timism of the Day: We cannot be anything that we want to be. This is an American myth that many of us were taught growing up and still continue to believe, with deleterious consequences. Although at the onset, this sounds like a positive statement, it is a lie.
At the core of most of our lives is that we continue to keep trying to become something that we are not, thus we devote more time to our shortcomings than to our strengths. For example, 77% of Americans think that a student’s lowest grades deserve the most time and attention. We reward excellence with apathy instead of investing more time in the areas where we have the most potential for greatness.
You cannot be anything you want to be, but you can be a lot more of who you already are. Just watch American Idol tryouts one time and you will see this truth as thousands who truly believe they are to be the next big pop star do their thing, only to hear Simon say something like, “Please, never ever sing again” and we watch them storm off the stage angry, hurt, and swearing at the camera, “I will prove you wrong, just wait, you’ll see”, and we wait, and we wait, and what do we see?...The outtakes, the blurbs, over and over again. We sit there and make fun of them, feel sorry for them, talk about how misguided they are and how ignorant they must be, and yet we are doing the same thing in our lives, different stage, but the same problem.
If we invest our time and energy on our strengths, our weaknesses will follow suit and literally take care of themselves. We were all born with gifts, talents and strengths that are meant to be nurtured and refined for us to achieve our greatness in life. So, don’t continue to try to be something that you are not, instead focus all your time and energy and devotion on something that you are and be great at it.
In the end, if there is a day of reckoning, and i believe that there will be, we will be judged for two things, what we did with our time and talents. Just sayin. Take it, test it, teach it. tim
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