117.Your Unique Power: 3 Ways To Tap Into Your Greatest Gifts

People so often say,

You know,

How do I find what I'm meant to do in this world?

Once I find what I'm meant to do,

Then I'll be happy.

And I always say,

No,

Go and do.

Go and explore.

Allow yourself to do everything.

Be hungry in that way.

And then once you're doing it,

Then it's revealed.

It's never like you're going to have your calling and then you're going to know.

It doesn't work like that.

Welcome to the Spiritually Hungry Podcast.

Live edition from Miami.

Very excited to be here.

We are going to start with some stories because Michael begs,

Begs and pleads for stories.

That's an inside joke for those of you.

So the first story is about a girl named Bailey.

Bailey?

Who lives in Oklahoma.

She lives with her parents and her two sisters.

And she loves to feel the wind on her back and in her face and all around her when she jumps on her trampoline.

She loves getting her nails done with her mom.

She loves playing baseball with her father.

And she's a happy girl.

What she doesn't love is school because it's very hard for her to read and to write.

And although what she has in common with her sisters is sneaking downstairs for midnight snacks.

By the way,

Our kids never did that.

I think they were too scared.

No,

They did.

I never did.

Right,

David?

By the way,

This is a true story.

We'll find out.

Why you always do that.

Let me tell the story and then I will tell you the punchline.

Will I know at the end of the story if it's live,

If it's real?

So her sisters love school.

And so she'd compare herself,

Why isn't she like them?

She really struggled with reading.

And she got the diagnosis of dyslexia.

And it didn't make her actually feel any better about her difference.

She just had a name for it now.

There's a really great child.

He's eight.

His name is Jake.

And he loves to play with his friends.

He loves to race.

Sometimes he's the fastest runner on the playground.

He loves pizza and hamburgers and ice cream.

He doesn't love celery that much or green beans.

Yuck.

But he gets on with all of his friends.

What his friends don't know is that he has a secret.

And the secret is that he can only see out of one of his eyes.

And more than that,

Not only can he just see out of one eye,

One eye is just completely missing and in place with the glass eye.

So he's worried that if his friends find out,

They will,

Say,

Do act in ways that make him feel hurt or uncomfortable or rejected.

So he lives with the secret.

There's another child named Caden.

And he is super gifted and smart.

And so smart,

He attends a special school for gifted children.

He's also deaf.

And he gets on with all of his friends.

They're very inclusive,

Very supportive.

But sometimes he feels left out.

For instance,

If a child who is out of his range of vision is telling a joke and he hasn't read his mouth or it's not in sign language and he sees everybody laughing and he doesn't know why,

It's a difference he's not really excited about.

Even though the whole class learned sign language to make him feel good,

On some level it bothered him that they had to learn it to make him feel good.

And all of these stories are true stories,

Michael.

These parents have written in and shared them with us.

And it's one of three of many,

Many stories that inspire me,

Continue to inspire me,

Hopefully inspire all of you.

And that's really what we set out to do with the book,

The Gift of Being Different,

Was to help people,

Children,

Parents who still have not accepted or felt comfortable with their differences,

To reframe them and to really use them as a source of strength and power.

Her logo agrees.

So I want to go back to Bailey,

Right?

The little girl with dyslexia.

If I could just add,

It's something we were actually talking a little bit about on the car ride over here,

Which those of you who are here know,

These aren't very short car rides from one place to the other.

And so I'll flower it up.

But that idea that,

You know,

There's many levels to accepting,

Right?

By the way,

I think that's only acceptable here because it's sunny and nice.

Like if you had to drive like that in New York,

Like it's like Florida,

Miami,

Boca,

It's all,

You know,

Just drive.

In New York,

You'd be like,

Pop the horn,

The crazy rage.

Anyway,

Maybe I didn't mind it because it was sunny and nice.

Yes.

That there's different levels of acceptance.

Person can even accept intellectually that this part of them that is different from everybody else is good,

Is okay.

What you're talking about,

And I think is both of the goal of the book and really a goal for each one of us in our lives,

Is to come to a place where we not only accept it or even feel that it's okay,

But we embrace it and are proud of it.

And that is a very long distance for most people to make from the part of them that they want to hide to the part of them that they then accept it.

But most importantly,

That actually embrace it and get proud of it.

