Recently, I was listening to a podcast by Bob Stromberg. Bob makes his living in a variety of ways but one of them is as a storyteller, and, he is exceptional at it!
Let me summarize the story for you in my words, but, you can listen to the podcast by clicking on this link. It’s episode #48, Coaching with Terry Linhart.
Bob shared how as a young boy he and his cousins would go for a walk on a hot, summer afternoon. Often, their destination was the local general store in the small Pennsylvania community where he grew up.
The goal for this walk was to get a popsicle. Bob shared how, often, when they started out they didn’t have any money for the treat but they never worried about it. As they walked along the roadways to the store they would gather pop bottles that had been discarded by cars passing by. Each of those glass bottles could be returned to the store for a few pennies. They would then be returned to the bottling company, cleaned, sterilized and reused again.
Back in the days of our youth, Bob and I are just a few years apart in age, it was commonplace to simply throw your garbage out the car window when you were done with it. I remember those days well.
I also remember my parents being ahead of their time. I vividly recall the time when I threw a wrapper out the window. Dad quickly stopped the car, pulled onto the shoulder and backed up to the approximate spot where I committed my offense.
“Get out of the car and go get what you threw out the window,” dad said with the stern voice he used during teachable moments.
When I got back in the car dad continued in his firm, strict voice, “Just because other people throw their garbage out of the window doesn’t mean that we do.” Lesson learned, dad! I put the piece of paper on the floor and threw it in the garbage can at the next stop.
Just as Bob did, I remember collecting discarded pop bottles on a walk by myself or with friends. We would take them to Purity Dairy and get a couple of pennies, a nickel, or maybe even a dime if we collected enough for the abandoned bottles. Back in those days that was enough for a treat of some kind!
It was always a mystery to me as to why people would throw their bottles out the window. As a young boy, there was value to those bottles and yet people just tossed money alongside the road. Didn’t they understand the value of what they had?
Over the last several years I have had the opportunity to visit with lots of people who have something to share but they struggle to see the value in it. Many of them have even said to me, “I don’t think anyone else will see value in what I think I have to offer.” “Why would anyone want to hear my story or read my book idea?”
Fear plays a huge role in people not seeing their value for others. Fear causes people to throw their ideas out of their car windows, discarded on the roadside of life. It’s not uncommon for others to see the value in what one has to offer. Often the others, friends, family, co-workers, will even express it to the owner of the valued skill, talent or ability. Fear doesn’t listen and rolls down the window.
Have you been disposing of your talents and not sharing them with others? Do others see the value in what you have to offer and, yet, you do nothing about it? Don’t you understand the value of what you have?
Courage requires us to step into our fear. Courage requires us to embrace our gifts, talents and abilities recognizing these gifts aren’t for us but for those we encounter every day. Courage requires you to hang onto and share the value that is you.
In the words of e. e. cummings, “It takes courage to grow up and be who you really are.”
Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS day!
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