Every disadvantage comes with a hidden advantage, and it's up to each man whether he will wallow in his disadvantage or find strength in the advantage that he has. Wallowing is not worth it because the hidden advantage is always there; the unconquered man will take it.A disadvantage that I have is that I consistently have a hard time focusing on tasks and goals. This is especially apparent in my schooling, where I often allow thoughts and ideas unrelated to my studies to distract me from the homework at hand. The advantages, however, are enormous.
This tenancy to get distracted easily allows me to make connections between seemingly unrelated points that more focused people have a hard time making. It helps me to learn and experiment with new ideas and concepts, and I love that. Today I realized that lately it's given me another advantage: the advantage of necessity.
The advantage of necessity is the superhuman advantage given to a person when they have no choice but to perform or to fail. It's the same advantage that opens the mind of every student who has 2 hours to write a procrastinated paper, and allows indebted people to work two full time jobs to pay the bills.
In my case, the advantage of necessity operates in this way: I want to do well in my classes, and between school, work and Alyssa, I have a heavy load. I can choose to not focus and still get all of those things done, but I pay for it in lack of sleep, and lack of sleep over time makes my struggle to focus into a virtual inability to focus. Thus, sleep is essential. To get sleep, I must manage my time well. To manage my time well, I have to be able to trust myself that I'm going to do what I said I was going to do when I said I was going to do it. Thus, I have to focus. The need for sleep has finally become a need to focus, and now I have an advantage.
Focus is a struggle and a trial for me, but I'm thankful for the advantage that lies behind it. I will not be conquered by this.