My spirit speaks
and is a lot smarter than I am.
I hear myself say things
that I don't know how I know,
but I do know! The gift.

Oh, I knew about having a gift. I knew that I have a gift that allows me to write. I knew I had a gift of thinking out of the box before thinking out of the box was fashionable. But I discovered the concept of what happens when we use our gift after I burned out in my business.

I've burned out off and on over these 24 years, but when I finally burned out I just stopped doing much of what I had been doing in my business. For instance: I once wrote all the feature stories in The Shopper. All the stories. We have ten Shoppers now, each with several front page stories. I burned out writing stories when we had eight.

However, what I still do is what I cannot not do. What I cannot stop doing is my gift, my ability to see possibilities, and, when I am doing it, my whole persona changes. I sit up straight. My eyes widen and my face lights up. My spirit speaks and is a lot smarter than I am. I hear myself say things that I don't know how I know, but I do know! The gift.

Our gift comes from our core and we have to use it to be fulfilled, to be what we are supposed to be. When we know what our gift is and feel ourselves using it, it is simply exhilarating. I made the connection between having the gift and what happens when I use my gift when I felt my spirit lift me out of burn out. Now, when I am using my gift, I revel in the joy it brings me.

One's gift can be used in a business or not, but we should use it as we would if it were a business with everything depending on it. Do you have a gift that you are not using? What a waste. What are you going to say to God at the pearly gate?

Pay attention to yourself. What gives you joy? What are you doing when you lose yourself? What do people value from you? Pay attention, all the clues are readily available.

Here is one clue: You often give your gift away, just like God gives it to you. Even in business, money isn't the reason we use our gift. Money is a nice result, but it is almost a coincidence. A gift expresses itself, paid or not.

I am convinced that each one of us has a gift from God that will make the world a better place. Pay attention to that little inner voice that urges you to paint or design buildings or heal the sick. You know deep down what your gift is. It's the fire that doesn't burn out. It's the fire that lights your world.

Jean Loxley-Barnard has been a writer all her life and studied both sociology and psychology at George Washington University where she earned a B.A. Her company, The Shopper, Inc., encompasses all the Loxley-Barnard family publications - The Shopper Magazines and Doctor to Doctor Magazine. She has been in the advertising, consulting and publishing business for 39 years.