I turned on Good Morning America today, because it was a snow day. I normally never get to put it on, but in between the meltdowns and breakfast debacle and the poop withholding, (another time and place) I was able to put it on this morning and someone very significant filled my screen. Oprah. I caught the tail end of her interview and she said this to a young girl looking to ‘change the world’:
“The highest honor on earth, is the honor of being yourself. And your only job in the world is to discover why you are here. And every one of us has an internal guidance, a GPS, an intuition, a heart song that speaks to us. And your only job is to be able to listen and discern when its speaking versus when your personality or head is speaking. And if you follow that, you will be lead to the highest good for you, always.” –Oprah Winfrey
We all go through the daily grind of life. We all have things that we have to do that we don’t feel like doing. Taking the train every day to work. Attending meetings that we don’t feel like going to. Refereeing fights between your children. Dealing with a tough boss. Keeping up with all the tasks and trying to remember everything that needs to be done on a daily basis. Between all of that, when we finally get a minute, our halftime, do we take the time for ourselves to listen to our intuition? During the pauses of the grind, do we take a moment to discover what is inside of us? Do you?
Do you play guitar? Do you write? Do you advocate for a better town? World? Universe? Do you realize that your gift is talking people through hard times? Is it coaching youth basketball on the weekends? Do you share your family recipes on YouTube? Is it party planning? Is it organizing? Is it being a fitness coach/spin instructor/nutritionist?
Lately, this very message has been on repeat. My daughter does a basketball league where they bring in a guest inspirational speaker to talk at halftime. Normally, I’m thinking and distracted, but last Sunday, on the last game, I listened. He spoke mostly about the difference between success and significance. This struck me and piggy backed Oprah’s message. Success is something personal, something you do for yourself, but significance is something extremely different. Significance is making an impact on others by listening to your heart and finding your gift, then sharing it. What do you do for others? What is your gift and how do you give it away? What do you do during your halftime?
As parents, we all are significant because we are teaching a new generation on how to get through this life in a positive way, with good values and morals. We do this in a world where it seems at times that values are thrown out the door. Where Internet has taken on a new role; a role that seems to be shaping our youth into people without understanding morale and value. But as parents, when we try to teach our children how to be successful in life, we need to also teach them how to be significant. As parents, leading our children through this scary world, what better way to show them values and morals, by sharing our gifts. The hardest part, is figuring that out. During halftime, so to speak, take a moment and listen to the print of your heart. Teach your children to listen to their heart song. It will give them confidence and self-love, which can shape our new world.
And also, sometimes…perhaps… our true significance could be this; allowing our children to find theirs.
Noreen Heffernan, Writer, MA in Public and Corporate Communications, Certified in PR , Writer, Growing Ladies and Beautycounter Consultant,
Noreen.heffernan@gmail.com