We all have “gifts”: talents and abilities that are uniquely our own. Some we know. Some we don’t. Some we don’t even realize are talents.
If there is one person in the world who should be an expert on “you”, you would think it would be you, but how many of us really don’t know ourselves? The reason why is because self discovery can be uncomfortable. Often we have to force ourselves out of our comfort zones to find out who we are, but it doesn’t have to be.
Sometimes just making little changes that takes out of the mindless routines that we all fall into can make a huge difference: removing the blank spots on the piano roll of life where we lived, but didn’t, that’s all it really takes.
Sometimes getting free of them is as simple as taking a different way to work: going right when you would normally have gone left; maybe even doing something you always wanted to do, but never tried. Making little changes that remove us from the normal routines and forces to live in the moment instead of just passing through it, and in the end, we become different.
This is a story I heard years ago, told to me by a back stage guy at the Frontier in Las Vegas. I don’t know how much of it is true, or really, if any of it is true, but it serves a point that is true.
Phillip (not sure of his real name), was a traveling salesman around the turn of the century. He traveled around the world and truth be known, as a salesman, he really wasn’t very good, but he had one unique talent, considered by almost everyone he knew, to be interesting, but useless. Phillip could run on his knees. In fact, he could run faster on his knees than most people could on their feet.
At parties he would show off his unique talent by pulling the weight of several people along with him, and though everyone was impressed, none thought it was of any value… yet Phillip practiced. He got even faster and stronger.
But fate and destiny sometimes have a way of colliding. One day flying back to the United States from a trip overseas, disaster struck. It was 1937, Lakehurst New Jersey, and as the aircraft came in for a landing, a fire broke out, but this was no ordinary aircraft and the fire was no ordinary fire.
Phillip was aboard the Hindenburg, and as it touched the mooring tower an explosion rocked the ship. Fire swept through the giant aircraft in a matter of minutes, and people began jumping from the broken windows and portals just to escape. When Phillip jumped he hit the ground so hard that both of his ankles were broken.
Two passengers landed on either side of him, knocked unconscious by the fall.
Of the 97 people on board (36 passengers and 61 crewmen), there were 35 fatalities (13 passengers and 22 crewmen). Phillip survived, as did the two people that landed next him, and the only reason they did, was because they were just lucky enough to fall next to a little man who could drag them to safety, because he had the worthless talent of being able to run on his knees.
No talent is without value, even those that others may think are worthless, and they are given to us for a reason.