Sometimes when trying to accomplish Big Goals, we are stopped in our tracks by the question, “Why me?”  Underlying that question is a whole host of mistaken beliefs that we can have about ourselves: Why me, when I’m not smart enough?  Why me, when I’m not pretty or handsome enough?  Why me, when I’m not charismatic enough?  All these beliefs add up to the one belief that prevents us from achieving our purpose in life – I can’t.  I’m not good enough.

A friend of mine used to make fun of me whenever I said, “I can’t do that” or “I don’t know how to do that.”  He would tell me, “You don’t need a PhD in lightbulb changing in order to change a lightbulb.  Just figure out what you want to do and do it.”  He was right.  The only difference between people who achieve great things and those who don’t is that the achievers don’t waste their time worrying about whether they are qualified.  They simply figure stuff out, plow ahead and do it.

I was never an amazing student in high school.  As a result, no one ever told me, “Wow!  You are going to accomplish great things in life.”  In fact, most of the messages I got were, “You’re OK. “ Or, “You aren’t as good as other people, but keep trying.”  Maybe I’ve been delusional, but I’ve spent my life ignoring these messages.  Instead, I just plowed ahead.  As a result, I ended up graduating from both college and law school.  I’ve had a rewarding legal career, I”ve travelled all over the world, and I have led a fairly interesting life, thus far.

Now I’m not suggesting that you be unrealistic about your abilities.  We all are limited in some ways by our physical attributes and dispositions.  For instance, I could never be in the WNBA.  I am 5’ 6” tall, and I hate it when anyone bumps into me.  My personal nightmare would be to spend my days having tall women push me around while trying to throw a ball into a hoop.  However, barring a career with the WNBA, I don’t believe there are many things that I can’t do, if I set my mind to them.

At a certain point, you have to stop listening to the voices that tell you that you aren’t good enough and start listening to God.  God has endowed you with certain talents for a reason.  God has inspired you to have certain aspirations for a reason.  Your only job is to listen to that still small voice and use your unique talents to fulfill God’s purpose for your life.

I truly believe that every person has been placed on this earth by God to make it a better place.  What is tragic is that there are so many people who fail to use their unique gifts for that purpose.  They instead use their talents to harm others or for greed.  Or they simply allow their gifts to go unused.  Think about all the homeless shelters and prisons.  They simply are huge repositories of individuals who’ve failed to use their talents to serve society in the way that God intended.

Each of us has a responsibility to ignore the voice that says, “You are not enough.”  You are enough.  And the answer to the question “Why me?” is that God created you to be enough.  You simply have to use your gifts to follow God’s calling for your life and be of service to the world.

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