Week 5: Clarifying Your Gifts

This week we move from discovery to definition—listening for the gifts that are ready to serve your vision and be welcomed by your Self.

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“Our parts have gifts that are waiting to be discovered. When we lead with Self, these gifts naturally emerge. But when we are blended with protectors, those same gifts can get distorted. The goal is not to suppress our gifts—but to liberate them from the burdens they’ve been carrying.”—Richard Schwartz, No Bad Parts

We’ve now crossed the threshold from Discover into Define—the second stage of the Double Diamond. In the Discover phase, we widened our lens, listened inward, and began naming the complex ecology of our internal world—our parts, our patterns, and the vision that feels most alive. Now, in Define, we begin to gather what we’ve found and clarify what matters most. We move from exploration to essence.

This week, we ask:
What gifts are here to support my vision?
Which are fully formed, and which are asking to be nurtured, reclaimed, or revealed?

In design thinking, the Define stage isn’t about narrowing arbitrarily—it’s about listening for what is essential. Designers pause here to synthesize data, spot patterns, and find focus. Likewise, in our inner work, we pause to sense which gifts are most aligned with the life we’re ready to lead—and which ones have been waiting patiently, often buried beneath protective roles or distorted by past burdens.

As Tamala Floyd writes in Listening When Parts Speak:

“Our gifts don’t disappear when we are wounded. They hide, or get twisted into something they were never meant to be. But when we listen deeply, we can often hear their original song—still humming beneath the noise.”