Case Study One – Positivity and Creativity
Over the recent years of coaching, I have often found myself coaching individuals who have the Talent of Positivity. I would regularly ask about their conversations with others as well as their own internal conversations with themselves. There was regularly some disparity between these two areas.
Those being coached often had great reserves of encouragement and uplifting thoughts when working with or caring for others who were facing great challenges. But, when it came to themselves, they were less likely to have the same level of positivity in their internal conversations.
In unpacking this concern in the early days, I seemed to stumble across an odd connection, where many people who had the Talent of Positivity also had a clear creative gifting. The issue that came to the surface time after time was that they had allowed this gifting to drift and dwindle, to the point where it no longer played any significant part in their world.
Taking time to encourage each one to pick up on their creativity, and more importantly to just do it as an act of care from themselves produced remarkable results, with over 90% of those involved reporting a significant improvement in their “self-talk” soon after recommending using their creative gifting.
In reflecting on this I recognize that the conversations were rarely as simple as the description above, in fact, they often took a considerable time of listening, questions, and silence to get to the point where the opportunity to consider this change was acceptable.
In summary then, there can at times in my opinion, be a clear connection between self-talk and using our creative giftings.