Because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something I can do. – Helen Keller – (1880-1968 – American author and educator.)
Blind and deaf since infancy, Helen Keller became one of the most inspirational icons of the 20th century. Yet we would never know about her were it not for the way her teacher, Anne Sullivan, awakened her gifts. Through a mix of prodding, encouragement and loving insight, Sullivan helped Keller unlock her enormous gifts for the world.
One of our greatest abilities is to awaken potential in others. The ways we do that inform us about how to awaken potential in ourselves….
Potential needs nurturing. The actions that grow the seed of potential include discipline, sincere
affirmation, and helping others recognize not only what gifts they
have, but how to use them. One of the best public speaking teachers I
ever encountered helped me and members of my staff improve our
presentations using just one of these gifts – affirmation. As each of us
presented speeches to him, he resisted all temptation to point out what
was wrong and only emphasized what we were doing well.
Lots of us get lost with this approach. We keep thinking it is our job to point out what fellow caregivers are doing wrong in ways that deflate the very person we are trying to help. The example of Anne Sullivan teaches us almost as much as the illustration of Helen Keller herself. Sullivan (left) never gave up. Like an obsessed gold prospector, she worked away until she found the gold in Helen and then helped her dazzle millions of others.
At the everyday example of the public speaking coach, I noticed that each of us was overusing the dreaded "vocal pause" in our presentations. This is the "and, ah," thing we mumble to fill the silence until we can think of the next word. It turns out that telling speakers not to do that can temporarily paralyze them so that they become self conscious and ineffective.
What a speaker needs most is confidence. I’m not talking about cockiness. I’m referring to our belief that we can be effective in presenting our ideas to an audience. When people add confidence to a reasonable amount of preparation, problems like vocal pauses typically fall away.
The best way to bring out potential in our fellow caregivers, our patients, our clients, children, or even our spouses, or for us to express respect and admiration for the various gifts we discern in others. My wife happens to be brilliant at this. She genuinely likes people and she is forever complimenting others on anything she notices. As a result, anyone lucky enough to be near her, especially including our kids and me, tend to glow in the light of her affirmation. She helps us realize our potential.
Affirmation and encouragement may sound like small things. But they make a world of difference in the Garden of Love.
How do you awaken the potential in those around you?
-Erie Chapman
Journal of Sacred Work 
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