Chameleon or Downplaying your Gifts and Strengths

I swore I could never be one of those people who sits at a desk all day. It just wasn't me. I move around. It's who I am. As a teacher, I was never the formal type. Sometimes I stood, sometimes I sat, and most of the time, it was how could I get involved in my students' learning, which meant sit on the floor at times, if necessary. The point is sitting or standing still just didn't fit in with who I am. As a pharmaceutical rep, I was constantly on the go, spent lots of time in my car, but I always took the time waiting for doctors to pace or just move around.

As an entrepreneur and health and wellness coach, I realized the thing I needed to buckle down on was sitting my butt where I needed to and doing the do. I live in the outskirts of a main town, so it's twenty to thirty minutes to "get to town" to do most things. That includes most gyms, so a one hour workout becomes a two hour time commitment. Going to yoga has become a part of my routine, but I recognized I hadn't been as active as I needed to be. Coincidentally, I noticed my energy has been blocked.

My boyfriend and I both love nature, being outdoors, and being active, so it's been a struggle that I have felt so pulled to get things done being disciplined to sit at my desk for hours at a time, while ironically finding articles discussing the health risks associated with sitting for long periods of time... The bf is an avid hunter and fisher, has spent years outside and is a wealth of knowledge in many ways, including spotting wildlife, so he has been taking me and at times, my daughter for nature hikes and teaching us how to spot deer at the local park. He shares his knowledge about conditions, environment, what to look for, etc and most days, it results in seeing at least a dozen deer on our nature walks. I am so in awe of all that he has learned over the years and shares with us.

Today, I noticed a nagging feeling that compelled me to yes, follow his lead, but also to pay attention to my gut instinct, intuition, or whatever you want to call it. His eyes are trained to spot them much faster than mine are, but I decided to share with him the moments that I felt my intuition directing us certain ways. (I should also add that he has an incredible sense of direction and can navigate the woods like a boss.) He had already shared that today's conditions were ideal for spotting deer, so I figured what the heck. I will see if he is willing to go with my intuition. Both times I spoke up, it paid off. I felt there were deer in certain area and knew that if I suggested the general idea, he could fine tune it based on specific conditions, things he noticed, etc and lead us to deer. I love how our personalities compliment each other. I leverage my gut instinct and big general ideas and he is amazing with the details.

It got me thinking though. I know that I have a good sense of intuition, but with many years in corporate life, I had learned to squelch so many of my strengths in an expectation of fitting into a corporate mold, which I knew never fit. I shined when I worked for a manager who believed in pulling out everyone's individual strengths, and expanding on them. My approach was never the same as the traditional rep, but I was highly successful, living and working in my strengths and what I have experienced over the last year and a half is the unfolding of my personality and strengths that I had shoved in a box in the corner in an attempt to care more about other people's big picture than my own. The struggle was because I wasn't accepting and using as a blessing to help others.

How many times in the long journey of accomplishment do we do that? How often do we think we are merely pulling the chameleon act to blend in for long term success and not realize what we are doing instead: losing ourselves and our strengths, while also losing site of our goals and the greatness for which we are destined because we have had a moment or longer of weakness and succumb to somebody else's expectations, completely losing site of our own? I realized then the importance as another recent connection pointed out for entrepreneurs, especially women, to connect regularly with nature, to ground ourselves, and get perspective. We push hard and at times, we forget to come up for air, look around and figure out how everything fits into our own bigger picture. When we feel ourselves get lost in the shuffle, what if we stopped, decided to breathe, and then asked ourselves if our actions are in line with our goals or someone else's. This is your reminder to breathe and gain perspective.