I Found My Gift, and Life Will Never Be The Same

I wandered through the sunlit room full of tables and chatty busy voices, browsing presentations, looking for something undefined. I hoped I’d recognize it when I saw it.

At the time my life was trouble-free. Yet, inside, I was rattled. Something was missing.

Have you ever felt unfulfilled? Disappointed? Anxious? Restless? Wanting?

There was a hole in my soul, and I had no idea what to do about it.

In times like these we often go looking for answers in all the wrong places. We’re consumed with finding the elusive magical cure, and turn to comforts that still leave us empty.

I was worried and confided my angst to a mentor, who thankfully pointed me in a different direction.

The key to filling the hole in your soul

As I sat with my head hung low, my mentor said, “When all you want to do is fill the hole by focusing on yourself, that’s when you need to look beyond yourself.”

I looked-up.

“Wait….what? What did you say?”

He continued, “Greg, when you feel the overwhelming urge to make life all about you, that’s when you really need to re-focus your life on others.”

The reality of what he said made my head spin. But that’s how on one Saturday afternoon in early Spring I found myself wandering around a volunteer fair. I had finished one turn of the room and was bee-lining for the door, when I met Terry.

Terry chaired an outreach committee that granted money to various community charities and he needed an analytically minded person to join his team. He explained that I’d review grant requests, visit the charities and assess the charity’s effectiveness.

I liked Terry. His offer struck a chord, and I took the plunge – agreeing to do something I knew nothing about.

One year later, I became chairperson of our 8-person committee. Each year we granted hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities that met the needs of the unseen and underserved people in our communities.

The work came easily to me, and the hole in my soul was filled by the gratitude that comes with helping others. More importantly though, it was through this experience that I stumbled upon on my gift.

The gift that keeps on giving

As I mentioned in You Were Born With A Gift, Find It, we all have been given a special gift to offer the world. Maybe that sounds hokey to you, but it’s true. At some point, your gift will uniquely qualify you to serve others in an impactful way.

And that’s exactly what happened when my gift of administration was harnessed by the grants committee. I used my gift to craft a new vision for the committee, to plan for growth, to rally new members and invigorate them to get things done. (If you want to know more about how to identify and use your gift(s), read my post Use Your Gifts, Save The World.)

But wait, the story gets better.

My success on the outreach committee led to a board position on a major metropolitan non-profit. The non-profit had a several million dollar budget that it used to serve orphanages, addiction recovery centers, food banks and similar agencies. I worked alongside CEOs and other high-powered people to ensure that the organization stayed true to its mission.

I then began to purposefully apply this gift in my work, and today, I’ve built a successful business using the gift of administration to serve my clients.

But that’s the way life works, right?

Whenever you serve others first, you always get back more than what you contribute. If we all invested a fraction of our time in helping others, I guarantee that the world would be a healthier place.

Prov 3:27 NCV “Whenever you are able, do good to people who need help.”

So that’s my story. I had no idea that my first volunteer opportunity would set my life on a new and fulfilling trajectory. My mentor was certainly right!

Be Wise & Successful…

1. Find your gift. Commit to finding and cultivating your gifts. You’ll be happier and more fulfilled when you put them to use, and you’ll be making the world a better place.

2. Use your gift to help others. Leverage your gifts with the gifts of others at work, at home, in friendship and in everything you’re involved with. We are better together.

3. Leverage flow with your gifts. Take the next step and supercharge your impact on the world, and be much happier as a result.