Video Transcript: Your Talents are Seeds (Dr. Raimondo)

Hi, I'm Dr. Anthony Raimondo. And this is a coaching course, for your golden  years to get a coaching badge from CLI. Now, on our introductory video, I talked about talents. And I gave you a little history about how a particular talent of mine was developed. But today, I want you to think about your talent, not only as it's  your something to do, but I want you to think of it as a seed. But before we go  into that, some of you may have worked your whole entire career, maybe in a  job you didn't like, but you did it anyway. Maybe it was because the commute  was easy, maybe because the pay was right. Maybe it was something that you  needed to do to support your family. And you were content with just doing that  job, regardless of the fact that you weren't really happy at it, because you  weren't really able to use your talent. And that's what we're going to talk about  today is your talent is also a seed. That's right, a seed. And I want you to think  about that for a moment that your talent is a seed. Now, what do you been doing with that talent? Have you like the gentleman in the from Matthew, the servant  who buried his talent, because he was afraid of losing it? Because it belonged to his master, his boss, and he didn't want to lose his boss's money. So he buried  it. And he made a big mistake, because he could have gotten it some interest.  Now, do you have a talent that you're not being that you're not using that you've  buried? Now God gives you a talent, he wants you to use it. Like in the case of  those servants who did and doubled their talent, we talked about that, already.  So now I want you to think of your talent as a seed. And what are you doing with that seed? So what kind of a talent do you have? What kind of seeds? Or seed? Do you have? Do you have a seed of art? Do you have a seed for science? Do  you have a seed for people skills? Do you have the seed of kindness? Do you  have a seed of compassion? Do you have a seed of generosity? What type of  seed Do you have? All right, we're looking at the seed. And I asked you that  question, what kind of seed Do you have? And maybe now you're starting to  think a little bit about your seeds. Now, during your working years, were you  planting your seeds? Or not? Were you using your talents or not? Or were you  trying to plant seeds that you don't have? Or were you trying to plant a seed and getting a different result? For example, you have a handful of corn seeds, and  you put them in the ground and you're waiting for them to grow. And do you  expect tomatoes? If you're planting for example, now, let's say you're you arrive  to work generally five or six minutes late every day. So you're planting a seed of  lateness. Do you expect good results from being late? Do you result that you do  you expect good results that your boss is gonna like the fact that you're late? So you're planting one seed and you're looking for a different result. Have you been doing that during your work years? Have you done that? Now that you're, Now  that you're not working and you're retired, hopefully, that's why you're listening to this video. And you have a handful of seeds. Now maybe you've never used  those seeds for whatever reason, you never planted those seeds. Therefore,  you never got a crop. Maybe you had those seeds, and you didn't plant them. 

And therefore you didn't get any result at all, because you you can't have  something if you don't plant. I can't get tomatoes, if I don't plant tomato seeds. I  can't get squash if I don't plant squash seeds. So I might have a backyard and it  might be really nice. And I want all kinds of flowers back there. But if I don't plant flowers, I'm not getting any. Now, you may sit there and go. Well, you know, God could plant flowers there. Yeah, I mean, he could cause a miracle for flowers to  grow. But he's not because he needs a gardener. Because he needs a gardener. That's after all, why he plant put he planted Adam in the garden to maintain his  garden. So God planted a seed. That seed was Adam, to plant trees, or what to  maintain the trees, the shrubs, the grass, the flowers in the garden. Put them  there, he planted them there so that he could name the animals. So God planted Adam, what are you planting? What have you been planting? Think about that.  What have you been planting? Now I'm sure that some of you know what your  talent is. And maybe you've had a hobby. Maybe you've been working for 25-30  years. And in the meantime, you had a hobby. You love to take pictures. Maybe  you had a hobby where you were a birdwatcher. Maybe you had a hobby of  painting. Maybe you had a hobby of woodworking. Maybe you had a hobby in  your garage where you made furniture. I don't know, there's lots of hobbies out  there. Maybe you're someone who knitted, crocheted. Maybe you make quilts.  Maybe you love to cook. Maybe you made wine every year, for your own  enjoyment. And maybe you did all these things, you had these hobbies that you  had. And you did it because you enjoy doing it. You found some peace and  relaxation from your daily work. Maybe you really didn't like your job. Maybe you didn't like your boss. But when you came home, and you were tinkering with  something that you really love to do. It gave you a sense of peace and  enjoyment. Now, that's wonderful. And now you're retired. And maybe, hopefully, like myself, you're doing more of that hobby. Now. I don't know if you've ever  heard the expression. And but sometimes you might hear this, or maybe you  heard of it. Some people might say, you know, I love my I love what I do so  much that I would still do it, even if I didn't get paid. And there are people out  there fortunately got God bless them that they are working their hobby. And their hobby is a job that created an income for them all their life. And you may be  somebody like that, maybe you're not. But now here we are. You're 55 years old. You've been working at a job maybe for 30 years, or maybe 25. And you're able  to retire out at 25 or 30 years old and get a pension. Maybe you're older than  that you're 65 and now you have your pension and your Social Security. And you you're done with work. You've had you've had a career whether you liked it or  not. And now you find yourself with a lot of free time. Now I mentioned that time  is also a seed. Yes, it's a seed that you plant that time for something. Do you  use that time for something? Or are you just sitting around watching TV, or  listening to the same news story day after day after day, and accomplishing  nothing except maybe worrying about the future of the of the world of the 

