Superpowers

Job searching can be such a demoralizing and soul sucking task sometimes, even if it's for just a part-time gig.  Scrolling through various job postings on Craigslist, I found myself on a bi-polar roller coaster ride ranging from… "Oh, I so do not want to be doing this kind of work for pennies an hour" to "How have I wasted the past years of my life?  I'm not qualified for ANYTHING!  How will I ever find work EVER AGAIN?!"  *cue dramatic hand gesture to forehead in "woe-is-me" fashion*

Feeling in a particular low point, bemoaning the fact that I wasn't truly jiving with my newest front desk gig I had recently started and the thought of going back to job searching made me flop myself down listlessly on the grass, a soul sista' friend challenged me to write a bio for myself to see on paper all the things I have done.  The next day, "randomly" (I say it with quotes, because there probably wasn't anything random about pulling the book off the shelf that I needed to read most in that very moment… but, alas, I digress…) I picked up Danielle LaPorte's Fire Starter Sessions: A Soulful and Practical Guide to Creating Success On Your Own Terms that had been sitting on my shelf for months.  And BOOM.  Those two things (plus remembering I took that awesome picture posted below earlier that very week!) lit a fire under my ass to change my mindset.  My glorious light no longer has time for bullshit humility and insecurity that is serving no one, especially myself and the ways I can help the world around me!  It's time to reclaim my superpowers!  (I just said an "AMEN!" to myself whilst doing the raise-the-roof hand movement I remember so well from middle school.  Ha!)

"Your most valuable currency is what comes most naturally to you.  Cash in."
-Danielle LaPorte, The Fire Starter Sessions

BOOM.  Done and done!

"When you focus on building your natural strengths and doing what comes easiest to you, you gain a momentum in your life that feels efficient and exciting and hot.  Like, sexy kind of hot, and deeply nourishing kind of hot; like your heart on fire kind of hot.  The kind of hot we all want to feel.  Are you with me?"
-Danielle LaPorte, The Fire Starter Sessions

What are YOUR superpowers??  What activities make you feel really useful, alive, and strong?  What do you love to talk about for hours or read about just out of pure pleasure of learning more?  Maybe you're super crafty and create beautiful DIY home projects like nobody's business…. perhaps you can chat up strangers and become instant friends with the greatest of ease…. or can you tinker around with electronics and manuals, figuring out technological puzzles all on your own?  Or maybe your love for throwing parties and coordinating events are the talk of the town… or you enjoy creating delicious, homemade recipes from scratch that have your friends' mouths watering…. or you get a thrill from training your body and pushing yourself to complete a triathlon with flying colors…. perhaps your greatest strength is being an empathic listener to those aroud you...

Don't be shy!  I give you permission to brag about yourself and your gifts!  Forget about what other people might think!  Chances are they will think you are amazing and badass anyways.  This is about celebrating and honoring those unique skills and natural talents that bring so much joy and aliveness to your life.
 

"Jonathan Livingston Seagull…was no ordinary bird.  Most gulls don't bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight - how to get from shore to food and back again.  For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating.  For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight.  More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly."
-Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
 

And now that you've shouted out proudly your superpowers…..(and if you haven't shouted them yet, now is the perfect moment to do so… it feels so good!)…. how present are they in your day to day?  Do you use them everyday?  And if not, is there a way you can start drawing on and acknowledging these more in your life?

Just to be clear, I'm not bashing the admirable virtue of humility.  I am also not advocating a puffed up "greater than thou" attitude either.  What I AM rooting for is the self-love to rise above our insecurities and the de-valuing of ourselves to share and celebrate our gifts with each other.  I believe that is how we make the world a better place.  Onward and upward Superheroes!

"You grow most in your areas of greatest strength.  You will improve most, be the most creative, be the most inquisitive, and bounce back the fastest in those areas where you have already shown some natural advantage over everyone else - your strengths.  This doesn't mean you should ignore your weaknesses.  It just means you'll grow most where you're already strong."
-Marcus Buckingham, Now, Discover Your Strengths