And maybe this is something we're going to share,

But one of the things that always makes us exciting with Abigail is it has been a process for her as well to come first before diagnosis,

Then diagnosis of dyslexia,

Not only to accept it,

Not only to embrace it,

But to get to a place where she's proud of it.

And that I think is the ultimate place that we each need to get to with our own superpower.

And by the way,

Everybody,

If they ask themselves the question and they devote themselves to doing the work,

Has access to their superpower.

Often we wait for somebody to say,

Wow,

You're really powerful,

You're really amazing,

Or look how you do this or that.

It's up to us to identify what that is.

And we have access to it if we're willing to just be a little kinder to ourselves,

That voice in our head that says you're not good enough,

Or look how that person did it and you can't even do that.

And we attach all kinds of things to it,

Whether it's our age or whether it's our life situation or how our childhood,

Right?

That's why I can't do it.

And all of that is just a roadblock to success and to your ultimate strength.

Absolutely.

So back to Bailey.

So when she received the book,

Her mom read it first and Bailey was still at school and her mom cried and cried when she read the book.

And then when Bailey got home and her sister got home,

The older sister read the book to her and she started crying herself.

And her story is that in her school,

They said,

You know,

You're so,

You're unteachable basically.

They didn't have the wherewithal to help her and the support system in the school.

So they said,

You're really beyond the point of where we can help you.

So she thought she was stupid and she thought there was no way out of that.

When she read the book,

She ran around the house after she wiped the tears and she said,

Mama,

Mama,

There's someone just like me in the world,

There's someone just like me.

So Bailey now,

Like Abigail,

Is seeing her difference as a superpower and she's using it as a source of strength.

Jake,

Until now,

Every time he had a gymnastics lesson,

A soccer lesson,

The mom would quietly go over to whisper to the teacher saying,

You know,

He can't see out of his right eye.

So just be careful.

Make sure you know you're aware of that.

After the mother read the book,

She sat down with Jake and she said,

You know,

I think maybe if you feel that you need support,

Why don't you tell the teacher or the instructor if you feel like you need that extra help or that they need to have that awareness.

So he started to do that.

And then after that felt really good,

He decided to take the book to school.

He read it to the whole class.

And after he read the book to the class,

He told them all about his superpower,

Which is that he has a glass eye.

And they were so inclusive.

They were so accepting and he now it's just part of who he is.

And it's amazing.

And that wow,

With one eye,

He can do what people can do with two eyes.

And I think that's so,

Like Monica said,

These are two of the stories that came since the book came out.

But really what it does and what's so beautiful is that it gives children,

But even adults,

Right,

The courage to really embrace those parts of us that are different or even challenging at times.

And it's something,

And again,

We have the merit to meet people at different stages of their lives.

I can't even count the amount of adults,

And adults,

I mean,

Even people in their 70s and 80s who are still carrying with them,

Even into their 80s,

Something that challenged them when they were a child,

Something that challenged them 60 years ago.

And I think maybe one of the greatest gifts of this book and really the work,

The spiritual work in general is to take all of that previous pain or challenge,

And not only become accepting of it,

But really embrace it with joy.

And again,

We've seen it.

And again,

I think to think about the story with Jake,

We both actually know the family and we know the child.

A child at that age to have the courage to again,

To not only share it with his class,

But also to really see it as something that makes him better,

That makes him stronger.

It's really beautiful to see.

I think that people make the mistake in life that they're going to grow out of their situation or their feelings like,

Oh,

You know,

When you turn 40,

Then,

You know,

You're not going to accept things you used to accept.

That's some level of it.

But if you want to really like take it off the charts next level,

You need to say,

Okay,

This is who I am.

And the parts that you said were not okay about me or that other person gave me a look when I,

I mean,

People have actually said to me that,

Why did you have the audacity to have an opinion when nobody else had one?

I mean,

I've had people tell me that and I'm like,

Well,

You're miserable and I'm not.

Imagine if you had actually had your own opinion,

You'd be so happy today.

Right?

So I think that,

Again,

It's just to go to that place of what is it that I'm so afraid that if people see they're going to reject me,

That's an indication of where you need to start in revealing your superpower.

And then we go to Caden and the special boy with a hearing impairment.

And he came up with a great list of his own of what his superpowers are.

And that is that,

Well,

We can't communicate underwater.

He can sign.

He can also sign with his puppy,

Ricky,

Which is awesome.

