Select Page

You know when I decided to create unbox your gift, I did it for the love of the topic and the conviction I hold for identifying ‘that something’ (your Gift) and delivering it stamped with ones own unique seal of experiences, studies and belief (unboxing your Gift). Historically, particularly in America, this was how life was. You decided on a trade (Gift), you became an apprentice to a professional in that trade and then eventually you became an independent trader, adding your own style and touch (unbox your Gift) working for yourself. So for example, you may have chosen to be an apprentice to a carpenter (if you chose carpentry) or a shop keeper (if you chose to run a shop), you were an apprentice to learn how the business would run, you would have learnt what you needed to learn and then you were free to go and be your own carpenter or shop keeper. Now, not everyone did that but that was an entrepreneurial tradition in America.

the best soldiers

Ibn Khaldun said the two most humiliating ways to make a living is employment and treasure hunting. You see while we were schooled for 12 years (kindergarten to year 12) we were trained to depend on the opinion of the teacher, if he/she was happy with our work it was good, if not then it wasn’t good enough. In the classroom, we were put into groups for subjects such as Math and English and labeled as smart, not so smart and average, obviously not with those titles, they were camouflaged with less obvious titles like the orange group, red group and blue group. So being pigeonholed for certain subjects as smart, not so smart and average and being reliant on opinions outside ourselves,  convinced us that we can’t ‘do it’ and the ‘do it’ is what the soul inclines towards . So seeking a job after being schooled for 12 years was the obvious choice – since that’s what school does – it prepares you to become a great employee a.k.a soldier – get good grades to get a good job. Getting a job must be the right decision, right? Because that’s what everyone does. Then why are so many people unhappy in ‘good’ jobs? The commonly practiced script reads as:  go to school then university/college/tafe or go straight into a job, get a mortgage then get married – work in a job because you have to pay off the mortgage – start hating your job then change jobs because you didn’t like it, then start a different job because the job title or salary is better than most other jobs and just thinking about the job title and/or  salary is what keeps you going to work Monday- Friday.

 Seriously, there’s got to be more

I created unbox your gift because it’s my release from the rat race, a soldier a.k.a employee, tired and disgruntled of the rat race drill, knowing I had more to contribute than staring at a computer screen feeling like I’m not developing myself or contributing to my community, only feeling like I’m just taking up space and existing. With unbox your gift, its more than a blog post to me, it an opportunity to develop, contribute and continue that lost entrepreneurial tradition and a chance to de-enlist myself from the corporate conscription list.

With each blog post I write and video I create it’s a leap of faith, because to me its more than a post, if you spend your time reading or watching, I pray that I am submitting material that adds value to you, stimulates thinking, creates an idea or even plants the thought of ‘what if’ in your mind.

You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?”  Rumi.

What stops you? You may say kids, my wife, my husband, my finances etc– they might be true to an extent but the complete extent is knowing what stops you without thinking of anyone or anything else. Read that sentence again. If you were to stop crawling, what would you do? If for a moment you didn’t blame being tired, being overwhelmed, being underwhelmed, being too young, being too old, being (fill in the blank) etc, if for a moment the responsibility was yours, what is your answer to – what stops you?

If you haven’t started on embarking on your Gift/purpose – what stops you?

If you have started on the journey, are you stalling? What’s making you crawl? (Remember don’t blame anything outside of you)

What would make you feel like you had wings and the audacity to use them – wings are great, but of no use if its not used for flying, just as a computer is great, but of no use if its not plugged in.

What stops you from remembering you can take flight?

Make a list of:

What stops me? How will I get passed it if it shows up?

As long as you have an awareness and a plan for jumping over the ‘thing’ that stops you, you will find the wind to lift your wings up and towards your calling.

Crawling is when we get caught off-guard, and when we do, we fumble, lose track, lose motivation and eventually the ‘umph’ to take flight – because the ‘thing’ we dread the most just happened.

So as long as you can name what stops you and know how to get passed it or have a plan for how to get passed it, it can’t stop you for very long, if at all,  because you made plans how to fly above it before it arrived.

Do not be satisfied with the paintings that came before you. Create your own masterpiece.” Rumi

Unbox Your Gift.

To the greatest of heights you allow your wings to take you.

Rita.

P.S I’ve  done this exercise and it does help, simple but effective. What stops you, how do you plan to get passed it? Please feel free to write your comments below and I’ll join the conversation 🙂