Handicap

A true handicap is what we don’t do with what we have, not what we can’t do with what we don’t have.
Christopher Brewer

We tend to be always focused on what we don’t have. We tend to define ourselves by what we don’t have. “I am poor because I don’t have the mansion that the guy down the street does.” “I am unsuccessful because I don’t have the glamorous job that the woman on TV does”. “I am stupid because I don’t have the graduate degree that my neighbor has.” It’s always about keeping up with the Jone’s when the Jone’s have something that you don’t have. We measure ourselves by what other people have instead of by what we have.

Of course, if we don’t have something, we can’t do anything with it. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything at all. We can do something with what we do have. We can define ourselves by what we have and not by what other people have. Although we can’t change what other people do and have, we can change what we do with what we have. In that respect, we do have control over the way we see ourselves and consequently the person we are becoming.

A true handicap is what we don’t do with what we have. When we don’t use our god-given skills and talents to improve our lives and the lives of the people around us, we are just wasting them, wasting who we are. It is the most important task of our life to come to understand what our own skills and talents are and how we can use them in the most effective ways. That is what ultimately gives meaning to our lives, and gives us a reason to be here. Instead of wishing that we could have whatever someone else has, we need to make the most of what we ourselves have so that we can be just as successful in our own unique and valuable ways.