Learn what your gifts are and become a life-changing hero.
How can we leave the world a little better off than how we found it? Photo: Adobe Stock/Gustavofrazao
If you had a billion dollars or more, would you use it to help the world? Amazon billionaire MacKenzie Scott and other super-rich folk like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates say they will donate most of what they have to assist people and programs in need. I’d do that if I could, but since I’m not wealthy enough to throw extra cash around, what riches do I have that I can leave behind?
Philanthropy and legacies don’t have to be about money. The great thing about humans is we all have gifts that could benefit the world in some way. The most valuable thing I have is my knowledge of how to have healthy relationships. Since I’ve been obsessing over healthy relationships since I was a child, reading Dr. Joyce Brothers, Ann Landers, and Ladies Home Journal’s Can This Marriage Be Saved? and still haven’t gotten sick of the topic, it must be the gift I have that can be shared with the world. Being healthy as an individual, in love life and romantic relationships, in a family, and out in the world with friends and co-workers is a learned skill, and how to do it can be shared in relationship therapy, an online course, and many other ways.
People need good information.
In my 20s, I realized I didn’t know anything about relationships. In my 40s, I realized that no one else did, either. This was a major epiphany and tipping point, “Why isn’t this stuff taught to everyone?” I thought. “People should know about this!” I always thought adults knew what they were doing; they don’t. As I hungrily learned about relationship problems and successful relationships, I longed to implant the invaluable information I learned into everyone else’s awareness. How to do it? The world would change if we all had a good relationship with ourselves and knew how to conduct ourselves with others in a way that works. I sincerely believe this. Our schools teach us about everything else but relationships, relationship issues, and family dynamics. I learned to cook and sew in middle school, but no one ever mentioned what healthy self-esteem is. People don’t know what they are shooting for in relationships or how to be an adult. When I tell clients that self-care is the most important thing…
Becky Whetstone is an Arkansas native and has a Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in Texas and Arkansas. 
