I was talking to a dear friend a few weeks ago over cigars and whiskey. (A combination that is guaranteed to lead to incredible conversations, btw.)

As we were talking about the ups and downs of our lives ,he said, “Sometimes work feels like I am right-handed trying to do everything with my left hand.”

He continued, “Maybe I should let someone who is left-handed do this.”

Doing anything with your non-dominant hand is challenging. Yet I often find myself in this place.

This simple concept has been a guide for me.

Everyone has specific giftings, talents, skills, and desires. These are the characteristics that drive our dominant hands.

If you take a full-force extrovert, who loves people, and shove them into a small cubicle to crunch numbers all day… I highly doubt they would stay at the company.

They are right-handed trying to do left-handed tasks.

The shadow of this quote is that sometimes you have to learn to use your left hand.

Take basketball for example: if you want to really play basketball, you have to be able to dribble and finish with your opposite hand.

Then the question becomes, how do you know when to operate in your giftings (dominant hand) versus getting outside your comfort zone and challenging yourself? (non-dominant hand)

It is a challenging question to answer, but if you zoom out and align yourself back to your ultimate vision, you can find the answer.

Is this task aligned to the skills I need to possess in order to achieve my dreams?

If the answer is yes, then start learning learning to dribble with your non-dominant hand.

Developing a new skill will always feel like you are using your non-dominant hand.

Make sure you know that it is a skill worth developing.

Then go out and make a difference.