3 Steps To Share Your Gifts With The World

Over the last couple months, we’ve explored how you might know what you can offer the rest of the world and why you would even want to share it.  If you don’t think you have much to offer or you don’t know what those things are, go back and read this article.  We explored 4 questions you can answer to determine what you do have to offer.  This month, let’s explore the next level to this question.  How do you share your value with others?

Just because you have a gift or talent or message that could benefit others, and just because you recognize the value of sharing it, it’s not going to be valuable to anyone until you find ways to release it into their lives.  So, while identifying is good, you must go a step further and release what you’ve found.  That will require building and executing a plan.  For some, this is an exhilarating prospect, for some, it’s paralyzing.  Whether you’re in the camp of the former or the latter, or somewhere in between, let me offer you three simple steps to share your value with others.

Step 1: Write down a plan of action.  I’ll cut to the chase.  If you think it and never write it down, it’s not a plan.  It’s wishful thinking and not much will come of it. For you to truly share your value with others, you’ll need a written plan to follow.  Your plan should include answers to questions like, “What will I offer?”, “Who will I offer it to?”, “How will I deliver it?” and “When will I deliver it?”.  I have a good friend who decided, earlier this year, that she had a message she wanted to share with other women.  She had never done anything like it before, but she got serious about it and came up with a plan.  She knew of a women’s conference that was taking applications for breakout speakers.  She had never done any public speaking before, but she knew she had a message to share, so she applied to be one of those speakers.  Speaking at that conference was her plan to share the value she knew she had to offer.

Step 2:  Put in the work it takes to deliver real value.  Just because you have a message or a God-given gift to share, does not mean you’re ready to share it.  To be ready to share what you’ve got with anyone in a meaningful way, you’ll need to put in some serious work.  Back to my friend.  She applied to speak at the conference and she was accepted.  That was the plan. But, she had a lot of work to do to get from knowing she had a message to share, to being able to share it in a way that was going to make a real difference in people’s lives.  Since she had not done any public speaking, she found someone to coach her through the process of building her message and preparing to deliver it.  This was a process that took place over a couple of months with dozens of hours of preparation.  It was not easy work, but it paid off in a big way for the dozens of women who benefitted from the message she shared with them.  Imagine if she would have shown up unprepared.  What a wasted opportunity that would have been.  As you build your plan to share your value with others, don’t skip the hard work you’ll need to put in to be truly ready to give your best.

Step 3:  Follow through, despite your fears.  This is all about accountability.  I can assure you that if you build a plan and get yourself prepared, when it comes down to sharing what you have with others, you’ll feel incredible fear.   That’s why you must build accountability into your plan.  One last check-in with my friend.  She had a good plan and she prepared well.  That did not exempt her from fear.  Part of her plan she worked up with her coach was to rehearse her message out loud in front of others.  The day before, she rehearsed in front of a friend and the night before she was to speak at her session, she delivered her talk out loud in front of her husband.  Talk about nerve-racking!  Luckily, she’s got a good friend and a great husband and they both gave honest and constructive feedback.  One of the pieces that helped her follow through with her plan to share her value with others was that she had accountability built in.  She told her coach she would share it live before she delivered it at the conference.  She also was committed to delivering the message at the conference.  Her name was printed on the schedule and there was no turning back.  That is a good thing.  How many of us have turned back in the face of fear, simply because we could?  It’s easy to make plans when emotions are high and you’re fired up.  It’s also easy to abandon your plans when you’re accountable to only yourself.  Don’t make this mistake.  Build accountability into your plan so you will follow through, despite the fear that certainly will come.

Just like my friend who spoke to those women that day, you too have incredible value to share with others.  She saw dozens of women impacted by the message she shared.  Several even asked her to mentor them, as a result.  What kind of value could you bring to people?  You’ll never know until you build and execute a plan to share it.

If you’re ready to get started now, I would love to help you begin building that plan by utilizing some highly effective coaching tools. Just click here to get started on your journey to living out your dreams and bringing great value to others.  When you’re ready, I'll be ready to help you get there.

