At some point in your life, someone probably made the statement that you have a lot of potential. We all seem to have potential, but there’s rarely anyone around who can tell us how to realize it. What good is potential if you’re unable to capitalize on it? Potential is a funny thing. It can’t be quantified, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be cultivated.
Discovering what makes you tick is integral to identifying your own potential. Knowing what you’re good at and what you want to do in life will make your life more satisfying and fulfilling. If you’re struggling to figure out your strengths and ability to accomplish things, perhaps it would be helpful to take some time to get in touch with your own potential.
Do you put limitations on yourself and then feel like you’re unable to accomplish your goals? A limiting mindset may stem from a difficult childhood, low self-esteem, or past failures. Despite your specific reason, it all boils down to fear. It could be the fear of rejection or of failing again. It could also be because you’re afraid of not being good enough.
Have you failed to capitalize on the vast reservoir of potential that you believe is lurking within you? Are you willing to see how far you can go? There are many variables, and the odds are against you giving maximal effort each day. However, it can be interesting to see what you can accomplish if you try.
What have you dreamed of mastering? Let’s identify your potential.
Consider these questions and suggestions to help you identify your potential:
- What do you love to do? Write it down. Include tasks such as “make my car shine” as well as activities like “complete a 10-page quarterly report on my project at work.”
- Your passion in a specific area will enhance your abilities to achieve in related activities. If you love to listen to guitar music and you’re taking lessons, you’ll no doubt be motivated to try to play your best and produce lovely music.
- Listen to what others say about you. Although you’ll have your own concept of who you are and what you’re good at, paying attention to what others say to you about you will offer insight into some of your talents and skills you might not have considered.
- What other people see as your strengths will most likely be areas that you perform well in. You gain valuable information by listening to others’ comments about you and to you.
- What is your dream career? Throughout life, you’ve perhaps thought about more than one or two careers you’d enjoy. Maybe as a child, you wanted to be a doctor. During your adolescent years, you loved archeology and thought you’d go in to a related career. But now, you’re an adult in the working world. Is this the job you truly want?
- If you’d rather be doing something else, what would it be? Let your mind go. You want to work on a cruise ship that travels from one Caribbean Island to another. You dream about working in the fashion industry. Maybe you’ve always wanted to own a restaurant where you cooked for everyone.
- The point is that when a particular idea has stuck with you over the years, you’ll no doubt be highly motivated to make it happen and fulfill your potential.
- Surround yourself with people you love. People whom you love and who love you inspire you to go for what you want in life. They nurture, support, and encourage you.
- Ensure you have plenty of loving, caring people around you to provide inspiration to fuel your potential.
- Can you find a mentor? A mentor is someone who’ll help you cultivate your greatest joy, interest or talent. They’re usually a person who excels in the area that you’re interested in pursuing. An effective mentor can help you identify and even fulfill your potential. A good mentor can save years of struggle and effort. The ideal mentor started where you’re starting, and has achieved the success you’re after. The best mentors are great teachers. However, there are some that have great skills, but aren’t great coaches. Every athlete who succeeds in sports owes a lot of credit to their coaches. Coaches help take players to places they would be unable to get to by themselves. It isn’t only athletes that can benefit from coaching. You can talk to career coaches, life coaches, or someone else who can help you achieve success. Even the best athletes have a coach. Whether your pursuits are physical, financial, spiritual, or fall under the category of “other,” a mentor can take years off your learning curve. Imagine the difference between learning to play the guitar on your own and having an expert guide you each day.
- When you have a role model who thoroughly knows about a subject that’s close to your heart, you’ll push yourself to learn more and excel in your chosen area.
Once you know what you love to do, you’ll be closer to identifying your potential in life. Also, being in touch with your own strengths and having supportive people, including a mentor, around you will help. Focus on discovering your own potential to create the life you desire.
8 Tips to Help You Reach Your Highest Potential:
- Keep your eyes open. We all miss countless opportunities to maximize our potential and better our lives. We get stuck in the same mental routines and fail to see all the opportunities around us. An open mind is crucial to reaching your full potential.
- Work on your strengths. Your greatest achievements will likely be a product of your strengths. Expect to spend some time fully developing your ability to apply your strengths to all aspects of your life.
- Work on your weaknesses. While your weaknesses probably won’t take you far, they can certainly limit you. Most people avoid their weaknesses and refuse to work on them.
- For example, you can see this at the gym. People like to do the exercises they’re already good at. However, they avoid the exercises they’re bad at like the plague.
- Set goals. Setting goals is cliché, but how can anyone expect to achieve something great if they haven’t defined it beforehand? It’s important to know specifically where you’re going.
Before you get in your car and turn on the ignition, you have a destination in mind. Accomplishing things in life can be the same way. Have a clear understanding of where you want to go and then you can figure out how to get there.
