As children, we are told that we can become anything we want to be if we just set our mind to it and put in the work. This is somewhat akin to telling people of faith that if they just believe hard enough that their god will heal them of whatever debilitating disease they are experiencing. When the "miracle" they are expecting doesn't come to fruition, they are told they didn't believe strong enough. Whatever the issues are, they always lie with the person trying to attain the goal.
What nobody will tell you as a child is that if you have a mental deficiency of any kind, you will most likely never be able to achieve your lofty goals. The most you might be able to achieve in your life will be normalcy, and you should be happy with that. Yep, that's it. Don't think about what could have been. Just be happy being average. Normal. Nothing special.
Even the great salesman, motivator, author, and speaker Earl Nightingale realized this when recording one of his albums. He knew there was a danger in telling literally everyone that the sky was the limit, because some were simply unable to achieve the success he encouraged.
"Some people ask, "you say that we become what we think about. But what about people who choose dreams much too large for their inherent capacities?" Well, discounting serious neurosis or outright psychosis, it has been my experience ... we tend to underestimate ourselves." (from 'Looking for The Secret of Success,' by Earl Nightingale)
When I got to that part, I stopped the soundtrack. There is was, from the master motivator himself. The cold, hard truth. Not everyone can achieve lofty goals. And the ones who are inherently unable to make these goals? Those with serious mental illness. Welcome to the loser club, my friend.
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