5 Ways To Know Yourself - Living in Alignment - Part 2

I wrote last week about the idea of alignment.  The basic idea is that when we are aligned in various areas of our lives, we're going to be healthy, when we're misaligned, we're going to be unhealthy.   Think of your car.  If the wheels are aligned properly, the ride is smooth and you get maximum life out of your tires.  If the wheels are misaligned, the ride is rough and your tires wear out prematurely.  Misalignment = pain.  Alignment = fully functional.  Alright, it's pretty easy to see that alignment is a good thing, but how do you know if you're aligned or misaligned?

Let's start that conversation with talking about personal alignment.  In the coming weeks, we're going to explore what it looks like to live in alignment vocationally, with your family, geographically and spiritually.  However, in order to gauge your alignment in all these areas, you're going to need some basic understanding of who you are.  We'll call this personal alignment.

Socrates is credited with the saying, "Know thyself."  He was right.  That is the basis for all else in this life.  But, I'd venture to say that most of us do very little, if any, work to figure out who we are.  That's not just a shame, it's a tragedy, considering that God has created each of us as completely unique individuals with a unique purpose in life.  Some reasons we skip "knowing thyself" is that we're busy, we're uninterested or we're afraid of what we may find - all real (but completely invalid) reasons.  However, my experience with people shows me the biggest reason, by far, that you don't know yourself is that you don't know how.  Where do you start? Good question.  Before we get into the how I need you to know that it's going to cost you.  Time, money and effort. You're going to have to invest all three if you really want to get to know yourself.  Below I'll list five ways you can get to know yourself.  Some are free, some are not, but regardless of the financial cost, they will all require you to invest and they are all worth the investment.

1. Counseling - If you have deep emotional wounds or scars, this probably should be your beginning point.  Let me help release the stigma for you.  Counseling is not for crazy people.  Counseling is for very sane people who recognize their need to heal from past experiences.  If you make the effort, you can find both free and paid versions of counseling.  Many churches offer what is called "pastoral counseling" where you can meet with someone on the pastoral staff at the church.  This is helpful in varying degrees, depending on your issues and the skill and experience level of the pastor doing the counseling.  This could be a good place to begin and a good pastoral counselor will be able to tell you pretty quickly if you need to take the next step and see a professional counselor.  If you know you've got some wounds to heal from, I highly encourage you to start with some counseling.  
2. Free Online Assessments - Did you know there are different personality types?  Like I said earlier, you're unique and once you understand some of what makes you unique, you can get yourself aligned in various areas of your life. There are many types of personality inventories and assessments.  For simplicity's sake, I'm going to recommend your begin with one.  It's called the Myers-Briggs and it will help you understand some of your tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses.  You can do a free 10-minute version right here.  I'm an INTJ.  What are you? Let us know in the comments below.
3. Birkman Coaching - The Birkman assessment and follow-up are much more in-depth and will require more of an investment, both in time and finances, but the payoff is more than worth it.  A Birkman assessment with a couple follow-up coaching sessions has been a game-changer for countless people.  It's especially helpful when considering vocational alignment.  At Solace Church, where I serve, we use Birkmans extensively with our staff to help us understand ourselves and one another.  It's been hugely effective.  You can begin the Birkman process for you or your organization here.
4.  Speak the Right Language - We all speak a certain language when it comes to how we express and receive love.  Gary Chapman's book, "The 5 Love Languages" has been huge for my wife and me since before we were even married.  This is going to be most helpful to you on the relational and family alignment areas, but it also helps in your vocational world.  How helpful would it be to know how your boss or your spouse best receives love and appreciation? How helpful would it be to know that about yourself and be able to communicate it to the people who care most about you?
5. Life-Planning - Life-Planning sounds like a big deal because it is.   Earlier this year, I began facilitating 2-day LifePlan Retreats.  It's too much to try to explain here, but the long and the short of it is that you'll get incredible perspective on who you are and incredible clarity on where you're going in the next three years - personally, professionally, and spiritually. You can click here for the basic information.  I will be running my next LifePlan Retreat March 23-25, 2017.  Unfortunately, this one is just for men and is limited to the first twelve who register. I should have registration info posted very soon.  

Well, I hope this has been helpful.  If it seems overwhelming, just pick a place to start.  You don't need to do it all at once, just start someplace.  I'd love to hear where you start and what you're learning.  Leave us a comment below.  Good luck knowing thyself!