Saturday, April 15, 2017

What do you have to offer the world?

posted by Teresa Slack
Most of us don’t think of ourselves as an expert at anything. We haven’t discovered anything or invented anything or cured anything. We haven’t built a business that employs millions or solved a great problem facing humankind. We downplay our abilities since they’re not that impressive. After all, almost anyone can balance a checkbook or raise kids or even write a blog post. We keep our heads down and hope we don't sound like we’re bragging.

Recently I was asked to speak at a writers’ conference. It's been a long time since I've talked about writing. To be honest, it's been a long time since I've written a whole lot. I believe I do have something to offer writers. I’ve been doing it a while and have met with some success with my published novels. But an expert…I don't know if I'd go that far.

I almost didn't accept the invitation. I worried I might not have enough to offer that the attendees didn’t already know. Actually, I was afraid. Afraid of not having as good a presentation as the other writers doing workshops. Afraid I’d fall on my face. Afraid everyone would see me as the fraud I thought I was.

Aren't those dumb reasons for not doing something I love?

No matter your interests or abilities or experience or natural talent, you have something to offer that can benefit or impact someone. Don't let fear or the thought that you're a phony or not as good as you think you are keep you from doing what you enjoy and from being a being a blessing to others. We tell ourselves we’re not that funny or talented or experienced. Consequently, we do nothing. Who suffers when we make that choice?

Not only are we hurting ourselves by not stretching our wings and doing what we enjoy, we are also hurting the people we don’t help. Vanity is sometimes disguised as fear. The fear we experience when doing something outside our comfort zone is vanity. No one wants to fall on their face in front of witnesses. But not doing something helpful or beneficial to others because of selfish reasons is vanity.

No matter how minimal you believe your talents, someone can benefit from learning them. Even if you think everyone knows how to bake a chocolate chip cookie or housebreak a puppy or sew on a button, you will come across someone who needs your advice on the subject. I am sure there are also bigger things, too, in which you have experience.

What are you good at? What are your interests or natural talents? Baking. Organization. Writing. Graphic design. Woodworking. Money management. Animal training. Crafts. Mechanics. Health and beauty. Just to name a few. There is at least one area in which you could help someone else. Probably many, but for the sake of this article, we'll focus on one. Name one thing you could teach someone else. If you share your knowledge & experience with one person, you have possibly enriched them…and yourself.

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4 comments:

Molly Noble Bull said...

This is a great article, Teresa, and I got a lot out of it. I'm encouraged. Good job.

Unknown said...

A lot.
Follow us...

Dunno if you saw this before
...yet, here it is once moe, curly:

Greetings, earthling!
Need summore new-fangled-thots N ideers? Look no firdr, brudda. Can't stay long. Done gotta git, Paw... yet, if Im a sower, we plant the Seed; if Im an artist, we RITE the Word:

Would U please help a plethora of King Size, wildchild, rawkuss poetry/wordz which are lookin 4 a home in thy novelty?? Thx. Whew. They're pretty insane. They're bereft of reason. Oi! Blimey! They're bloody PINK spiders!

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CAUTION: our 22ish, avant-guard, accurately-atrocious, offa-the-reservation-like-Jimmy-Hoffa, metal breadcrumms R sooo out-of-order, toots, they're an intimate wealth of bottomless sophistication. And dats da lethal fak, Jak. Go ahead. Sue me. Yawn. But, yet, here's the perennial KOO D'TAH: who else has actually SEEN the Great Beyond in spirit & lived to tella youse bout the bionic, bloated, brevity-like-earth we're living on?? Yes, earthling, Im an NDE, almost salivating4salvation. So gain altitude, never attitude: death has no intrinsick favorites.

If Mr. abSUREditty's an ultra-great-reward, and not everyone enters, Q: why is it an excruciating deluge of epic-.357-caliber where the quality's a limitless bulldozer plowin, pushin-your-power-cord with eternal goodies? A: the Prize-A+-TheEnd just gives U.S. moe-curley-graphix 2 VitSee: an explosion-of-extravagance which few R asking 4 anymore! Grrr. They're too concerned withe grotesque sanity of ambivilant piss-ants which swiftly crawl like lemmings to their scorecard destruction. C'est la guerre.

THANK GAWWWD!!! the Don has the ebullient BAWLS!!! to do the Manifest Destiny!!! To lead U.S. forward to the White House Upstairs with his SQUARES!!!

So, break-free, earthling; be like a contraversial outgrowth of incredibly-intoxicating-effusiveness in your zeitgeist to give the ultimate, stunning, backknuckle potency: Wiseabove. Wanna join this useFULL idiot Upstairs 4 the most zany, kooky, X-acto-knife antidotes? Extremely exquisite, explicit endorphins in abundance? Puh-lenty of pulverizingly-tantalizing psychopathic psychosomatics with eXtras? i2i-kick-velocity's-ass-ultra-maximum-rocket-fuel-party-hardy at my pad ya ever encountered without d'New Joisey accent 4 an eternal slew of precarious, magnanimous & primeval absurdities indelibly etched in the granite corridors of eternity with a total-barrage-of-melt-in-thy-mouth 'depth-of-undenial'???

Make Your Choice  -SAW
...cuzz nobody gitts outta here alive, earthling.

Unknown said...

God's gotta lotta, too.
Follow Him...

Check-this-out...

Yes, earthling, Im an NDE
(thus, my ethereal nomenclature) -
so I actually know God exists:
He rewards those who HONOR n RESPECT
Him and strive to follow His Laws;
for those who wanna know what
Seventh-Heaven holds for your
indelible, magnificent soul whom
God has so carefully crafted -
and if you're not too concerned
with WWIII and N. Korea,
you better follow us:

Find-out what RCIA means and join.
trustNjesus.
ALWAYS.
God bless your indelible soul.

The Glory Patch said...

Thank yo for sharing this post. It was very timely for me. I was just belaboring in prayer over God's purposes for me, which I have been doing for far too long. I am afraid to step out and do some of the things the Lord has put on my heart. I won't go into all the reasons why. But I want to step out. It;s time to stop planning and daydreaming about it and see what the Lord has.

I love to study God's word and I love to write. I have since I was a young girl. I started writing poetry as a way to share my hurts and feelings when they had no place else to go except on paper...Then after I got married, I had all these cool ideas for children's books...never did anything with it. Now that I'm older, I've taught youth group, women's bible study's and day conferences (local and small) and had a blog while I was going through my cancer journey. I have gleamed a lot from life and my Jesus and just want to share who He is and what He has done. I have books and blogs started; bible studies and short stories galore! I just don't know what to do with them or how to get stared in the writing world.

My husband thinks I should write. My mother thinks I should write. I have a few friends that have told me, "You should write!"

Do you have any ideas that could help me get started? Cut my safety rope from the shore and launch my boat?

And suggestions would be greatly appreciated. If you want to check out my blog I would love any comments. http://wholeinabrokenworld.blogspot.com/

A Sister in Christ,

Patti Collins