- Set realistic goals but be willing to step out of your comfort zone. It can be very discouraging if your goals are impossible to achieve. Make your goals challenging, yet attainable.
- If your goals are too easy, you won’t feel a sense of accomplishment or any motivation to push yourself towards them.
- A few minutes spent on defining your endpoint is invaluable.
- Be assertive. Have you ever noticed that assertive people are the ones that tend to get what they want? Being passive is rarely an effective strategy. Be willing to ask for what you want. Countless people have failed to get what they want simply due to the fear of asking for it.
- Step outside the norm. The greatest achievers frequently upset a lot of people. Think about how hostile everyone was when it was suggested that the world was round or that the Earth revolved around the sun instead of the other way around.
- Be brave enough to express your uniqueness.
- Focus on doing instead of thinking. Most people learn, think, and plan too much. Action results in change and progress. However, that doesn’t mean you ought to make poor, unintelligent choices.
- Try to spend at least 10 hours taking action to 1 hour of pondering, instead of the other way around.
- How well would it work if you spent 10 hours planning your exercise routine for every hour you actually exercised? You’d be an out of shape armchair expert.
- Work smarter not harder. It’s not just hard work that matters, but rather hard, smart work. Working hard on things that don’t matter won’t help anyone reach their highest potential. Ensure you’re spending your time on important activities.
If you’re less than stellar at something, you can compensate by working even harder.
- Thomas Edison once said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Even coming up with a great idea for a new invention is more about hard work than about being brilliant. Lots of people have unique ideas, but it takes someone who’s willing to put in the extra effort to make it successful.
- Avoid letting fear hold you back. Just get to work and hope for the best.
- Although certain activities and tasks are less appealing than others, that’s what makes your achievements worth it in the end. Becoming great is challenging!
It’s doubtful that anyone comes close to reaching their full potential, but all of us can do much more than what we’re currently doing. Decide to become the best possible version of yourself. Find a mentor and make an intelligent plan. Work that plan to the best of your ability. You can live up to that potential everyone is always talking about.
2 Keys to overcoming your limitations:
- Embrace your limitations. You’ll likely encounter someone smarter, stronger, or better looking during your life. Realize that even if you’re not the best at something, you can still be very successful, as long as you make an effort.
- Avoid letting a fear of inadequacy stop you from trying. It’s okay if you try and fail. Failing to try is the only true failure. Each failure brings you closer to success.
- Understand the limitations of your mindset. Sometimes things seem impossible for us, only because that’s what we believe them to be.
- As an example, let’s take the story of Roger Bannister. Roger Bannister is the first person to ever run a mile in less than 4 minutes. He did it on May 6, 1954, and before that day, many believed that his accomplishment wasn’t humanly possible.
- Many gifted athletes had come incredibly close, but nobody did it before Roger Bannister. However, once that barrier was broken it became possible in people’s minds.
- The year after Roger Bannister ran his 4 minute mile, 37 other runners were also able to accomplish the same feat. The year after that, 300 runners were able to run a mile in under 4 minutes.
- It’s not that these runners weren’t physically capable of doing this before. It’s just that all of them now believed it was possible.
Do you have things in your life that are holding you back? If so, it could be because you have set limitations in your mind. Isn’t it time to open your mind and overcome those limitations? Unlock your potential, starting today!
Use these 5 strategies to Reach your full potential and discover yourself:
- Focus. Life is too short to reach your potential in multiple pursuits. Limit yourself to just a few activities if you want to reach a high level of mastery. Remember: jack of all trades, master of none. Mastering anything takes time. Patience is a key to long-term development.
- Understand that progress comes quickly at first and then slows. After a year of practicing piano for several hours each day, you’re a lot better than you were on day one. But, most likely, you’ll barely be better after nine years than you were after eight.
- Become the person you have to be. If you want to be the best painter you can be, it’s necessary to become a person that values creativity, boldness, and a willingness to expose your work to scrutiny. It’s necessary to live life in this way each day. What type of person do you have to be to reach your potential in your endeavor?
- Practice every day. There’s no other way. Regular, intentional practice is the key to maxing out your potential. It must become an integral part of your life. The best way to determine the most valuable actions to practice to master your pursuit is to find a mentor.
- Embrace change. Greater skill, and then mastery, are forms of change. The average adult hasn’t changed over the last decade, aside from getting older. You must be willing to change to reach your potential. Be excited by change and learn to enjoy it.
Reaching your full potential in the literal sense might not be your true desire. There are many other responsibilities to consider. But the option exists.
Whether you want to reach your full potential or just enhance your expertise in one aspect of your life, the solution is the same. The only difference is the degree to which you pursue it.
These strategies will help you reach the height that you desire in whichever skill you decide to pursue. Set your goals, focus, find a mentor, and practice each day. Even if you don’t become the world’s best at your chosen endeavor, you’ll find new achievement, meaning, and fulfillment in your life.