dead, who impacted the world because of a simple truth: they found their gifts, consciously believed in those abilities, worked hard at developing them, overcame critics and obstacles and eventually succeeded in impacting the world. I believe you know many of such success stories. If you don’t, then simply look around you in this Fourth Industrial Revolution. We can’t even start to name man’s technological advancements and achievements in Science and all manner of fields. The wonders we see in the world today developed from well thought-out ideas inspired by natural gifts and served to mankind by people who took advantage of their gifts.
Do not ignore your unique gifts
Another truth is that you reading this, have a unique gift. Whether you believe it or not, whether you know it exists or not, doesn’t matter. That can never change. The gift is there nevertheless.
Many of us have gone through educational systems and acquired qualifications that have ensured our careers. Yet many more are in careers that are not a result of formal education but natural gifts. Some have jobs. Many more are seeking jobs, armed with qualifications on paper that assure them of their entitlement to a job. (Where these jobs are supposed to come from is another question for another day.) Others have nothing, are poor and blame their condition on all sorts of reasons.
If your career is not really suited to and aligned with your gifts, can you still make an impact in the world? Consider the following paragraphs:
For those pursuing career paths, here are simple questions: do you love what you do simply for what it is and you really enjoy doing it or because you get paid to do it? Can you keep on doing what you do if you were to work for no salary? What drives you: love for your career or the paycheck? Think about it.
Some people are working on jobs while others are looking for jobs. I believe this category has people who want to make a living. They do not want to impact the world, in fact maybe they don’t even believe they have what it takes to do so; many in this category do not believe this you-were-born-with-a-gift story, they just wanna survive. Think about it.
Watch your interpretation of the situation
Then there is the unemployed. They do not have jobs. They blame it on the government, bad economy, or lack of a ‘background’. Some say they never went to school and have no qualifications hence their suffering, and some say they just have bad luck. Think again about it.
Now here is the thing. Have you ever looked at your career from a point of view of your natural gift? Have you thought of the fact that your career ought to possibly be determined by your gifts? Or, do you believe you are good at what you do as a career because you have ‘studied’ and ‘qualified’ and can back up your excellence with a certificate? Look at these examples.
If someone gifted with spoken words and oratory becomes a stand-up comedian, TV reporter/news journalist, then right there is a career path built on a gift. If someone gifted with dexterity of hands becomes a craftsman or artist or technician or surgeon, putting their dexterous hands/fingers to work, then there you have careers built on natural gifts. And, without a shadow of a doubt, such persons excel at what they do because gifts combined with a corresponding education lead to excellence.
What is your current job/career built on?
A word of caution
I believe some caution is necessary here. If you go to college and pursue a career path because it is the ‘hottest selling skill these days’ then in my opinion you are setting yourself up for trouble sooner or later. The implication is that you may end up living a life that is not yours, replete with unnecessary struggling, because you ‘forced’ yourself into a career that is not based on what you are naturally gifted at.
The simple truth that no two humans in the world have the same finger prints points to your uniqueness. So, why not pursue a career inspired from deep down within you? We see 22 soccer players on the field, all doing the same thing, playing soccer, yet they are all different. Lionel Messi may not now come up with say, “how-to” rules to help Ronaldo score goals because his style is completely different from Ronaldo’s, yet they all score goals. Each player thrives on their uniqueness. See what I mean?
As I look at diverse and amazing career paths on platforms where professionals interact such as LinkedIn, I can’t help asking if we may start a conversation around relooking at your career and questioning deeply if it aligns with your natural gift. If not, is it maybe time for a career change, not for greener pastures, but to impact and contribute to humanity? (Allow me to say that your gift is NOT necessarily the course you studied in college, even if you are good at it.)
Begin, if you haven’t already
Do you think there might be some element of truth in the suggestion that in order to impact the world, your career needs to align with your gift? Otherwise, you may just be working to make a living as you earn a salary or make money from a business. Yet you may ask: Why impact the world? Good question. I believe nothing in this world is worth anything unless someone benefits from it. Don’t you live in a house, wear clothes, drive cars, fly aircrafts, cook and eat, and so on, because gifted people developed all those material things you love so much and can afford to buy with your money?
I strongly believe that if we start by finding our gifts and refining them, and allowing our careers to be determined by our gifts, our world might just become a much better place.
You were born to make an impact in this world!
Share your thoughts.
GetUp&Move
My books (a course on self-discovery and self-development for career success) Do Yourself a Favor. Get Up! and Move! and its Study Guide are available on Amazon.com. Click here.
Visit: https://rolandrayk.com for more useful resources