Have you ever wondered what makes some people capable of doing extraordinary, sometimes impossible looking things? What makes that person jump into the water to save a drowning victim, while others stand by and watch? What makes another person stand up for a cause they believe in, against what appears to be amazing odds? I've asked myself questions like these most of my life. Even as a child, I wondered why people do the things they do.

Perhaps the bigger question is why don't people do the things they can do?

The answer begins with exploring what keeps people stuck. The first place we commonly go to is that we're missing something, we don't have what we need. We need more of everything – you name it, we need it: more time, money, energy, information, certainty, resources. Without these, we tell ourselves, we can't do what we want to do.

That, my friends, is the greatest lie of our times – this underlying assumption that we don't have what we need. This perception of lack is the biggest source of unhappiness and dissatisfaction in the world today. It causes us to dream about "becoming” something, to hold out for doing that one big, audacious thing that is so big and audacious that we can't see a way to do it!

We have fallen in love with the idea of becoming and it is keeping us small. We are on an endless search for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, all the while not realizing that we are standing on the pot of gold. Many people travel their entire lives on this journey, longing to find themselves out there, when, in fact where they've really lost themselves is in here.

You are the Significance you've been waiting for.

Nobody's going to bring it to you, solve it for you, or make it all better. Ultimately, we are the ones we have been waiting for. It is up to us to be who we are.

And the art of being who you are is what Abundance Intelligence™ is all about. People with a high what Abundance Intelligence™ are able to do what they can do, authentically and consistently, when it matters most.

And when is there ever a time when being yourself doesn't matter? The reason people find themselves getting stuck is because they don't think who they are is enough – enough to get that promotion, enough to close that next big account, enough to be financially independent. This scarcity causes resistance and any time we are stuck, we are resisting the way things are in one way or another.

When I talk about doing what we can do, I don't mean rolling out of bed in the morning and making that pot of coffee. I'm talking about living into our greatness -- being fully, completely, vibrantly alive. I'm talking about doing the thing you were born to do. Being your greatest self is the gift you give to the world. Not being your greatest self deprives the world of what you are here to give. There's nothing sexy or glamorous about that.

How do you know if you have Abundance Intelligence? Abundance Intelligence™ is made up of aptitudes, conscious patterns and beliefs. We can see evidence of these patterns and beliefs showing up in people's behaviors, actions (or lack of actions) and attitudes.

Possessing Abundance Intelligence™ is more than believing that there is enough to go around. Here is an analogy:

People living in scarcity see the cup as half empty.
People who are positive thinkers see the cup as half full.
People living abundantly see the cup as overflowing.
But people Living into their Greatness ARE the cup.

What's keeping you from seeing yourself as "The Cup”?

Download a PDF of this article, Abundance Intelligence™ – The Art of Doing What You Can Do.

Written by Kimberly George, author of Coaching Into Greatness: 4 Steps to Success in Business and Life (Wiley, 2006). To get a snapshot of your AQ score, visit www.CoachingIntoGreatness.com.