He can sleep without any interruptions.

Pretty awesome.

Don't get annoyed by the cell phone.

Pretty cool also.

That's very cool.

I'd like to see that list.

Isn't that right?

Pretty amazing.

And I think when we think about superpowers,

Right,

I'm sure maybe now at this point,

Some of you are thinking like,

Well,

What's my superpower?

You know,

And I shared a little earlier,

Like I get that question all the time.

What's your superpower?

And mine doesn't sound like quite as obvious.

Perfectionism,

Empathy,

And I can unpack those,

But perfectionism sounds really great.

Like wow,

You're perfect.

Who doesn't want to be perfect?

It's impossible.

It's a really a dead end.

And it's a great path to misery because you're never going to achieve what you're trying to achieve.

And it was really almost the end of me because I like to do everything fully and completely and wholly.

So having something like an eating disorder and being a perfectionist is a really bad thing if you're trying to meet that goal.

But if you transform it to a superpower,

Then you can say,

OK,

While perfect is ridiculous,

I'm going to live a messy life,

But I'm going to put that discipline of taking it as far as I can.

Right?

There's still a part of that energy if you translate it and change it to positive,

It's very powerful.

In terms of empathy,

Growing up,

I felt very judged and very misunderstood.

And I didn't feel like anybody really understood what I was going through.

And I could have chosen to be a victim about it,

Or I could choose to change that and say,

OK,

I don't need approval.

I don't need to be recognized.

I only need to hear myself.

But then I wanted to offer that to other people.

So superpower.

But when we think about superpowers,

We often go to Superman.

He can leap tall buildings in a single leap.

He can jump.

Right?

He can…Spider-Man can throw webs from his fingers.

I mean,

But you remember in the movie,

Right?

At first it was very messy.

He's like hitting himself in the head.

He's falling on his head too.

And then he mastered that.

Or if you think about Luke Skywalker,

He's a Jedi master who can really wield a lightsaber without…like it's nobody's business.

But superpowers really are the places that we won't look,

The places that we're uncomfortable with.

It's where we are most unique and most different.

So I want you to take a moment and just think about what is your superpower?

How are you different and how do you feel about being different?

And if you had pen and paper,

I would have you write that down.

I do not want you to take your phones out because you'll be so distracted that I won't get you back here.

But just think about that for a moment because that's how change really occurs.

Right.

And not necessarily one thing,

But like you said,

I think it has to be something that initially you might have perceived as… As the worst thing.

As the worst thing or a challenge.

So and then I would love volunteers,

By the way.

Sorry.

For our listeners and also everybody here with us in Miami to really think about it because before we give them that moment to think,

One of the most important Kabbalistic teachings is that each one of us is unique.

And that uniqueness comes with a responsibility that the world has waited for millions of years for me,

For you to come into this world.

And the reason it was so important that I come into this world or that each one of us comes into this world is not to do what others do,

Not to do even better what others do,

But to reveal that unique light that has never been before and can never be after me.

And if you look at your life in that way,

Right,

Because it's so easy for us to get lost in the stream of everybody else.

Oh,

Everybody else is doing this.

I'm going to do this better.

I'm going to find a way to do this even better.

That's by the way,

Okay to do in many areas of our lives.

But when it comes to the core of who we are and the core of the reason for which we came into this world,

We must discover what is unique about me and endeavor to reveal that because that's the only reason I'm here.

But that's the thing,

Right?

It's going,

The thing that's most powerful about each of us is going to be the most concealed because that's the work we've come to do.

Like if you look at a diamond,

Right,

It doesn't come out shining and beautiful and something you want to wear or look at.

It comes really concealed,

Ugly covered,

And you have to go through great force and pressure to transform into something else.

And that's really a great metaphor for what we're supposed to do.

Because as you're saying,

The thing that is most unique,

Most great,

Our brightest light that exists within each person has to be covered and it's our life's work to reveal that.

Right.

So I know we're going to share a little bit about how to discover that and reveal it,

But I do want to underscore this point because I think you might've heard this before.

You might've heard it tonight for the first time or our listeners here for the first time,

But it's a difference,

Huge difference between knowing that or hearing that and truly embracing that.

The fact that what I have to bring into this world is something that can never be brought by anybody else of the billions of souls that have lived or that will ever live.

