He looked me straight in the eye and told me I was squandering my gifts.

I wasn’t surprised by this observation. I knew I wasn’t working up to my potential and that I had gotten lazy. I knew what I should be doing, I knew of the possibilities and opportunities that were right there in front of me – but I was just hanging back, wasting time. Squandering the potential that was waiting to be tapped.

Am I the only one? I’m afraid not.

It’s no secret we are all created with gifts and talents that are unique to each person, and certainly not everyone works up to their potential. Some never even come close to tapping into the greatness that is waiting just around the corner.

Instead, we waste time doing ordinary, mundane tasks instead of setting aside or carving out time during the week to work on that which stirs up our passion and catapults us into an exciting, fulfilling and contributing life.

Many of us live on a farm and we wake up every day to a monumental schedule of things that seem to scream in our ear. We can’t hear the calling that rolls around in our mind because of the urgency of what has to be done in a day.

We go from job to job hoping to get things crossed off the “To-Do” list. We move from baking cookies for the class birthday party to canning the last of the tomatoes in our weed-filled gardens. We have too much on our plates to even think about something we want to do, or something that would fortify our self-confidence and provide that pleasing feeling deep down inside.

But the passion for our calling just keeps being stirred up.

You think about it while you’re waiting in the skid steer. It pops into your head on your way to your off-farm job. It tugs at you while you’re watching the cows for heat.

Instead of pushing it aside and telling yourself you’ll get to it, at some point you have to make time to do that thing that makes you feel whole. You need to attend to that thing that if you don’t do it, you feel as if you’re doing something wrong.

Why?

Because, it doesn’t just affect you; people around you are waiting to be influenced by it. Maybe your contribution will affect thousands – and maybe you’re only going to influence your 15-year-old son. Either way, whatever it is, you have no idea how far and wide it will go to affect others.

Tap into that potential. Don’t squander your God-given abilities. Don’t hang back thinking you’ve got lots of time ahead of you. Your influence matters now and for generations to come.

 You can count the number of seeds from one apple. But you can never count the number of apples from one seed.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication.