My interpretation based on over thirty years of work in personal and organisational transformation is that we all have personal gifts. These gifts may be informed by our identity, our values, our personalities, our professions, our children, our spirituality or simply by who we choose to be in the moment. Regardless, we all have gifts whether we choose to acknowledge this or not. Possibly we have just not discovered what our individual gifts are yet and how they might shape our lives.

Knowing your gifts provides clarity and direction in your life. We have had enough suffering across 2020, how about we focus on what we are truly good at and celebrate that in this new year.

I joined into a zoom call at 6.00 am this morning, 7.00 pm Edinburgh time, it was a get together of members of my charity, The Men of Leith Men’s Shed. Angus, one of the senior members of the group requested that we listen carefully and held his phone up to the microphone. What followed was a most beautiful version of Auld Lang Syne sang by his 17-year-old Granddaughter at her school Christmas Concert. Angus explained that she was already receiving coaching to develop her special gift, her voice.

For some of us it may take a little longer to discover the we too have gifts and like the young Scottish lass, they can be nurtured and developed across our life.

Discovering your own gifts can ease suffering significantly and open the way for you to develop a flourishing life.

I will carry the pride in Angus’s expression with me for some time and consider his playing of that song a gift in itself.

By developing a solid understanding of your own gifts and developing a way of focussing your attention on these on a day-to-day basis, you will be better equipped for dealing with the everyday challenges of life. You will be able to better manage these and be ready to live a life that is more fulfilling, more flourishing.

So, if you were to guess right now, what would you say are some of your gifts?

My book Five Gifts Flourishing is chock full of stories, ideas and activities designed to help you find and free your gifts. I invite you to grab a copy.