And I think maybe one of the most important starting points to begin to both ascertain what is my superpower and then most importantly endeavor to reveal it is to really,

Really accept that I am so unique that no soul like me has ever existed or can ever exist and that I must make sure that whatever that uniqueness is about me,

And we call it our superpower and we understand that it comes from those parts of us that are,

As you said,

Concealed,

Challenging.

That has to be our life's work amongst everything else important that we do.

That's why I love stories.

Like I'm thinking about Harry Potter or any,

You're always going to have the opposition you're going to have to go to the places that scare you,

Right?

It's like go to that dark place,

Open the dark door where the dragons and there's a hole in the ground or whatever.

And then when you do that,

Then the light's revealed.

Suddenly you understand.

It's the same thing with our process in life.

We have to go to the places that scare us.

We have to be willing to see the parts of ourselves that we really feel uncomfortable about,

Insecure about,

Have self-doubt about and say,

Okay,

Well,

That,

That is the light,

Right?

That is the way,

That's the path that's,

That's showing me which way to turn.

And once you go there,

Even though it's scary,

Even though it's uncomfortable,

Even though you will be full of doubt in that way,

Know that it's an opening for you to reveal the beauty that resides inside of you that you're meant to show to the world.

It's like people so often say,

You know,

How do I find what I'm meant to do in this world?

Once I find what I'm meant to do,

Then I'll be happy.

And I always say,

No,

Go and do,

Go and explore.

Allow yourself to do everything,

Be hungry in that way.

And then once you're doing it,

Then it's revealed.

It's never like you're going to have your calling and then you're going to know.

It doesn't work like that.

You have to absolutely go to those places that are the most difficult,

Most terrifying that you're kind of curious about.

And keep going back there,

Right?

You can do it once,

Right?

We're going to get to that.

No.

But to keep going back there.

That's the problem.

Most people try once,

They fail.

Even I spoke to somebody today,

He's like,

You know,

If he was quoting Thomas Edison,

Which I've quoted also,

I think he failed like 149 times or something.

And the 150th,

Then he was like,

Okay,

Most of us,

This guy said six times and he was like,

Oh,

It's just not for me.

I failed six times.

Clearly I'm not meant to do this in this world.

No.

It's like a trick that happens.

But does anybody have their superpower identified now?

You want somebody to share?

I always want somebody to share.

I'm also dyslexic and the way I compensated as a child was I became very visual and very creative as a result.

And I think of ways to do things that most people don't initially see.

So I think out of the side of the box.

Beautiful.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

People want to share more,

They'll just step in.

I think where we were going with that process is something called tikkun.

And I know that those who are familiar with Kabbalah understand what tikkun is,

But maybe not in the sense of a superpower.

But we'll just start with this.

In life,

Right,

If you're in a relationship and you want to exit the relationship because it's that person's fault,

You're not happy,

Then you start the next relationship and what do you know?

You're in the relationship with a different person,

But same story.

Or you have a job and you don't like being micromanaged and you feel like you can't explore and then you go to a different job and there you find the same story again.

And so tikkun we understand to be something we definitely need.

It's super uncomfortable and it's a story that follows us throughout our lives until we demand something else and we create something else from that.

And it leads straight into superpowers because that's basically what a superpower is.

Absolutely.

It goes back to what we were saying before about it being that part of us that we initially see as a challenge or even as a negative.

There's a very important teaching that says that in our lives,

You know,

There's two forces in the world and in each one of us,

One that is pushing us to grow and to reveal ourselves or light to the world,

And the other one that's trying to hinder us,

That's trying to stop us from revealing our light.

And the Kabbalists teach that that negative force will allow us to do everything,

Even important things,

Even positive things.

There's only one thing that it will fight with all of its might against and that is to reveal what is unique to me.

So sometimes,

You know,

Even those of us,

You know,

Most of us are good people,

We're trying to do good things and we will gravitate towards the easier positive things to do,

The easier things to accomplish.

And just shy away,

Just one thing.

You know,

I can look at my life,

I've done a million things,

There's just one thing I just don't want to touch,

One area of myself that I don't want to enter.

And it's the most important necessary.

Not only is it the most important,

It's that it's the only point.

It's the only reason you came.

Yeah,

And the reason it can be so confusing is a person can look at their life and say,

Look at all this,

I'm doing so much,

I've accomplished this and I've accomplished that.

That's not the question of the soul.

