I could've been a...

Inspired by a question posted by my sister Maria, I decided to write a about a few thoughts I was having the other day on the subject.

Imagine you are an amazingly talented hockey player, but you don't know it. You've never touched a hockey stick in your life, so you've never had the chance to use your amazing skills. Now this may seem a little unbelievable, like probably if you were innately good at hockey, you'd be good at other sports, and you'd have picked up a stick at some point, and figured it out.

Let's take this one step further. (Or closer.) I have a cousin (Michelle) who is an Educational Assistant (EA). I had never heard of this job before in my life, and I was surprised to learn how she ended up in the field. Her mom was telling me that she was born for the job... even as a child in Grade 1 or 2 she would always be helping the more challenged kids and was very successful in filling the role of teacher translator. Often times teachers are disinterested or too overloaded to help difficult kids, and they need a buffer (like an EA) to get the message across to kids with learning disabilities. Apparently Michelle is absolutely amazing at this.

It got me thinking... It seems to me that it you could so easily go through life and never discover your full potential in a certain area. Like Michelle - I mean she might know that she is good with troubled kids, and she might even know that there is an obscure possibility of a job in that field, but to actually land herself in it, well it seems like an unlikely story. So she got lucky, right? Hmm, luck is a funny word...

I could've been a graphic artist instead of an engineer. If you don't know me well, you're probably laughing. I have some mediocre skills as an artist, but I never pursued them beyond high school. Seems I was better at physics (or so I thought). I still think I made the right choice, but who's to know for sure? I've never explored any other options, at least not thoroughly, and who knows... there could be a career out there waiting for me to find out that my aptitude lies perfectly with it, and I could be happy and successful and reach my full potential as a cow herder or a bush pilot, or a chicken sexer. I could be the best damn chicken sexer ever, and not even know it.

This is all BS, you know. I'm just trying to put things in perspective. You can't go through life just thinking about all the missed opportunities, or "could haves" or "should haves." You have to just live, and strive to do what you can in the place life has you right now.

However, to answer your actual question Maria, there are hindrances that keep us from excelling. Complacency, Fear, Anxiety, Apprehension, Self Doubt... As Rage Against the Machine put it in the best song they ever wrote, Know Your Enemy, "Compromise, Conformity, Assimilation, Submission, Ignorance, Hypocrisy, Brutality, The Elite..."
These are the things that keep ourselves locked up. We can't even begin to reach our potential unless we break free from these.

And where does God fit into all of this, you may be wondering? I think Maria put it best when she said that He's with us every step, from our brightest to our darkest. The important thing is to keep close to Him, and He will give you that wisdom and strength to make your way through the life of successes and failures you're bound to lead.