Are You Cutting Yourself Short?

For years, every time I baked a ham, I’d cut the ends off before putting it in the oven.  Whenever my mother baked a ham, she cut the ends off, so I gave it no thought. I figured this was how to bake a ham.

One day, my son watched me in the kitchen, preparing a ham for the oven.  I cut the ends off, as I always did, then put the rest of the meat in the oven.  My son asked, “Mom, why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Cut the ends off?”

I started to give him some reason, like trimming the meat encouraged even cooking, but I had to admit to myself that I did it because my mother did it and taught me that I should do it.  But I didn’t really know why I should cut the ends off. So I called my mother.

“Mom, why did you cut the ends off the ham?”

“Because my pan wasn’t big enough.”

Are you cutting your ends off, voluntarily limiting your potential, out of habit? Are you trimming yourself to fit someone else’s pan?