The question of the soul is that unique thing that must be a challenge for you.

Have you attacked that?

And that is going to be the most challenging,

That is going to be the most difficult,

But it's going to be the only purpose for which we came into this world.

And the Kabbalists often refer to that process that the soul goes through when it leaves this world and questions that are asked.

It's important to remind ourselves,

You know,

Sometimes,

You know,

There's that concept of memento mori where sometimes it is inspiring to think about leaving this physical world.

And again,

The Czar and the Kabbalists speak about the questions that our soul will be asked,

Which are really questions that we're going to be asking ourselves.

And the first question is,

Not how many good things have you done,

Not how much have you accomplished.

One question.

That part of you,

We call it Kabbalistically Tikkun,

Or very simply put,

That part of me that was the most challenging.

I had a conversation this night,

Tonight with one of our friends,

And he was sharing that that anger was a big part of his Tikkun.

And it's so inspiring through coming to study Kabbalah,

He's working on that part of himself to know that,

Again,

Each one of us has one,

At least one,

If not more than one,

Tremendously difficult aspects within ourselves.

But let's not fool ourselves by thinking,

I'm a good person,

I'm even a spiritual person,

I do so many good things.

That's great.

That's not the point.

The point for which I am in this world is that part of me that is the most scary,

That is the most difficult,

And to transform that.

And the revelation of light for myself,

And therefore blessings that come from that for myself and for the world,

Is immeasurably greater than all the other important and positive things that I do.

Again,

Always remember,

That negative force that resides within each one of us will allow us to do many,

Many,

Many positive things.

But it will fight with all of its might to just say,

Just don't touch that,

Or ignore that,

It's too dark,

It's too difficult,

It's too challenging.

No.

That's why I'm in this world,

That's why each one of us is in this world.

And really the world is waiting.

The world has been waiting for billions,

Who knows how many,

Billions of years for me to reveal that unique thing.

Why do I want to waste my life being good?

Why do I want to waste my life doing all these other things?

Let me focus on that,

What we call tikkun,

Or that part of me that needs to be transformed,

With I think we'll talk about it a little bit more,

Difficult work going back to that darkness,

Going back to that challenge.

It's so interesting because I think that if anybody looks at their lives,

Right,

I mean even people who come and study Kabbalah or find a spiritual practice,

It's for that one area of tikkun that's really bothering them that they need help with.

And then we kind of negotiate with ourselves,

Right,

All these other areas of my life are working.

I'm successful here,

I'm successful there,

I'm like,

This one area,

So it has to be that person or that thing.

And maybe I should just stop doing it or I should avoid it.

But in fact,

If you go all the way with it,

If you really delve deep and you're like,

I'm going to work this out no matter what in this lifetime,

What happens is you become the person you've always been looking for.

You become the person you were meant to be,

And it's not ever outside of you.

That change,

That superpower,

That thing that you want resides within,

And the only way to find it,

The only way is to go to the place of your tikkun,

To go to that hardest part,

The biggest challenge,

The most pain that you have felt throughout your life or the biggest part of your life.

Everybody has it.

Everybody has that story.

You can blame your mother-in-law,

You can blame your third grade teacher,

You can blame your childhood or where you were born,

Whatever it is.

But when you go to that place,

The place that is,

If I just could remove this one thing from my life,

Then everything would be great.

Touch that,

Unpack that,

Own that,

And then you start living the life you were meant to.

It's very important,

There's a quote from the founder of the center,

Ravashalak,

That I often quote,

But it's a very important one for all of us to keep reminding ourselves,

Certainly those of us who take our spiritual lives seriously.

He says that out of a thousand people,

Oh sorry,

Is that something you were going to say?

I'm sorry.

Yeah,

But go ahead.

Too late now.

Out of a thousand people.

That was in my conclusion.

Oh,

Sorry.

So in conclusion.

No,

No,

No,

Go ahead.

Out of a thousand people who begin the spiritual path,

Only one in a thousand completes it.

What that means is that the other 999,

Many of them will continue to see themselves as spiritual.

Many of them will continue to do positive things.

Just that one thing,

That one thing.

And I was thinking as you were talking,

You know,

We know many people and we often have these conversations.

Imagine somebody who's been studying on this path for 20 years and if they did an honest self-assessment or a relatively honest,

I would say,

They would have a list of all the great things that they're doing,

All the great things that they've done.

