Gifts are made for giving
Now when you think about this statement, you might say ‘duh’! However, there are so many times that we don’t recognise the gifts that we possess and never give it away.
As we draw closer towards Christmas and get into the whirlwind of shopping for gifts for our loved ones, it can easily become another commercial activity with the rest of the annual events that take place every year.
Take a moment to think about what this time means for you — if it means anything at all as well respecting everyone’s differences in faith. Now I ask you to be patient as I share personally for a moment, for me as a Christian, this is a very special time because it represents the greatest gift given — Jesus. His sole purpose of being born into the world was to take upon the sins of all mankind to repair the broken relationship between man and God. What’s beautiful about this is that the motivation is unconditional love — a perfect love for humanity and as I reflect about my own relationships with my family as well as my friends, how often will I take the focus off myself to focus on the other person and love them with my actions. So is gift giving more about you than the other person? Is it about how you will be recognised or praised for what you’ve put into it or is it solely about benefiting the other person?
I believe that this is how we should position ourselves with all human interaction — to give of ourselves in every relationship and in our working to really focus on the other person and what their needs are as opposed to how this will make me look. I’ve felt it more in the corporate world where you’re scored by set KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that’s designed to rank you against all other employees to determine whether you will get more bonus than the other person and basically say you’re better than the other person. This doesn’t give room for helping each other very much. I remember this came into my awareness a number of years ago and how it affected my behaviour so I decided to no longer focus on KPIs but rather on how I can listen to the people I work with so that I can serve them better. I have determined that the best gift I can give someone is the best of me — to be fully present, listen without judgment and not with the intention to respond but to understand and then show them with actions that I care about them.
This year, I have had the amazing privilege to re-design a number of Agile and Facilitation training courses that were previously delivered face to face to a fully virtual and online experience with great success — the best moments are the thank you notes you get later on about how they’ve put into practice what’s been taught and seen the impact of it.
Prior to Covid-19 I had never thought that I would deliver online training, but because of the desire to help others, I took action, small steps towards learning how to get better through listening to feedback and showing that to the participants. The gift I gave was more than just the skills and bits of content in training, the gift I gave was the best version of myself.
This Christmas season, don’t just give a gift a that you can buy but I invite you to give the best version of yourself to others with me and begin with this question:
“How can I really listen to the people around me and give them my best?”
There’s something that only you can do and impact the people that only you can reach.
If you have managed to read through up to this point, I want to say thank you and I hope this has encouraged deeper thought within you. I would like to offer you a gift in return if you wish to take this on — as a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, I will offer you 3 one on one coaching sessions for free if you do the following:
- Connect and send me a message on LinkedIn to say hello and share the link to this article by 31 December 2020 https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-zhang-syd/
- Purchase the CliftonStrengths 34 ($82AUD or $50USD)on the gallup site to complete the assessment and get your personalised report: https://store.gallup.com/h/en-au
Have a Merry Christmas and God bless!
James Zhang
My why is to help and inspire others to live a full life through unconditional love