Your Gifts Are Not Just For You

Fact: Your gifts are not just for you. They are for every single person who will receive joy and happiness when you deliver them.

For years I struggled with my creativity and how best to deliver what I felt was important. I worried that my knowledge and gifts weren’t good enough, that what I wanted to share had already been shared a millions times over, and that I brought nothing new.

And then one Sunday, I went salsa dancing. I dance every Sunday but for some reason this night was particularly good. The dancers were on fire and I didn’t sit out one song. “It doesn’t get much better than this,” I thought. And as I looked around the sparkling ballroom with dancers of different shapes, sizes, backgrounds and ethnicities all listening and dancing to the same music I was dumbstruck with thanks to the musicians.

If these brave artists had not followed their passion, faced their self-doubt and with incredible courage put the pulsing beats of their creativity and soul into music, each and every dancer would have missed out on a chance for happiness. Had they withheld their gifts out of fear or judgement, none of us would have been in that room all dancing in joy, together.

I realized, in that moment, that our creative expression is not self-serving. TWEET THIS.

Our gifts are the most valuable way we connect people to one another and to ourselves through a shared experience of the heart.

Sharing our music, our art, our perspective, our cooking, our humor, our wisdom makes them a gift to the world. Our gifts come through us, and yet are not only for us. They are for filling rooms with music for dancers, for filling galleries with art buffs to express their appreciation, for readers to grow and stretch and share their own written words, sparked by ours.

Take the leap.

Know your expression is meant for more than just you. It’s joy is meant to be shared and I’m here to dance with you all the way through it.

Jamie