They just will not go to that one place.

And like Monica said,

And I think this is so important to understand,

So often people come to us and say,

I have this blockage in my life.

I don't know why.

Every day,

Somebody comes to me and says,

You know,

I don't know why.

There's this one area of my life that doesn't seem to work.

There's this one area of my life that doesn't seem to manifest.

It's usually this one person.

Oh yes,

It can come in the form of a person.

And if we understand that the solution to all of our problems,

To all those areas in our lives that have a lack,

Is not anywhere out there.

It's within me and specifically I need to focus on that one part of me,

My greatest challenge,

My greatest darkness,

My greatest difficulty and work on that.

That will open up all the gates.

That will open up all the gates.

So a big part of what we're talking about requires perseverance.

And I think very often,

Again,

Maybe tonight you're like,

Okay,

This is my superpower.

Now I've identified it and so I'm changed.

Change requires a re-choosing over and over again until it becomes your nature.

It becomes part of who you are.

It's not something that happens overnight.

And even with Abigail and this process,

It wasn't,

She made the switch very quickly.

In fact,

After we had the conversation about what her diagnosis was,

The next,

Maybe two days later,

She went around to everybody she knew and she's like,

Guess what?

I have a superpower.

It's dyslexia.

What's yours?

All in one breath.

But it's still a re-choosing,

Right?

Because there'll be some days that some things are challenging for her.

But Abigail,

Can I invite you up for a second?

I have a question for you.

Welcome,

Welcome.

Welcome.

So I know you've done a lot of the work we've talked about tonight.

And I wonder,

Because again,

It's a constant choice to be able to feel really strong about the hard parts of our life.

Do you still ever struggle with self-doubt?

And if you do,

Maybe you don't,

But if you do,

How do you handle that?

Well,

I think before I definitely did.

But now that I know it's a superpower and I feel good about it,

I don't think I haven't.

Like,

I just think I'm always like,

Sometimes I do struggle with words and stuff,

But I just keep persevering.

And I don't think negative thoughts about myself.

You know,

You really inspired me.

Do you remember when you had your friend Sarah over and she goes to a different school and you both had homework and you had math homework and she didn't understand her homework and you're like,

Oh yeah,

I don't do that kind of math,

But let's call my older sister and she'll help you.

Oh yeah.

And you had no.

.

.

I remember when I was Abigail's age,

I was like,

Oh my gosh,

She's doing different math than me.

What does that mean about.

.

.

What does that say about me?

Right away it was a comparison.

I was so impressed that you were like,

Yeah,

I don't know.

That's not the math I do.

And then now you do,

Right?

And now she does different stuff,

But it wasn't a big deal for you.

Yeah,

But my friend didn't even know.

She's like,

Can you help me with this?

I was like,

I don't really understand it,

But we can ask my sister.

Yeah.

Do you have any questions for me or Abba or the audience?

I know I do.

First.

Oh,

How do you think of your ideas for the podcast?

That's a good question,

Little one.

I think I kind of know.

What do you think?

Well,

I feel like it's like how we wrote the book because we had something to say and then we shared it with the world because we thought other people needed that book too.

The stories you were sharing about the kids,

They needed that book and we put it for them.

So that's why you do this podcast because you know that people need it.

Word.

Yeah.

Couldn't say it any better myself.

Thank you,

Abigail.

Thank you.

Beautiful.

So.

In conclusion.

Before your conclusion,

I just want to add to what you're talking about.

Add away.

Add two things,

Maybe three.

Uh,

No,

Just one.

Perseverance.

I mentioned before,

The founder of the Center of Ashlag says the two quotes that I keep in mind almost every single day.

The first is the concept,

One in a thousand.

The second,

What he calls the word,

The ancient in the Hebrew is Yegiyah.

And that is hard work.

And if we talk about our superpower,

We talk about Atikun,

We talk about that unique light that I and every single one of us has to bring to this world.

It has to be found in the most difficult parts of us.

And second,

It has to be worked on with perseverance every single day.

And unless we do that and really invest the time and effort,

And it could be frustrating,

It could be scary,

But to keep going back and finding the light within our challenge,

Then it's so easy to veer off.

Like I said before,

We've seen too many people who can continue to be spiritual,

Just don't get either tired,

Lose their perseverance,

And keep on going inside to that area one or two or whatever they are,

That number is,

Of ourselves that need to be transformed for me to reveal my unique light.

