Have the courage to claim your gifts

I'm your host, Tiffany Sauder, and this is Scared Confident. I want to talk real quickly about the courage to claim your gifts, the courage to claim your gifts. It can be really very hard. Two data points have come together here for me in the last week that have brought this to mind. The first one is we had this incredible muralist into the office at element three and helped us express.

Our purpose and just a really big, bold and beautiful way. And as I got to get to know him and him sort of claiming his talent as an artist and saying like, that's what I am. I'm an artist. I'm claiming that his claim of that talent helped us articulate to the world a statement, like a promise that we want to make to help other people and businesses changed the world.

So that was really cool. The second was we had a leadership meeting and. When you're around the table with a bunch of leaders, I find that that's oftentimes when we're the most sheepish where it's like, I don't know who am I, or like, we're less willing to say in a really clear and strong way, like this is what I'm good at.

And if that can be helpful, I'd be happy to help you where, like, I don't know if I'm that good. Like, I don't know. And I kind of, okay, went off is extreme, but I said, look, you guys, if at this table, As leaders, you are not getting to a place where you understand who you are and the giftings that are inside of you.

That is the point of being a leader is that you have something to be able to help and pour out and give to others. And so if you aren't clear about what you're good at and what your giftings are, how in the world are you going to help? The people that you're being asked to lead like 99 and a half percent of the time?

It's not that we don't know. What our talents are. It's that I think we think it's too like prideful or boastful to say out loud, like, no, this is the thing I'm really good at. I think is important that we break that cultural norm. Maybe it's a Midwestern thing. I don't know, but to say it and name it and to claim it and to practice saying like, this is the thing I'm good at, how can I be helpful?

And. I have this silly little analogy that comes to my head. When I think about it, it's like, if my kid is hungry and I say to them, would you like a carrot? And they say, yes, I have to know that I have a carrot in the fridge to be able to offer them a carrot. Like I have to claim that asset. It's an inanimate object in this analogy, but I have to know I have a carrot in the fridge.

If I know I have a carrot, the fruits, and I have the ability to feed some. If I don't have a carrot, then I can't feed someone. And it's the same thing with our gifts. You can't see it as clearly. Some you can like artists, but our job as leaders, our job as parents, our job as. People who are helping to change the world in a positive way is to know who we are and to have the courage, to express it and claim it and put yourself in places where you can change people, projects, organizations, and ultimately the world for better.

So I actually spoke at a university a week ago or so, and I said to them, when I was a little girl, I dreamed of being on stage. And I used to say that in a way that was like apologetic, because I felt like what would people think if I actually wanted to be on stage? Like that's actually what I dreamed of.

And I was unwilling to really claim that that was a dream of mine. And I've had to practice saying as a little girl, I dreamed of being on stage. And today I love being on state. I love helping people better understand things. I love helping people learn. Like I don't have the ability to sing and dance.

I'm not an entertainer. That's not the only way that you can be on stage, but somebody has to be willing to do that. And it gives me energy. And so when. I'm in groups or on teams or on boards where somebody needs to address a group of people. I'm a great person to pick. Cause I love it. And my talent can help.

In that area. I have the gift of communication. Some of that's just in me, like it was born in me. I don't know why I didn't get to pick it. It's just in me. And when I know that that's part of what I'm good at, I can then make myself available to others to help them get closer to what they're good at. So I hope today that you think about you see yourself in your best possible way.

You see the talents are, that are inside of you and you have the courage to acknowledge and articulate them. So that you can plug into the world and the people around you in a way that really matters.

So what else is on your mind? Text me 3 1 7 3 5 0 8 9 2 1 3 1 7 3 5 0 8 9 2 1. And be sure to follow along on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening today.

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