On a scale from one to ten how would you rate your lifetime achievements so far? Given that you were blessed with certain talents and that you have made the effort to discover what your talent or talents are, how would you rate your accomplishments to date? What have you done recently to hone those talents, to put them to work for the good of all humankind?
With so many of our young people coming out of our colleges with brand new diplomas in their hands it won’t be easy for many of them to find a slot they can fill where they can put their skills and talents to work. I talked with a young man the other day who had taken a job in a factory so that he could provide for his children. His talent is poetry and, in time, he just might make a difference in this world. The majority of poets I have met would be starving if they depended on their income from their poetry.
I recently received a book written for Hospice workers by a wonderful lady I met while working for the railroad in Battle Creek, Michigan. It is a wonderful book and I discovered that the most precious thing a Hospice worker might do is develop the ability to listen. For a guy like me who had earned most of his lifetime income from talking, that is, giving speeches, that is a revelation. THAT WORKER MIGHT BE A TRAINED PROFESSIONAL BUT IS LISTENING HER/HIS MOST VALUABLE TALENT? I’m discovering that one of my greatest faults and weaknesses is my inability to listen.
How might you discover your special talent and how might you get started using it? I started writing in high school. I tried speaking there too but I was eliminated from the Elocution Competition because my humor presentation which won the classroom competition in 4F was deemed unsuitable. It was a wise decision. 4F was a pit occupied by the unpromising.
As I write this I finally realize that my life would have been a lot less complicated if I had spent as much time reading and listening as I spent writing and speaking.
Somewhere I read that Hell would be a place where you were shown exactly what your talents were and also shown all the missed opportunities you had been given to use those talents.
And you can’t go back.
Too late smart.
True torture.
Eternal regrets.
Have I squandered my talents and my opportunities? Have you? And are we going to do anything to do a better job of using our talents and our opportunities in the future?
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