What do you want to do with your life?

Please note: For what they are worth, these comments represent Debbie’s opinions and perceptions based upon her own experiences and must be understood as such. Thank you…

… or

What do you want to be when you grow up?

This has always been an interesting question for me.  And it is one I like to pose to my clients.  (Especially interesting, perhaps, in that I treat only adults.)

But people who come to see me generally want to change something in their lives.  So here is a fable, authored by George Reavis in the 1940’s.  It gives me a way of looking at individuals as I try to help them figure out what to do with their G-d given strengths.  See what you think of the message.

The Fable of the Animal School…

Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of a “new world” so they organized a school.

They had adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming and flying.   To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects. 

The duck was excellent in swimming. In fact, better than his instructor. But he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running. This was kept up until his webbed feet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming.

But average was acceptable in school so nobody worried about that, except the duck. 

The rabbit started at the top of the class in running but had a nervous breakdown because of so much makeup work in swimming. 

The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of the treetop down. He also developed a “Charlie horse” from overexertion and then got a C in climbing and D in running.

The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing class, he beat all the others to the top of the tree but insisted on using his own way to get there. 

At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceedingly well and also run, climb and fly a little had the highest average and was valedictorian. 

The prairie dogs stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because the administration would not add digging and burrowing to the curriculum. They apprenticed their children to a badger and later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start a successful private school.

I strongly believe in working with an individual’s strengths.  Our strengths are what help us achieve success in anything we want to do.

Let me know if you’d like to chat about this….dhc