On Underachieving

I work with a lot of folks who have a great deal more ability than they ever utilize. I often find myself scratching my head….”This person is extremely capable, but they’ve gone for years only making minimum wage.” They never ask for a raise. They put up with mistreatment in their dead-end job. They are not assertive in their personal relationships (they make no demands on their friends or spouses or boyfriends or girlfriends).

Sometimes, they had a learning disability, and came to believe that they were incompetent. Sometimes they had a speech problem (problems learning how to talk). Sometimes they had problems in developing motor skills (problems learning how to walk, had medical conditions requiring braces on their legs, had an early high fever resulting in poor motor skills, experienced a lack of oxygen at birth resulting in poor motor skills, and so forth). Sometimes, they were viewed by a parent as being completely incompetent, and told that they would be a failure. The reasons are numerous and very personal to the individual.

But the upshot, is that a person’s self-perception becomes their reality. Be willing to fail. You’ll gain more wisdom from failure than you ever will from success. God didn’t give you the skills and abilities that you have for no reason.