Own What You're Good At And Work It

How many things do you have in your life that have the potential of changing it for the better? I don't mean things as in material objects, but things as in talents, traits and abilities. Can you identify them? Chances are you know what you're good at, you know how to use what you know to move forward, but just how often do you utilize it all?

All too often, our potential goes as unrecognized, sitting in the dark collecting dust just like most of our dreams. Life has a way of busying us to the point that we forget there is anything else. Unfortunately, most of us will realize it all far too late and there will only be wishing and lamenting before we exit this world.

I don't want to leave this life not knowing what I'm capable of, or worse yet, knowing what I could have done and then facing the reality that I never even tried. I've lived a good life up to this point. While it hasn't been heavy on the awesome until recent years (with exceptions, of course), I've gotten better at seizing opportunities when they present themselves. I'm still working on a few that, thankfully haven't faded away into the past, though I'd do well to remind myself more often that believing in myself is just as beneficial as being capable and talented.

When you acknowledge what you can do, how far you can go, the only thing left to do is to believe you can keep at it, no matter how long it takes. There are reasons and lessons that come with challenges, goals, and dreams. No rules are written that state how long something should take to accomplish, nor are there any lists of what each and every one of us should do with whatever tools and abilities we have. As individuals, our journeys take us wherever we need to go to be ready for appreciating what we achieve as completely as possible. For some that could be weeks, the rest of us may not reach that finish line for years.

As we move through our days, it's important to remember that we have all we need to enact changes when it becomes difficult, or we feel like we are just treading water in the same spot. Knowing what we are capable of can mean the difference between staying stuck and never progressing, and changing directions to make some kind of forward progress. We are ever-evolving as is life, and it is far too short to spend it in a type-cast role.