Brian Kazungu, 10/05/2023
Your gift can be described as your Natural Adaptive Advantage, especially, if it helps you to easily adapt and to make progress or to prosper in a given environment or situation.
If the same gift gives you a certain degree of mastery or domineering personality before others in different circumstances, it can then be referred to as an Authoritative Natural Adaptive Advantage.
However, a certain ability can be taught to you until you master it to your own advantage and for the benefit of others. That is called a Skill or an Acquired Adaptive Advantage.
If you reach a level of mastery over others in a certain field, after having acquired a skill through training, and then effectively utilizing it to your benefit, and to the benefit of others, it then becomes an Authoritative Acquired Adaptive Advantage.
A gift or an Adaptive Advantage can be categorized as either open or closed. An open Adaptive Advantage is a gift which is easily and strikingly recognizable to the natural five senses of any ordinary/normal human being.
When it comes to an open gift, there is no need for putting any effort in recognizing it, be it on yourself and on others. Almost anyone can sense this type of a gift/advantage.
It can be your striking beauty, your melodious voice, your amazing body structure or any other easily observable breathtaking super-imposing natural quality or characteristic.
On the other hand, a Closed Adaptive Advantage is that gift which usually takes another person or special situation for it to be identified, recognized or for it to manifest.
The gifted person in the case of a Closed Adaptive Advantage may not even be aware of this gifting or of the fact that it gives him/her an advantage in any case.
People who are gifted in the context of Closed Adaptive Advantage may not even realize that there is something super unique about them until someone says so or until a certain unusual development takes place to reveal their unique personality.
Knowing your gift is one basic important step towards a fulfilling and successful life.
As such, it is important that you identify your gift and then strive to develop it to the best possible level for efficient application and maximum benefit.
One of the first steps towards discovering or identifying your gift or talent is to simply look at those things or tasks that you can do with utmost easy and yet some people will be having some difficulties in doing or accomplishing the same.
There are those things in life that when you do them, people always exclaim and marvel on how do you it.
When you do something that you are gifted to do, other people will be curious on how you even think about and do such things with so much simplicity and efficiency.
Have you ever come across people who look at you with awe when you are doing something or talking about something with so much fluency and too much easy, yet they themselves may find the task to be too difficult or the subject to be complicated?
Such is quite often a sign which shows you that this is your ordained sphere where you belong and as such, you must always be ready to analyze the comments, reactions or feedback that you get from other people in your interaction with them.
The other approach that you can use to identify your gift is to look at your physical architecture, i.e. the way how your body is constructed and how the related components thereof function.
There is a precious reason why you are designed in that particular way. The quicker you discover it, the faster it will work for you.
You need to look at yourself in the mirror and see your physical architecture or listen to your own voice.
Besides your physical make-up, which is the way how your body parts are uniquely joined together, there is also an element of the mind and senses that must be considered in the discovery and identification of gifts or talents.
Yes, we may all have the same senses of touch, sight, taste, smell and hearing, but the way how such senses operate in some people can be uniquely extra ordinary and different from others for a reason.
Your physiological and psychological anatomy is a unique package that holds the keys to your self-discovery. It is a treasure box of opportunities and success, and thus, it must be given due and utmost care and attention in the journey of life.
Our diversity as a people is not accidental but it is rather a special divine arrangement.
For example, your appearance when people look at you or how you sound when they talk to you, helps them to identify you in a group. That on its own is a confirmation of the fact that you are uniquely different for a reason.
If you have ever watched a television documentary called National Geographic, you may have noticed that every animal is made or designed in a certain way in order for it to hunt for food and to help it escape from or to fight against danger.
Some animals have colors that make them blend well with the environment so that they can either hide to prey or even hide from danger while other animals are designed to run fast as a mechanism to chase after prey or to run away from danger.
The same characteristics applies to the birds of the air and fish in the sea. This shows that the physical architecture of anything including mankind is a clue of and on what the universe resourced it with for adaptation and survival.
To other people, their gift can be something as soft as a sharp mind, a unique voice or a beautiful face.
Whatever the case may be, our gifts are not in vain. They are divinely endowed to us for our benefit towards adaptation, development and prosperity.
This is why it is important for you to have a personal awareness of your uniqueness and then seek to develop and manage it in a way that can help you in the pursuit of your dreams and to help fellow men in solving their problems.
When no one, be it your parents, the church, community or even the government has made any effort to discover, identify, reward and promote your gift, you may have to do it in your own.
If you fail to do that on your own, sometimes, you may fall victim to people and organizations that can actually identify your unique giftedness and manipulate your blessedness for their own selfish personal interests.
When it comes to discovering gifts, it is also critical that we quickly highlight the fact that there is a difference between discovering your gift through:
Identifying things or tasks that you can perform with utmost easy compared to trying to base your gift on things that you like the most.
Yes, you may like soccer, but that doesn’t automatically make you a soccer player.
You may like music, but that doesn’t mean you are a musician. This may only show that you appreciate the gifting of those who you love to see displaying these gifts.
However, as you enjoy, celebrate and reward the gifts of others, you must never forget that you also have your own unique gift that must be identified so that the world may benefit from it and that you may also derive a reward from the application thereof.
No matter what you may be going through, you must never give up on finding your own gift, for it is a treasure that fulfils your soul when you discover and utilize it. Let nothing, be it age, career or friends dissuade you from working on your gift.
Your gift opens doors of opportunities and makes you practically relevant among other people in the journey of life (Proverbs 18vs.16).
I know of people whom despite their beautiful careers, they still followed their gifts for the common good of all.
For example, Dr Tauya Murehwa, one of the greatest Zimbabwean footballers was actually a qualified medical doctor in the same way that an award-winning novelist from South Africa, Dr Kopano Matlwa Mabaso is also a qualified medical doctor.
More so, despite being a Reverend of the Roman Catholic Church, Archibishop Patrick Chakaipa was one of Zimbabwe’s greatest novelists, just like Phillip Chidavaenzi, a journalist who is also an award-winning novelist.
Despite their careers, these people found it easy and fulfilling to pursue that which they are naturally good at and this gave them a fulfilling experience, not forgetting the added financial benefits and limelight associated with such pursuits.
Personally, despite having separately done Business, Information Technology and Journalism related studies, I derive utmost pleasure from being an author.
I just find it easy to write, and, when I am not writing about something that is occupying my mind and heart, I feel that there is something missing and that gap only gets filled when I pour myself out through literature, which I believe is my other gift.
As you can see, in writing this article, I am actually displaying my gift as an author and also showcasing my gift when it comes to connecting the dots between giftedness and the socio-economic reality of mankind across the world.
Adapted from the book Managing your Gift written by Brian Kazungu
Book Link: https://amzn.to/331q8Th
Author Profile: https://www.amazon.com/author/briankazungu
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