GMR 95: The Best Investment You'll Ever Make

Episode 95
The best and most important investment you can make is in yourself. When you’re operating at your full potential, using your natural talents and skills, the world takes notice, and your impact is felt and seen. In this episode of GMR, we’ll talk about discovering your identity, and what you are created to do, so you can live a richer and more fulfilled life.

SHOW NOTES

 

Investing in yourself

 

Identifying your calling and purpose is important because this allows you to fully invest your time, energy, and resources in the best possible way for maximizing the time you have on this earth to fulfill your purpose


ID Seminar: Identity Reveals Destiny
The content referenced was written by Allan Kelsey & Brad Stahl.

 

Identity

  • Talents / Giftings

  • Passion

  • Calling

 

You Need a Mirror

If you’re going to discover your identity and calling, having a mentor is tremendously helpful, they see things you don’t, they’ve been places you haven’t, and they know more people than you do.

Friends and family can help you identify your talents and passions based on their observations in spending time with you. 

 

Popular Assessment Tools

 

Strengths Finder - 34 Talent Themes

  • 1 in 33 million people in the world has the same five Strengths or Talents in the same order.

  • 1 in 23 billion people in the world has the same six Strengths or Talents in the same order.

  • 1 in 700 billion people in the world has the same eight Strengths or Talents in the same order (100 Earths).

 

The great news is that you can use any set of talents to do just about any job or fulfill any calling, the talents just show you “how” you will go about doing the job.

David Leads with:

  • Winning Others Over

  • Positivity

  • Maximizer

  • Input

  • Empathy

Leo Leads with:

  • Restorative

  • Harmony

  • Responsibility

  • Input

  • Learner

 

Having one of these talents or not having one of these talents doesn’t disqualify you from a certain job. These are not physical talents, like eye-hand coordination, without which you would never be a basketball player or pro-athlete. These talents are more about your personal bent, personality, and natural characteristics.

 

When you take these assessments, remember, you need to see yourself with a mirror. Answer honestly and learn what the results mean.

 

As many people try to discover themselves and pursue their calling they end up following someone else’s dream or building someone else’s business/calling.

 

Have you ever made the choice to follow someone else’s dream instead of your own? If yes, why? 

  • My dream was not clear to me.

  • It was easier to follow someone else’s dream.

  • I was not sure how to achieve my own dream.

  • I was afraid to try to follow my dream.

  • I felt pressured by the expectations of relatives or friends.

 

It’s time to begin living your calling if you experience these symptoms:

  • Does your job satisfy you less than it once did? 

  • Are you less satisfied with your possessions? 

  • Are you willing to trade your success for more control in your life? 

  • Are you escaping the hunger of your heart with drugs, alcohol or entertainment?

  • Are you always looking for a new job and trying to find a new direction? 

  • Do you envy those who are doing something more meaningful? 

 

If you don’t find your purpose, you will fill that hole with other things, and it won’t be healthy (taking the wrong path to your destination).

 

Once you’ve identified your talents, gifts, and strengths, then you want to look for your passions.

Passion

Think about what bothers you the most in the world. Look at the news, go to a movie, or read the paper. Watch the world around you like a detective or a scientist. If you feel your heart pounding about that issue, take notice! You may have found your passion. Places, where you have a special intolerance for the status quo concerning the idea or issue you're looking at. 

What makes you want to throw your bowl of popcorn in the air and stand up out of your chair?

 

Hobbies vs Real Passions

 

Hobby

  • For enjoyment

  • Temporary high

  • More self-focused, restorative, relaxing, internal health

 

Real Passion

  • Others focused, serving people

  • Long-term impact on the world or a person’s life

  • Gives you a sense of fulfillment and lasting joy

  • A place you can envision the future and don’t mind if it takes time and hard work to get there, you’re passionate for the mission

 

Don’t get distracted by Data Smog...

 

Data Smog

In the 1970s, the average person was exposed to 350 messages per day. By the year 2000, that number climbed to 3,000 and has continued to increase rapidly. Not only has the number of messages gotten bigger, but due to competition for our minds and the new mediums available, the messages have become bolder, more dramatic, and more complex in order to capture our attention.

According to one study, the average home in the US receives 11.25 hours of some media each day. That is 11.25 hours of messages we invite into our homes when they should be places to recover and restore.

Invest in yourself to line up your life with the calling and purpose of your life.

Step 1

  • Set time aside to pursue your calling

  • Have to set an appointment on your calendar to read a book, shadow a mentor, or volunteer for an organization that is doing your calling.

Step 2

  • Identify the talents you have that need to become strengths.

  • Talent: A naturally recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior that we can apply productively (put to good use). A talent is a potential strength.

Step 3 

  • Identify the knowledge you need.

  • Knowledge: What you know or are aware of. This may be pure facts gained through education. It is also how you make sense of what you know—your understanding. You may gain this by experience.

What skills are required?

Skills: The ability to perform the basic steps of an activity. Skills deal with how to do your task. Once you have gained the skill for something, you know how to do it.

How much experience is expected to make a living or feel fulfilled?

  • The number of years.

  • The number of past success stories.

  • A position of influence gained.

 

Free Education

  • Volunteering

  • ·Aprenticeship

  • Following leaders in that space

  • Networking

 

RESOURCES

Budgeting and Debt Elimination Tools
Jesus on Money by David Thompson - stewardshippastors.com
Christian Stewardship Network

Leo SaboComment