I don’t have a lot of down time but when I do I try to do something educational. Now, if I’ve had a really long day or week I will turn on trashy reality TV and that is how I shut off. But, for the most part I will pick up my phone and listen to a podcast, I will read a book, learn Spanish, or start researching a subject I don’t know much about. I’m a very inquisitive person and if I don’t know something that I wish I knew I’ll add it to my list to Google later.
In doing this I have discovered how much I love Steve Harvey. I will play his show in the background as I work and something caught my attention the other day. He said “your gift will make room for you”. He said find something that you’re good at and do it. Everyone has a gift and you have to identify it. It’s the thing that you’re best at with the least amount of effort.
I think in this society we are brainwashed into believing that we must get a 9-5 job in corporate America and work 40+ hours a week for someone else and use the rest of our time and our weekends to really live our lives. This concept makes me so sad because a lot of people fall for it and end up waiting to live their lives only to realize it’s too late.
I’ve had my own business for almost 5 years now and I’ve got to experience being able to travel, enjoying my work days, and not waiting for the weekend to live my life. With that being said I’ve also worked more hours than I’ve ever worked and worked harder than I’ve ever worked. I used to think that working for yourself is the only way to live life successfully because that’s where you’ll find the most happiness. Now I know that having your own business allows you more freedom than being stuck at a desk 40+ hours a week but it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be happy.
What makes you happy is doing something that you love every day. Have you ever heard the expression “do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”? You have to find your gift and expose it to the world. If you can learn how to make money from your gift you will be rich in more ways than one.
One thing that I struggled with for the longest time was that I didn’t know what my passion was. I owned this business and I was doing quite well but I didn’t feel fulfilled at the end of each day. Every morning I would wake up and start working and although I didn’t dread working I definitely didn’t spring out of bed for my business tasks. So, I started the blog. The blog is great and it’s an amazing platform to express myself and share my life but I still felt like something was missing.
I truly believe that we are all sent here for a reason, that we have a purpose. I think that when we discover what our gift is and fully invest in ourselves and add hard work into the mix we can successfully do what we’re good at and make a living.
As much as I love fashion (and have since I was little) something was missing. I started utilizing Instagram to build up the blog and to research what other bloggers were doing. I quickly began to realize that the industry was getting very saturated with a lot of the same things. After all, there are only so many places someone can shop and so many different outfits you can put together without ending up with the same exact look as someone else. I started thinking why should I do this unless I can provide something to people that they aren’t getting from someone else? So, I reached out to the closest 5 people to me and asked them what I bring to their life.
They told me that my advice is the most valuable thing I bring to their lives and whether it’s which shoes to wear with a certain outfit or what they should do about a cheating boyfriend I am their go-to. So, I realized I needed to be more than a home decor blog, more than a fashion blog, and more than a chit-chat blog. I needed to talk about real things because that’s what I’m good at. That is my gift.
Steve Harvey talked about Marie Callender on his show. She worked at a small diner that was going to go out of business. She told the owner she would bring in one of her pies to see if that would help keep the restaurant open by boosting the sales. People bought all of the slices of her pie that day. The next day the people came back and asked for more pie. She made so many pies that eventually she had to turn her home into a bakery with industrial sized machinery. She now has over 50 restaurants nationwide and her name is plastered all over every frozen food section. And it all started with pie. One pie.
I am working on another project which will hopefully be launched in the next few months so stay tuned. In the meantime, work on finding your gift. Ask those around you what they think you’re best at. Dig deep and look at the successes in your life. Don’t worry about where the money will come from just yet. Just find what you’re good at. If you’re the best at cutting hair, the best at making pizza, the best singer…chances are that is what you were sent here to do.
Once you’ve found your gift put your passion behind it, put some hard work into it, and watch yourself flourish.
