Dondi Scumaci Blog

A moving video clip has me thinking today about “Playing to Our Strengths.” (I’ll share the link with you in just a moment, if you’d like to watch.) It’s an inspiring story about a service dog, trained from birth to do a particular job – a job he wasn’t entirely suited for. When he finds his service “niche,” the results are beyond awesome!

The same thing can happen to people. If we find ourselves in a bad fit, it’s like wearing shoes that pinch your toes. Off we go scrunching our toes – focused more on what is uncomfortable than on what is possible. All the training in the world won’t make those shoes fit better.

Sometimes I ask audience members, “If you could be any animal, what would you choose…and why?” It’s an interesting question; sometimes the responses are quite profound.

My favorite comes from a gentleman in Dallas. He said, “I’d choose the mountain goat. They are strong and surefooted. They go where others can’t or won’t.  Most of all they enjoy it! Mountain goats love to do what they are built for…they love to climb.”

I would love to hear how you are playing to your strengths. What are you doing to find your service niche?

As promised, here’s the video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGODurRfVv4

Remember you were designed for success and built to grow!

All the best,

Dondi

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Every Spring, my parents travel from Oregon to Texas for a visit. This has become such a tradition for our family – we block the calendars a year in advance to protect those dates. When they finally arrive, we celebrate the victories, tell wonderful stories and laugh long into the night. Every year their visit leaves something behind. Something beyond precious.

This year, my father repaired our gates.

We worked for hours he and I – much of the time in contented silence. To be there – working together was enough. There are moments I captured in my mind – like snapshots. I will never forget them. Watching him work with his baseball cap tilted off to one side, thinking how he has always been able to build anything and fix everything.  Seeing his once young hands, older now. Knowing that it causes him pain to stand for a long time on knees that are weary. Drinking strong coffee and wanting to hold onto the moment forever.

Gates are a mighty metaphor, representing what we let in and what we keep out of our lives. Gates protect what we care about. They are the boundaries we set and the invitations we make. As we worked, I thought about the “virtual” gates in my life. I  wondered about the condition of those. What am I allowing? What am I blocking? What have I locked out, and what have I locked in?

Winter has come. Each time I swing those gates open, I see my father’s face. And each time I close them I am grateful again. As a child, he was a larger-than-life-hero. Some things don’t change, even when you are all grown up with gates of your own.

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