One Talent No More

I made a post on my website a while back on being a good steward. In it, I talk about the passage in Matthew 25:14 – 30 where Jesus gives a comparison of what the coming of the Kingdom is going to be like. If you are familiar with the scripture, I won’t rehash it all here, but it mentions 3 individuals that a master entrusts with some money, according to their ability, while he goes away on a trip. One is given 5 talents of gold, one is given 2 talents, and the last is given one talent. This post is going to be directed to my fellow “One Talent” stewards and it is my hope that I can help you go from a One Talent steward to a Two Talent steward, and so on.

Now, if you are a TTS or an FTS, good for you! Continue to kick butt and chew bubble gum; especially if you are fresh out of bubble gum. Perhaps something I share here can be of some use to you, nonetheless.

I identified with being an OTS simply because I didn’t feel as though I was being as productive with my talent as I could be. Perhaps I looked at it from time to time, showed it off to others, but inevitably I buried it back in my secret place in the back yard. And as you can imagine, my success was mediocre at best. Therefore, my confidence in myself and my abilities wavered from day to day. This was the case because I knew deep down inside of me I was not being as productive with my talent as I could be.

Why was this?

Well, for me it was feeling as though what I did did not matter. So what if I hit the snooze button several times in the morning? So what if I did not work out today? So what if I did not eat healthy today? So what if I did have an idea of what I wanted in life but was not doing things daily to get closer to those dreams? In Jeff Olson’s book, The Slight Edge, he notes several times in the book that those errors in judgment compounded over time is difference between those who are successful and those who are not. See, the point is: what I did mattered. What I do, matters. The big things as well as the little things matter. Every cotton pickin’ thing that I do (and don’t do) matters.

How did I start thinking this way?

For me, I started out in life pretty confident. I figured out early in life that I had at least one talent and that I wanted to share it with the world and I daydreamed incessantly about the day when I was going to be able to capitalize on it. I got out in front of people to share it, and then I started to hear doubts. I heard criticisms. I started wondering if I really had what it took to succeed. I remember my 8th grade talent show where I attempted to perform a rap that I wrote and I got booed off stage. Failure. And if all of that wasn’t bad enough, later in life I started listening to people who convinced me that their dreams were more important than my own and therefore I should buy into it. And I did for a time. I put my dreams on the back burner and I thought, “If it is meant to be, then it’ll happen.” It wasn’t happening.

How did I turn it around?

What I can say for myself today is that I no longer think that way. My goal in life is to be financially independent. I know that it is going to take sacrifice, discipline and steadfastness. I have dug up that talent that was given to me so long ago and I am putting it to use again. I had to separate myself from the doubters and critics and I got by myself to reprogram and re-educate myself. Now it’s full steam (or steem) ahead.

So, my point in all of this is, in order to go from a One Talent Steward to a Two Talent Steward, first, realize that what you do and don’t do really matters. It’s not just the big stuff. It’s the little things you do that helps you or deters you from getting to your destination. Next, get away from any voice that is countering the positive things you’d like to accomplish in life and inundate yourself with positive voices. Lastly, go dig up that talent and put it to work and don’t let anything dissuade you until it is accomplished. Who knows, you might become a “Two Talent” Steward after all.