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Discovering and Leveraging Your Gifts – It’s Not Mission Impossible

Each of us enters the world with a gift. Our mission – should we choose to accept it – is to discover what our gift is, to develop it and share it with the world. Today I interviewed Joe Raymond, a local therapist and coach, about a workshop he’ll give January 27, 3:30-7:30 pm at Herban Gardens in Silverdale. He’ll guide those who attend through the process of “Discovering and Leveraging Your Gift.” Here’s part of our conversation:

January 27, 3:30-7:30 pm in Silverdale

Elena: What do you mean by discovering your gift, Joe?

Joe: Another way to say it would be finding your passion, but it’s not just what you’re passionate about. It’s also what you’re good at. The idea behind “gift” is to find the talent you have the most passion for.

In this workshop how far will most people get in the process? Are they just scratching the surface or are they walking away with something more substantial?

We spend about the first two hours in an interactive training. Then participants pair off to ask each other a set of questions. Then I give everybody a free one-hour consultation to go over their answers with them. We explore together how they can apply that.

When they pair off, they interview each other with questions you supply?

Right. The person you pair off with would take those, interview you, and write down your answers; then you’d ask them their questions and write down their answers. You’d give those back so they take those with them. Then when they come to see me, I would go over all that with them.

So the next step is the one hour, individual consultation; what does that involve?

That depends on the individual. I’ll work with them from whatever point they’re at so they’re able to take something away. Someone who’s pretty proactive on their own would be able to just go with it. Others may want to continue to do a little more work with me.

When I discovered my gift, it was part of a three-day workshop, but one day was devoted to us as individuals finding our gifts. The other two days were other aspects of community building. I’ve made a deep study of the subject and worked on my gift of embracing change.

One thing I noticed: I’ve always written about change. When I look back at my journals from the 1980s, I was already referring to myself as a change agent. I can see I always had that gift, but it wasn’t until I discovered it that I was really able to get out there and do something with it.

So it was a matter of becoming conscious of something that was there all along.

Exactly.

Many people call themselves coaches – some are life coaches, some are business coaches. Do you see yourself focusing more on personal issues or more on career and professional issues?

I think I have a potential and talent to help people with their careers, although I take a different approach from someone who would be purely a business coach, because I work more on the passion side, rather than the organizational side. I focus more on the personal side, but the personal as it applies to your career.

So getting the personal side lined up so that you can be more effective in your career.

Right. I can also help employers notice what their employees’ gifts are, then they can actually write the job description around that rather than trying to make the employee fit the job description. Let the job description fit the employee.

That’s interesting. Sounds like you’re taking us to an ideal world, which I guess is what we’re all trying to move towards. How would you describe your qualifications for giving this workshop?

One thing is, besides being a coach, I’m also a certified counselor. Many coaches out there have no counseling qualifications. They may do a good job of coaching, but when it gets into real change, and how to reach inside people… For some coaches, if the person is not motivated they pretty much say, “Well, this isn’t going to work for you.”

I can instead say, “We can decide whether or not this is going to work for you, but let’s deal with some of these other issues first.”

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This excerpt from our conversation is the tiniest preview of what’s in store for participants on January 27. Joe Raymond has a compassionate heart; you feel that from the moment you meet him. His wisdom, maturity and experience with counseling give you the confidence that he won’t leave you hanging in the mission to prepare your mind and spirit for bringing your unique gift into the world.

 posted by Elena M. Rodriguez, Pacific Press International