economy of whatever. Instead, you could be working your hobby, your talent,  your seed, you could be doing something with that seed. So maybe you've had  a hobby. And now you have an opportunity to do something more with that  hobby. For example, I like to write. So since I'm retired now, for 10 years, I've  written three books, three, fiction, part of a series. And I've written three or four  books on nonfiction. One of them is called our story lives, which deals with a  theme. And a theme could be your seed. So I've written something about this.  And I've written fiction. And I've written a number. And I've written a book about  faith, having faith, and having and challenging yourself to build that faith. So I've  these are some of the things that I've done. As I'm retired, I've also been  involved in Toastmasters International. I've taken courses here at CLI I  mentioned that already, I accumulated 61 credits, I have a I think, a GPA of 3.6.  And this is what I've been doing with my time and my talents. I that I enjoy. And  I'm asking you to examine yourself to see are you working your talent? Or not? If you are, how much time are you investing in it? What are you doing with it? Are  you enjoying it? Are you happy that you have this opportunity to to work that  hobby that you've liked that you've enjoyed all your life? Maybe you've had,  you've had the pleasure of liking something, but you never had the opportunity  to paint maybe you said to yourself, gee, I wish I had the time to paint. Or  maybe you said I wish I had the time to take pictures. Or maybe you wished I  had time to go hiking, I don't know, whatever. Maybe you had an inkling to do  something, but you just never had the time to do whatever it is that's in your  heart. So now I'm asking you to examine that. If you haven't done something  you enjoyed, is it time to start doing something? If you have had a hobby that  you enjoyed? Are you doing more with it? These are some of the things I'd like  you to think about. As we move through this course about your golden years.  And what you're doing with that time, God has given you some time to now do  something and that time is precious, and you have an opportunity to do  something with time. So you're asking yourself What should I do with my time?  Or you may be saying, I don't have any time for myself. I'm retired, and I still  don't have any time for myself. I have all these chores around the house I have  to do. I gotta go shopping. I gotta get prepared dinner. I got the laundry. I don't  know. I got to work in the yard. This thing's broke. I got to fix this. The kids  always need something. I'm always they always want. I gotta give them a hand  here or there. I never have any time for myself. On the other hand, maybe you're you have plenty of time. Are you sitting around doing nothing? And you don't  know what to do with your time. But you know, if you're in your golden years,  and you're, you know, retired, and you're somewhere, you know, maybe you're  60 or older, you really don't have a lot of time left. I'm 70 years old right now.  And my mother died at 68. My father was 72. So, how much time do I have left?  10 years 20, maybe max, you don't know, time is running out, we only have a  certain amount of time. So this little time that we have right now, this little time 

that we have in our golden years? What do you want to do with it? How do you  want to plant this seed called? Time? What do you want to do with this seed?  Now you've got the seed of time, you got to seed of talent? Maybe you got a  seed of finance? Maybe you got a seed of something else? Maybe you got it. So you got a bunch of seeds. Now what are you gonna do with these seeds? And  you know, you got to do something, you can't hang on to them. They don't grow  anything if you don't do anything with them. And you only have a little time to do  it in. So what are you going to do with your time? How are you going to spend  your time? And if you're already busy? How can you organize your time, so that  you do have a little time for yourself, so that you do have a little time for that  hobby, so that you do have a little time to enjoy it? So and then sometimes you  might have to say no to someone because you need a little time for yourself. So  you have the seed of time? What are you going to do with the seed of time,  along with your seed of talent? So that's your homework assignment, to think  about how you're going to use your time diligently. In other words, how am I best going to use my time? How can I best use the seed of time? And I want you to  think about a talent and how can you work that talent along with your time? Until next time, do some thinking about time