Not long ago, I was visiting my sister and one of my many cousins happened to be there with her 12 year old daughter… Eventually, we all greeted one another with hugs and settled down in our respective areas. As we (the adults) sat in the living room talking and the children were in their rooms playing, we suddenly heard the beating of drums from my youngest nephew room; this wasn’t unusual but what was unusual was that the beats that we heard was rhythmic, fluid and compelling! My youngest nephew had just gotten the drum-set as a birthday gift and wasn’t very good at playing them (not yet anyway). No one else in the household played drums like that, so (the adults) were thinking and asking, who’s playing those drums so well? We all got up to investigate and what did we find? My cousin’s 12 year old daughter was playing the drums! I then said, ‘wow, I didn’t know you played drums’ and she replied with awe and excitement in her eyes, ‘I didn’t know I could play drums either’… It was in that moment that we all realized that she had a natural talent for playing the drums and had she not been exposed to a drum-set, she may well have missed this revelation.
I share this quick story as a pre-text to remind you all that whether we know it or not, we all have at least one talent and yes, many of us either have an inner-knowing as to what or talent is very early in life or we ‘discover’ what our talent is earlier than most. However, some of us will have to search a little deeper to find out what our talent is. How do we do this? By LIVING and experiencing with as many things that you wouldn’t think of trying or doing as much as possible. Who knows, you may have a talent at tennis, golf, checkers or chess (these are just examples) but if you never try any of these things, how will you know one way or another? If we don’t try things that we wouldn’t ordinarily consider, we may miss out on something really key to our life! Go beyond the cultural or social expectations for your existence (mind)! Yes! Push your limits! Think outside of the box and you just might find not only your talent but your passion and purpose all rolled into one! Hence, here is yet another example of how staying in boxes and not expanding one’s consciousness can stagnate one’s evolution and purpose in life.