And I think we all have to ask ourselves that question.

We asked before,

What is my superpower?

What is that part of me that is most difficult,

That scares me,

That is,

To me,

Seeming to be my greatest challenge?

And then the more,

Maybe more second,

Maybe more important question,

What am I doing every single day to make sure that I am transforming that,

That I am able to truly reveal that as a greater and greater superpower all the time?

Too often,

Again,

We even know it in the back of our mind,

We get tired,

Other things are much easier to do.

Like I said before,

I think it's so important.

This is the way I frame it for myself.

I don't want to waste my life.

And even though I know that I will do very important things with my life,

That is not why I'm here.

I need to keep going back to find that part of me that needs to be transformed,

That part of me that can continue to be my superpower and persevere again and again until it is completely transformed.

Well,

The Kotzker Rebbe said that people,

I think it's a parable,

People come down on a ladder.

One of my favorite stories,

Yes.

Sure.

And then.

.

.

Nobody gets your humor,

You get.

.

.

They get my humor.

They misunderstand you through my humor,

But they get my humor.

So they come down on a ladder and then when they're born,

They fall off the ladder.

And our job and our responsibility in this world is to keep jumping up to try to reach the ladder.

So some people jump 10 times and then they give up.

Some people jump 99 times and they give up.

Some people jump 999 times,

10,

000 times.

But it's those unique souls that jump and jump and jump again no matter how much that really get to where they need to.

And the whole idea,

Again,

It's perseverance,

But it's if you want to live,

It's not that you have found something that doesn't work for you anymore or,

Yeah,

You know,

You're tired of this and that.

It's how many times are you willing to jump to get to the place that you were always meant to get to?

And there's no shortcuts for that.

It's re-choosing every single day.

And there's a quote by Orison Swett Marden.

He says,

Success is not measured by what you accomplish,

But by the opposition you have encountered and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.

Exactly.

And if I can also just leave everybody here and all of our listeners with this idea that every single one of us,

And this is maybe the most basic teachings of Kabbalah,

Are meant to experience life with endless blessings in all areas.

And again,

I shared this maybe a few weeks ago,

That there's a story about,

This goes back a few thousand years to King Solomon,

And he needed to get the assistance,

This is the story as it's told,

Of the king of all the negative spirits.

His name was Ashmedai.

And he's captured and brought to King Solomon,

But on the path,

The King Solomon's soldiers,

A general who's bringing him,

They experience certain things.

And they walk by this guy who's a magician,

A sorcerer,

And he's telling everybody,

I can see into the future,

If you want to know your future,

Come to me,

I can create magic.

And as Ashmedai walks past him,

He starts laughing.

Anyway,

They keep walking,

And once they come to King Solomon,

The general goes back to Ashmedai,

This master of all the spirits,

And he says to him,

When we walked by,

He asked him many questions,

One of them was,

They walked by a cobbler who had a man in his store,

And the man said to the cobbler,

He said,

These shoes that you make for me,

I want them to last at least seven years,

And you laughed.

He says,

Why did you laugh?

He says,

That poor man is not even going to live another seven days,

And he's busy preparing shoes for seven years.

And then he says,

We walked by that sorcerer who was telling everybody he can see into the future,

And you started laughing.

He says,

Why did you laugh?

He says,

That guy was sitting,

His home was on top of a great treasure that the king had lost there.

So if he can see so well,

He doesn't even see what's under his feet,

He's going to tell the future for everybody else.

And that is the understanding of our gift,

Our superpower,

Our tikkun,

As we call it.

We do not need to go anywhere,

Anywhere outside of ourselves,

To be able to open up those gates of endless blessings that we are meant to experience.

It's all in here.

But it's specifically,

Specifically,

As we find and transform and persevere and embrace that part of us that is most challenging,

That opens up all the gates,

That opens up all the blessings.

So as I always say,

I hope you enjoyed listening to all of our friends here in the room,

All of our friends who will listen to this online,

Enjoyed this podcast as much as we enjoyed recording it.

And again,

Thank you to all of our friends here.

We really appreciate all of your support for coming out to be with us this evening.

And we hope we've shared some inspiration and light and in some way we all transform a little bit from this evening.

So thank you.

Stay spiritually hungry.

Thank you.