How to use your natural gifts to make you more organized

If you think back over your work history, you may laugh at the wide variety of jobs you’ve held. Think about it for a minute. When you’re creative, it almost can’t be helped!

Personally, I’ve been a Sears customer service rep, a camp counselor, a CPR instructor, a substitute teacher, a volunteer coordinator – and that’s just the beginning.

The essence of your work

The amazing thing is that as widely as your job descriptions have swung, there is a common thread between all of them: your work allows you to express your divine gift.

Your divine gift is not a skill or talent or technique. It’s not something you do. It’s an essence, a reflection of the Divine within you. Compassion, strength, love, grace are all examples.

The interesting thing about one’s divine gift is that it’s often hard to recognize. You’re immersed in it all the time, so it doesn’t seem exceptional to you – like the proverbial fish can’t see the water it’s in. It takes time to discover and begin to consciously own it.

What your divine gift is for

Each person has a purpose. There’s a passage I love from the Bible that says, “No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a washtub or shoves it under the bed. No, you set it up on a lamp stand so those who enter the room can see their way.”

Your divine gift is like a light. Your purpose is to bring your light into the world. Not everyone chooses to do this, of course. It takes commitment. But if you’re on the entrepreneur’s path, your light is shining as you share your divine gift.

How does this relate to creating an organized, inspired home office?

Maybe you’ve hired an organizer in the past – but nothing stuck. Or you read an organizing book and got overwhelmed. This is really common if you think that the goal is to be organized.

It isn’t.

If you’re striving for an organized space and are continuously “failing” at it, it’s because you need a new perspective. In my work, the goal is never to be “organized.”

The goal is to create an environment that helps you share your divine gift with the world.

Organizing helps your divine gift flow into the world unobstructed. It’s a means to an end, not the end itself.

Forget tidiness. You don’t need cute, matchy boxes. You don’t even have to be pile-free. All you need is a workspace that allows your love, your gift to reach those who need it.

Things to try

1. Let yourself off the hook

If you’re obsessing, stressed or frustrated that your space feels terrible, let that be okay – for just a few minutes. Accept it exactly the way it is for the moment.

2. Ask

What divine gift are you bringing to the world? What essence is coming through you from all your varied jobs? Sit in silence for a little while and listen for an answer – something will come up from within you.

3. Then inquire

What do you need and what does your workspace need so that your divine gift can come through? What blocks can you clear so that you can really reach the people who need you gift?

My guess is that if you take a time with these questions and write down your responses, you’ll get ideas that will really help your business grow. You may find that you don’t need cute little boxes, but something more real, more holy, and more you.

I’d love to know how it goes.

(For a tender, fabulous book that lists Divine qualities, see The Sufi Book of Life by Neil Douglas Klotz.)

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