I recently attended my 40th high school reunion. During a conversation with a friend since elementary school (not an old friend—neither of us are old!) I was reminded of something one of the high school guidance counselors told me many years ago. He explained it differently than I will here, but the concept is the same. (Since we were face to face, he could talk with his hands as well. That doesn’t work so well in a blog.)
Imagine a vertical line. Near the top of the line is point A. Around the middle is point B. Near the bottom is point C. He said that he would rather see students aim for point A and only achieve point B than to aim for point C and achieve it. Even if they don’t achieve point A, by achieving point B they will have achieved more than if they settled for point C from the beginning.
At the time, I couldn’t begin to realize how important that concept is. At least I grasped enough that it encouraged me to go for a bachelor’s degree rather than an associate degree after graduating high school.
I hate to admit it, but there have been times in my life when I did not try for point A because I did not think I could make it. Sometimes I aimed for point B and got it, but sometimes I settled for point C when I could have done more had I aimed higher.
Have you done this? Are you doing this now? Could you achieve more if you aimed higher than you thought you could achieve? What could your life be like if you did?
