Dirty Harry was a man of few words but his famous quote, “A man has got to know his limitations.” Is probably one of the most often quoted lines from a movie, and even though it is not real deeply philosophical, it is true. There are going to be some things that we just may never accomplish.

 

We tell our children that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up, and they set some pretty high goals, like being a ballerina, a football star, President of the USA, or even as my childhood dream was, to be an astronaut. It is great to have dreams and I would never try to stifle a child’s dream no matter how farfetched it is. As we grow older we start to come to grips with the ideas that we were pitched when we were younger were more fairy-tail than reality.

 

Yes, there is always the possibility that we will attain our childhood dreams but the probability, being more realistic is that we won’t. Let me offer this example, I am a 52-year-old male, 5ft 10 inches tall and weigh about 220 pounds, I have a dream of being a professional ballet dancer. I have never taken a single dance lesson, I have a bad back, decrepit hip joints, and shin splints and by the way, no sense of balance. I can try, hard as I may but the possibility of me attaining a lead role in the “Nutcracker,” unless backed by the Make A Wish Foundation, is probably not going to become a reality. Now on the other hand if I would like to try my hand at dancing, I could possibly take some lessons and join a community dance group and at some time be part of a dance recital. I have come to the realization that I need to know my limitations, and you can thank me later.

 

Me in a tutu…Barf

 

We are going to take a look at some of the things that we just may now be cut out to do. In the previous section I asked you to select someone who would give you open and honest feedback on something that you could do to improve yourself, and in this section, we are going to spend some time looking dealing with and accepting some of our lessor qualities. Remember this as we go forth, a weakness in not a character flaw, it is one of your unique attributes that make you the unique individual that you are.