How to Appreciate Your Unique Combination of Talents

One of the greatest sticking points in making progress in life seems to be a lack of self-appreciation. Let alone, loving oneself.

“..there is only one thing I ever work on with anyone…is Loving the Self. Love is the miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives. I am not talking about vanity or arrogance or being stuck-up, for that is not love. It is only fear. I am talking about having a great respect for ourselves and a gratitude for the miracle of our body and mind. ‘Love’ to me is appreciation to such a degree that it fills my heart to bursting and overflows.” –Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your Life

Cover of YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE

Why is it so difficult to love yourself? Is it because we are socialized to believe that’s selfish and egotistical? And we are bombarded with media and advertisements telling us we need to change this or that, or make some sort of improvement where we are miserably lacking. And yet, if we don’t appreciate our own special gifts and talents, we can’t expect anyone else to, can we?

The long road to finding a way to appreciate my own gifts started with an exploration of self-assessment tools, such as the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and then astrology and other metaphysical tools, like the Enneagram and the Human Design System.

“In my professional work…I have found there to be one prevailing disease. That disease is self-hatred, and it thrives wherever you find something about yourself that you would like to change. Self-hatred varies in intensity from being just beneath the surface of the consciousness to being full-blown. It is the most human of ironies that self-hatred is truly misplaced because most people do not know themselves. They actually hate the wrong person. They are actually dissatisfied with the wrong person. Most human beings don’t like themselves, and they don’t like themselves because they truly do not know who they are…nor seen the beauty of what they their true life holds.” — Ra Uru Hu, Creator of the Human Design System

I suggest that you explore the self-assessment tools that call to your heart, and begin the accept and appreciate how very special you are. Make an inventory of your talents and gifts. Each day for a week, review the list and remember a time when each one was particularly useful or helpful to you or someone you cared about. Feel the feeling that you experienced in being of service to another person, and how grateful the recipient was.

You’ll have a better appreciation for how unique and special you are, and what opportunities lie ahead for you to share your gifts with the world.