Just Keep Swimming

I think we can all agree that fish are meant to swim. They’re designed to live and thrive in bodies of water, while monkeys are designed to live and thrive on land and in trees. If the two animals swapped places, they wouldn’t thrive in the slightest. In fact, they wouldn’t live, either. It makes no sense to evaluate a fish’s performance in an environment that it’s not native to—one that it would actually suffer in.

A very intelligent man once said, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

The same is true for people. Despite the fact that we’re all from the same species, our strengths range in ability and categorization. An activity you excel at may be an activity I’m just beginning. The contrary may be true, too; what you excel at may be my weakness.

The obvious underlying message here is that everybody has strengths, and everybody has weaknesses. Before judging someone for what they may not be good at, remember there’s a high possibility that they’re really good at something you consider to be one of your weaknesses. For example, I’m a very punctual person. I’m not sure where I learned this, but I’ve had good time management skills since I was little. If I have a deadline to meet or a time I need to be somewhere, I backtrack my schedule, plan for extra time, and then make sure I stick to that timeline. However, my sister (sorry if you’re reading this, Marisa), is the opposite. She makes sure she’s on-time for things that matter, but if it’s a low priority for her, her punctuality wavers. I, on the other hand, am usually 5-10 (sometimes more) minutes early to pretty much everything because being late is a stress-inducer for me.

My sister may not be the most punctual person in the world, but she’s good at a ton of other things that I’m not as good at. She’s fluent in Spanish while I’m only proficient in it, she’s physically a lot stronger than I am, and she’s also wittier and funnier than I’ll likely ever be. Her strengths deserve to be recognized and leveraged, as do mine and yours, because if you judged my intelligence based on my ability to speak Spanish, you’d probably walk away from our conversation thinking I wasn’t very bright.

Keep this in mind when you’re in the same place doing the same thing as the people around you. If you’re an expert at, let’s say golf, and you’re with beginners who are learning how to hold a club, think back to your day one. At one point in time, you were taught the basics, too. You weren’t the most talented one in the room or even considered advanced. You were just the new guy. It’s only over time and with a lot of practice that you got to where you are today. Applaud people for their day ones, and uplift them to continue on their journeys.

There’s also a less obvious underlying message in Einstein’s words that I want to shed light on. This one is that: before you judge yourself for what you may not be that good at, remember there are a boatload of other things that are considered your strengths. We are our biggest critics. We tend to scrutinize ourselves more than those around us do, and that’s why I think this less obvious message is far more important.

Think of your mind as a container. There’s only a limited amount of space in a container, and anything excess overflows. Allotting mental energy to what doesn’t serve you is a waste of space in your container—whether that’s what other people may think of you or the negative dialogue that’s taking place in your head. You can only carry so much, so make sure you’re allowing space for what’s fueling you.

I’ve judged myself for so much. “Why aren’t I good at this?” “How come I’m behind at that?” It’s our natural inclination to compare and judge. Over the years, though, I’ve learned that the best benchmark for progress is who I was yesterday, last week, last month, or last year. If I want to be good at something I’m currently bad at, I put in the time and effort to see results. If I’m bad at something I have no interest in getting better at, I remind myself there are a lot of things I consider to be my strengths.

Judgement of yourself should only be a catalyst for change and progress, and if it’s anything but that, let it overflow from your container. I can guarantee that there is no fish in the sea who cares whether or not he’s bad at climbing trees. I can also guarantee that there is no fish who knows whether or not he can climb trees, but REGARDLESS, my point is, just keep swimming.