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The Invisible Finish Line – Pt. 2

In the first part of this article, we talked about “drifters” and their inability to complete tasks. Check it out here!

“Your opponent started yesterday.” –Pastor S. Norful

There are the people that see someone doing something great and want to do the same thing, which isn’t always bad. The problem comes when we fail to realize that not every area is our area of expertise, skill-wise. I did this myself during my stint as a fashion designer. I saw someone on America’s Next Top Model and I said to myself, “That looks cool! She’s doing it! I want to do it too!” The problem was, I couldn’t use a sewing machine to save my life (and it’d be pretty hard to hand-sew every piece of clothing I designed). I call people like me, “pseudos”. Pseudos are those people who, like drifters, move from project to project. The difference between the two is that they do things because it looks interesting, not because they actually have an ability to actually do it. See, I wasn’t meant to be a fashion designer. I’m a writer. And I’m glad I figured this out early on, because if not, I would have still been stitching the beading on my first shirt ever, instead of finishing my first motion picture script.

Pseudos continue on a path of doing things that seem appealing on the outside. But once we realize these things are a lot harder than we anticipated, or requires more discipline than we expected, we quit and move on to the next appealing thing. We never finish what we start either. Someone once said to me that it would look pretty crazy to see a dog standing on twos instead all fours, trying to be a human, because they’re a dog. The same goes for people. It looks crazy when you see someone trying to do something they weren’t made to do. A painter shouldn’t try to be an engineer, and an engineer shouldn’t try to be painter. At some point they will both realize that their attempts are beyond what they are skilled to do, and all the time they spent trying to paint a Picasso or build a rocket, they could have spent doing what they are really purposed to do.

These days, its easy to get swept into the allure of something that seems exciting. However, the time you spend chasing a want that has nothing to do with your dream, your passion, and your purpose is essentially time wasted. Sure, you will learn something about yourself – much like I did – but too many of these detours do nothing but steer you away from your finish line. Rather, find what it is you love to do- what you can’t see yourself not ever doing again. Find that passion, and work towards mastering it. You may start off walking as you notice that you like what you’re doing, and that you’re actually pretty good at it. But you’ll eventually start to jog at a comfortable pace as you master your skills to perfection, and that’s when you can do a full out sprint. As your legs begin to move faster and faster, you”ll see your finish line in bold red tape and your trophy shining bright at the end.

Missed part 1? Check out “psuedos”—the counterparts of “drifters.”

Interested in writing for our Guest Blogger series? Email ktoney@perkconsulting.net
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Adrian Hunter is a love and dating writer for Elite DC Mag. The Chicago native is currently an English major at Howard University. Upon graduation, she hopes to pursue journalism and creative writing full time. Send her tips and love stories through Twitter, @aymichele_.