Achieving Your Goals in Your Imperfection

You have started 2019 ready to achieve goals or prepared a vision board you look at everyday. But you may have started talking yourself out of your vision.

Who Am I?

I think many times we stop ourselves from achieving goals we have a desire for because we don’t feel qualified for it. We tell ourselves that there is someone more suited, more perfect to do the job than we are.

We ask ourselves, “Who am I to…”

We look at our shortcomings and become afraid that we will not succeed. Or maybe we will succeed, but it will not be received well.

I heard this amazing quote from the movie Akeelah and the Bee. It reads:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Marianne Williamson, from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles (Harper Collins, 1992; from Chapter 7, Section 3)

God Uses Imperfect People

As I read this quote, it reminds me of the many people that God used throughout the Bible. Most of them were not perfect, but they were the right choice in God’s eyes.

Moses was a murder that spoke with a lisp. And God called him to speak before the most powerful leader in the world at that time.

Rahab was a prostitute but God used her to bring the people of Israel into the promised land.

Peter denied Jesus three times but was the first person to preach the gospel message to thousands of people on the day of Pentecost.

God’s glory shines even brighter when he uses people that are imperfect.

You see, when you are “perfect” for the job. It is easy to attribute your success to your own abilities. It is easy to become prideful and believe that you did it all by yourself on your own.

But when you are imperfect, when you have weaknesses, you know that you did not achieve success but it was God’s grace and strength through you. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Achieving My Goal

I wanted to write the Let’s Learn the Amharic Alphabet book and develop the First Amharic Words App for many reasons.

First, I wanted to teach my children Amharic but I could not find the resources in English and Amharic to help me teach them. Even with the resources, it is challenging. But I wanted to remove at least one hurdle.

Second, I wanted to become better at my own Amharic.

I was tired of having other Habesha look down on me because my Amharic wasn’t perfect. It did not matter that I came here when I was five. Or that my parents listened to advice of well meaning friends who said that in order for us to learn English, my parents had to speak to us ONLY in English in the home. Which unfortunately resulted in us forgetting Amharic altogether.

And this last reason was also the reason that I almost did not complete either project. I felt that others would not receive them well coming from me. Because who am I, an American raised Ethiopian with broken Amharic, to write and develop Amharic learning resources.

But I have learned who I am.

I am the person that has the desire to do it, the person that has the time and resources to do it. I am the person that will not let her limitations define who she is.

Hard Work Beats Talent

I recently heard another quote that said, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”

This is so true. It was hard work to learn all the fidel for myself. I sat hour after hour with Amharic-English dictionaries to find words that started with the various fidel and teach myself along the way.

I also had to learn how to code and design graphics for an app. Through trial, error, and google searches I learned the process it took to develop a mobile app. Bottom line I worked HARD.

No I am not the most talented Amharic speaker, no I am not an Amharic linguist, no I am not an Amharic teacher. I am an imperfect Amharic speaker with the heart and passion to develop resources to help other moms but more importantly to help children raised outside of Ethiopia. I never want another child to to feel ashamed or less than because they do not know how to speak their language.

Achieving Your Goal

Do you have a desire to do something, but you are letting your fear or your imperfections stop you from doing it?

Please don’t. Like the quote above said. God has placed in you that desire because someone else needs what you have. Someone else also needs to see you take the courage to do what you are not “perfect” for so that they can also follow their passions.

So focus on achieving your goal.

First, be clear about why you want to achieve your goals. Any goal that is worth achieving, will take work. You may become discouraged along the way. But if you know why you are doing something, then you can always refocus on that to help you push you through those tough times.

Next, find out what hurdles you have to overcome. When you know what the hurdles are then you can learn how to overcome them. Do you need to take a class, do you need to hire a person with that necessary skill, or do you just need to do a google search?

After you have filled in the gaps, then make a plan. You may not have all the steps of the plan completely though out, but get the first few steps planned out.

Then just do it! You may have to course correct at times. You may have to take a step or two back occasionally. But don’t give up. We may not be perfect but we are the right one to do the job.

What do you have a desire to do? Share it so we can help each other achieve it.