Share your talent, please

At the desk, 8:22 a.m.

You know that thing?

Come on, you know the one.

It doesn't have to be HUGE or POPULAR or make you a TON OF MONEY, it's very simply your talent.

My talent happens to be telling stories. It's always been my talent but for a long, long, long time in my life, no one wanted to hear my stories.

So I stopped talking all together. After a few years, I started talking again. Then realized no one was listening. So I stopped talking.

I went to college to become an author and was told by one of my professors that I would never, ever be a writer. So I stopped writing all together.

I changed schools and studied biochemistry instead. I got out of the world of opinion and into the safe, comfy world of fact.

And I suffered. A lot. But suffering is good, right? Cleansing, right? Makes me a better person, right? I did every thing in my power to not tell stories. You'd be surprised at the lengths I've gone to avoid telling stories.

You see, my talent, my thing is telling stories.

It took me a long, long, long time to realize that I didn't need to stop talking, I needed to stop talking to people who weren't listening. I didn't need to stop telling stories, I needed to stop telling them to people who couldn't, wouldn't, didn't want to hear them.

So I understand. I do. You don't want to share your talent with the world. And suffering is good, right?

But here's the thing - you are a unique individual. Your talent is unique, perfect in its own way, special, and lovely.

Maybe your talent is storytelling, maybe your talent is gardening, or rearing awesome children, or being a fun person, or smiling at strangers, or cutting hair, or dancing, or baking cakes for disappointed people, or volunteering at schools or... Maybe you're one of those magnificent folks whose talents change and shift over the course of their lives.

It doesn't matter what your talent is - your talent is as unique as you are. You were put here to share that talent.

And you will suffer every single day you don't share your talent with the world.

"Pain in life is inevitable but suffering is not. Pain is what the world does to you, suffering is what you do to yourself. Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional." The Buddha - and frankly, suffering is stupid.

Get off the fence! Stop suffering - start sharing your talent! The world needs you more now than ever before.

-----