For art to be generous it must change the recipient. If it doesn’t, it’s not working (yet). But realising it’s not working is an opportunity to make it better. […] You can produce more than you know if you are intent on doing it for someone else.*
(Seth Godin)

Most of the things that divide us are about winning, getting ahead, having more, being right, superiority (gender, race, education, religion). They’re all about getting, whether consciously or unconsciously expressed.

Giving is both a test and remedy for these. It provides what we are looking for in True Self mode rather than that of the False Self: true honour and nobility rather than false.

This set me thinking about how we might begin to disarm an escalation in competition, dominance, aggression, greed and suchlike, in some generous ways to lead out the generosity in the other.

There are no guarantees of success and it may take us a lifetime to work at, but one place for us to begin may well be in identifying our talents and abilities as generously as possible, not as ways to get but to give.

A great place to begin is with the Clifton StrengthsFinder, which will provide you with your top five talents; it’s not magic but it proves again and again to be a great mirroring tool for talents.**

(*From Seth Godin’s The Practice.)
(**In my posts since the beginning of the year, I have identified three key things to do for making the most of this new year for becoming your True Self: articulate your values in detail, begin keeping a list of the most energising experiences – this is best added to fresh as you notice the things you are really alive to, and identifying your talents.)