Use ONLY Your Sacred Gifts

A note from peter@thewealthyattitude.com for Wednesday December 3 2008

Aloha there all and welcome to the midweek point.

I have to say that I'm personally having a ton of fun with Jan's offerings this week. As I once again review her perspectives I'm just a happy camper knowing that this lady is going to be a powerhouse in the personal development industry. Keep your eye on her.

Also, make sure you pick up a copy of her latest book, and even better, use it as a Christmas gift for your friends and teammates. You can get it here: http://www.nomorefeardoubtandguilt.com/

Also folks, our friends over at Daily Insight are working on some great new stuff, so keep your eye on them also. It's going to be grand.

Now on with this week's third offering by the delightful Jan Janzen

Use ONLY Your Sacred Gifts

by Jan Janzen

Most people go through life dragging their rear end, doing things they hate, thinking that this is all there is to live and never really living a truly magnificent life. Perhaps that describes you. Then every once in a while you get to do something that lights your fire, feels effortless and time flies because you’re having fun. But all too soon, you’re back to the ho-hum, monotonous, drudgery of life. Why wouldn’t you do what you love to do, what feels wonderful, energizing and fun? Too many people feel guilty when life is easy, effortless and joyful? It can feel “not normal or natural” to be in that magical, mystical place of grace and ease. But that is precisely the place from which you need to operate your life, your whole life, your every day life. Here’s how you do it.

You were born with Sacred Gifts. I am not talking about talents, skills, or passions. Sacred Gifts are gifts that are given to us at birth by God as tools that we have access to throughout our lives. They’re sacred because of where they come from and they deserve a great deal of reverence and respect. Their primary purpose is to be used to do good in this world.

Our Sacred Gifts empower us with abilities that can’t be explained by what would be considered normal human abilities. They show up, sometimes totally unexpectedly, and allow us to experience results that we can’t even explain.

Doing something as simple and natural to you as having friends in for dinner, preparing an Excel spreadsheet, or being able to sew a beautiful dress without a pattern are all examples of Sacred Gifts.

These Sacred Gifts come to you so naturally that you may be inclined to believe that they are “normal,” “typical” and “usual.” I mean, can’t everybody write a book in a month? Doesn’t everybody want to help the homeless? Can’t everybody plan an event for 1000 people and love every minute of it? No, not necessarily. When you learn about your Sacred Gifts, you will be astounded at how life begins to make sense. You stop beating yourself up for what you don’t do well, stop judging yourself severely for what you do do well, and stop criticizing others for what they don’t like to do. You will be a much nicer person and much easier to live with both for yourself and for everyone around you.

Have you ever noticed that some people are naturally charismatic? People love to be around them, they are like magnets, successful and charming. They may seem happier than you, and they feel light energetically. They’re not stressed out and hating life. What’s their secret? The origin of the English word “charismatic” derives from the Greek word charism, meaning “a Divine gift believed to be given by God or a Spiritual Endowment.” When someone is operating from their gifts or their charisms, they are powerfully charismatic and effective. Do you want to be charismatic, magnetic and charming? Start operating from your Sacred Gifts and it’s amazing how your energy can shift to the positive!

So what are some of the characteristics of a Sacred Gift? The first and foremost important characteristic of Sacred Gifts is that they are given to us to be of benefit to others. This is one of the distinguishing aspects between a Sacred Gift and a skill or a talent. While a talent might be to your benefit, a Gift is for the benefit of others.

Understanding your Sacred Gifts allows you to operate from a place of confidence, joy and contentment. Now that I know my Sacred Gifts, I can let go of the rest of my life without the guilt. How many times do you beat yourself up because you think you should be better at something than you are? You think you should enjoy doing something more than you do. I used to try to do stupid things like my own accounting simply because I had taken an accounting course. I used to try to do my own flyers simply because I had bought a software program to do it that was “For Dummies”!

Today I do ONLY what I love and I give others the joy of doing what they love. who love Excel spreadsheets, and there are people who love formatting flyers. I find people who have the same passion for those jobs as I do for writing, for teaching, and for healing. It’s fascinating and saddening to watch people do things that they don’t like and aren’t good at, to see how it stresses them because they have a belief that they should be good at everything.

The Peter Principle states that in a hierarchy we eventually reach the limit of our abilities, and once that limit is exceeded, we begin to fail and operate from a place of incompetence. But it’s more than that. It has nothing to do with competence and reaching the top of our ladder. It has everything to do with what our Sacred Gifts are, full stop, period.

Once you understand your Sacred Gifts, you have the ability to understand completely why you love what you do, why it comes so naturally to you, and why you just don’t want to do other things. You can now be guilt-free when you say, “I’d love to help you organize the party, but my real gift lays in decorating the room. Can I do that for you instead?” Or “A better use of my gift would be to write out the welcome speech for you rather than be the greeter at the door.”


Think of the people who really stand out in your mind as being energetic and joyful, on top of a project, exceptionally good at anything from hosting a dinner party to hairdressing to a speaking to a riveted audience. That’s where you want to be in your life. Focus on utilizing your Sacred Gifts in your life to the benefit of others and you will be amazed at how energized you feel, how happy you are and how you can say, no, no, no, no, no, no and no to what are NOT your Sacred Gifts easily and effortlessly without the fear, doubt and guilt.


Operating from your Sacred Gifts can make 2009 your most amazing year yet.