Gifts of the Spirit for the New Work World
As I stood in the long line at the checkout counter on Black Friday, I reflected on the many types of gifts we give one another. Most of the time, when we think about gift-giving during this time of year, the items we consider are material in nature: a shirt for Uncle Joe, a fine wine for Aunt Sally, a special candy a next-door neighbor enjoys, and all the other incidental items on our lists for the people we hold dear.
This year especially seems to have been pumped up to be one of the biggest retail spectacles we have experienced in quite some time. The media is reporting that many businesses are trying to recoup in the wake of what we have gone through in recent years and the excitement over what we hope to encounter in our future.
As a twenty-five-year career consultant, I find that material gifts may not have as long-lasting an effect on our personal and professional lives as we would like. They are nice to have, but we all might need something more. The gift of a positive mindset might prove to be a longer-lasting gift that reaps huge rewards.
Mindset can make all the difference on our personal and professional journeys. By the time someone comes to see me, something usually is not working well for their mindset or their professional life. Either they have lost a job, the one they are in doesn’t fit them anymore, or they want to grow in a role but are not sure how. At the same time, they are usually deflated, unhappy, and full of fear.
So here we are, needing some type of gift that might have more lasting value.
As Eleanor Roosevelt is often credited with saying,
“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.”
So how do we capitalize on the present and make the most of it? What can we do today that will have far-reaching results for all our tomorrows?
I believe the gifts of the spirit have the farthest-reaching effects on our overall well-being. In December 2020, I realized there was a strong need for a method that would assist people in capitalizing on those gifts of spirit. In that realization, my second book, Revolutionary Reinvention, was born!
This second book is a workbook that walks the reader through my five-step Faremouth Method™ to help them get more aligned with their gifts of the spirit. I believe we all have gifts to contribute to the world, but we have to get in touch with them to use them, and when we do, great things can happen! Our spirit becomes illuminated, and people can feel our passion and excitement for who we are and what we can do to make this world a better place.
Use the present to come more into alignment with your gifts of the spirit and consider how you can use them for greater personal satisfaction and professional growth, as well as to make a significant contribution to the greater good of our world.
As a previous employee of Ford Motor Company at its world headquarters, I have always been a big fan of Henry Ford. A quote attributed to him that has always resonated with me is,
“The gifted man bears his gifts into the world, not for his own benefit, but for the people among whom he is placed; for the gifts are not his, he himself is a gift to the community.”
Let’s go through the five-step Faremouth Method™ and review how getting in touch with our personal gifts in the present might serve us well in the New Work World and, more importantly, might help us make a contribution to the greater good of our world.
Step 1: Do a Self-Inventory
For me, going to the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, Greece, and seeing the inscription on the altar that translates to “Know Thyself” had a profound influence on me. I knew there had to be a reason that inscription had lasted all these years while other parts of the temple had deteriorated. I realized the philosophers and scholars in seventh century BC had known something very profound, a message that has withstood the test of time: fulfillment in life is all about “knowing thyself.”
From that trip to Delphi, the first step of the Faremouth Method™ was born. The exercises in the workbook are designed to get you more in line with your core self, to discover what you value and what matters most to you in your work and career.
Step 2: Ask Better Questions
After the self-inventory, it’s time to ask deeper questions, not just about who you have been but to provide you insight into who you are becoming and who you want to be. Asking yourself such tough questions allows you to live your truth in ways that will uplift every aspect of your life.
Step 3: Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
With all the changes going on in our lives as we move together into the New Work World, I am reminded of a quote by Wayne Dyer:
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
He was so right. And Neale Donald Walsch famously said,
“Life begins at the end of our comfort zone.” He was right too!
Step 4: Take Your Time and Do It Right
Great thinkers and scholars throughout the ages have all made claims about how much time it takes to do something right. Ben Franklin said,
“Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.”
According to William Shakespeare,
“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”
From these quotes, the central idea is quite clear. If we rush the process, we go nowhere. Taking the time to do things right is necessary if we want to reach a meaningful goal of any type, whether personal or professional.
Step 5: Be a Hunter
The “Be a Hunter” step was born out of the many employer requests I have received over the years as a recruiter to find hunter-type candidates as opposed to gatherers. In the business world, what we gather and what we hunt have everything to do with our success and reaching our goals. A positive and optimistic mindset can make a tremendous difference in how we plan to reach our goals.
This transformational time can be used to reintroduce yourself to the New Work World. The more in touch you are with your true self, the more you will have to offer and the more power you will have to make the world a better place. Use the gift of a positive mindset to be present in your personal and professional world and align yourself with your special gifts. It will be a gift to self that will last you far longer than any material gift you might desire!
Mary Ann Faremouth has been a regular contributor to the USA Daily Post since April of 2020.
