The time is now to bring our gifts to life.
Virginia Nava
Yes, the time is now—not later, not next week, not tomorrow. Now.
We have been in constant “tomorrow” mode. We all want a better world, a better society, because when we look around, we don’t like what we see.
While dreaming about our calling or gift, help us continue to feel good temporarily. There is an actual void we haven’t yet acknowledged, and it is the one of non-expression of our gifts, also known as holding ourselves back. Can we forgive ourselves, or have compassion for ourselves? Yes. Can we celebrate ourselves for all we have accomplished so far? Absolutely.
We need to get back on track to share our gifts. I see so many gifts on the sidelines. Just as author Brené Brown says, we haven’t stepped into the arena; some of us are in the crowds, some of us are a little closer to the arena, and then few of us are actually in the arena.
I have been reflecting on my own life, and realize that I have been dancing back and forth in sharing my gift as well. I have been living my gift, for the most part privately, and impacting deeply the people I have worked with personally. For the last year, I have been learning how to share my gift more publicly, and making business models that can impact more people. The truth of the matter is, I haven’t been afraid of the business models; I have been afraid of stepping into the arena. I know how to do it and the answer is so simple for all of us. In this day and era, we can step in the arena at any time, we can create a movement, we can create a society, we can do coffees at our house, and yet are we really stepping into the arena? The truth is, the more of us who step out, the easier it will be for the rest of us, because we are a community.
I like to solve problems through strategy. This has been my natural way of solving problems, especially complex ones that have different moving parts. It is to me like building a puzzle with many pieces. So why, if sharing our gift is simple, can it seem so complex?
These are my findings: To share our gifts, we need to know our own voice, we need to learn to how to follow our own intuitive guidance and trust ourselves.
I believe that instead of becoming experts at marketing, full of funnels, video, and Linkedln, we need to step back and go deeper, coming to a sense of ease in sharing the message of who we are.
The first part to be aware of, is the tape-training we have had for all these years about sharing. We have been taught how to share our message, just as a child is taught how to draw. Guess what has happened? We have lost ourselves in the “expert way” of sharing, to the point that when we go to a networking group or a presentation, everyone starts sounding the same, and what is differentiating everyone is only what they are wearing.
Recognizing how we lose ourselves in our sharing is of most importance if we want to really learn how to share our gift with the world, because being honest with ourselves matters. Do we lose ourselves in our presentation? Do we lose ourselves in the formulaic process to share? Do we lose ourselves in the problem our client is sharing? Do we lose ourselves in the advice of the coach we receive? Do we lose ourselves in the “how” of becoming experts, going to so many trainings in how to share our message that we haven’t even written our first blog post?
As a former marketing manager for international affairs, I wanted to become an expert in the ways of sharing my business with the world. I have read countless of books around meaningful business and conscious capitalism, spent thousands of dollars at conferences and trainings, and this is what I found:
· That we have forgotten “why” we want to share in the first place.
· That we are so distracted in the “how” we are sharing, that we have forgotten “why” we are sharing.
· That we are dancing between being committed with our message and non-committed in it, and as a result we have received the same response from those we serve.
I believe we have forgotten the most important part of sharing. It is not the presentation, nor the skill, or the formula. It’s the intentional foundation, when we share through love. When we do this one thing, when love is our foundation for sharing or serving, then the world is a better place because we shared. Something deep in our hearts recognizes that there is something bigger than ourselves that is driving us to become the messengers of what we are delivering. Suddenly, it stops being about us, stops being about how we look or sound, and even if we focus on improving our craft, we do so from a place of love and service. This is when the shift starts to happen; somehow within ourselves, we find a deeper voice that emerges naturally to the world and we become a vessel, a vehicle for the message which is in us and bigger than us. Suddenly, our sharing has a depth that we are in awe of, because it is so beautiful and so magical, that it touches the deepest areas of our souls and reaches those who are open and ready to receive it.
When we stop, pause, and connect to the deepest areas of our heart and bring our message forward from the depth of it, then we are sharing deeply. This is bringing who you are out for yourself and others to see. The divine in you sees your truth so that the message within you can come forth, allowing yourself to open your heart wide enough to share and serve with all you are.
In this depth, the “how” starts to fade, and we start to receive the support we need to share. This is where the opening magic happens; as we start creating a deeper connection with ourselves, our divine selves and the world around us, suddenly learning becomes an act of service and not an act of perfection. The “how” becomes an act of curiosity and not of heavy density, and we start elevating the vibration of our words and teachings. We start showing up differently in our lives, in our conversations. Now what was once a moment to cause an impression, has become a moment of authentic expression, a time to touch another person through the act of kindness of a word. Words are powerful; we have forgotten that power and it is time to remember it in our notes, emails, and interactions. Every communication brings the opportunity to be a messenger, to bring the depth of who we are into that interaction—including the sharing of our presence and who we are.
Sharing isn’t a responsibility or a duty. It is more than that—sharing is a gift. When we realize the gift of sharing, the world transforms around us, the way in which we share and interact with our words and the world starts shifting, and we start seeing our words interact in our own internal being differently as well. It is time to share our gifts; time to free and release them; time to fill the world with the beauty our being, with the beauty of our voice as it is, right now.
For the expression of love, joy, tranquility and peace, the time is now.