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What is Your Potential?
Accelerating potential need not be a
struggle Wake up to yourself. You have a future as long as you breathe. It takes a instant to own a new piece of learning. It takes seconds for a person to be transformed into a hero. It takes a blink of an eye to inspire another to their greatness. While we can deny the true gift of potential for ourselves, don't rob others of an opportunity to stretch for theirs. Perhaps one of the greatest teachers of potential and getting others to get the most out of themselves can be found in John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach from UCLA. Wooden runs his life off of what he calls The Pyramid of Success. Click here to read Bill Walton's comments concerning the impact Coach Wooden has had on his life. We should all aspire to such commentary. By allowing others to achieve their potential, Coach Wood achieved his own potential. As we live longer we presume we have more time to experience our potential. This means we also have more time to generate and consolidate our limitations. Invariably, these will be self-induced from the pressure of others, as they define our role as a way of reducing risk, foolishness and uncertainty. Even if this controlling and directing is based on good intentions, it thwarts the process of change. Success is not accurately measured in money, adornments and trappings. It is truly represented in the character and deeds that we deliver. Perfection and utopia is not the realm of potential. Instead, it is the realm of immortality and the gods. Even though the problems seem enormous, and the resources required to overcome them immeasurable, we could achieve resolution of these issues if our desire was sufficiently strong. After all, we have been to the moon and back! No one knows where our next great leaders will come from. History has taught us they will be ordinary people, with hopes, dreams, ideals and failings. Something will occur that will trigger them to become extraordinary. It could be you. Being extraordinary requires that you stand up, go against what's safe and follow what's in your heart. |
The
concept of 'Potential' is seductive. It may even be an
illusion that draws us onwards, in search of the answer. If
you ask people what their potential is, their answers are
varied. Most respond with "I don't know". Clichés
abound, such as, "I have unlimited potential". If
this is true, then it is a description of what we have now,
rather than what we could become. It is also an expression
of our sense of helplessness and the enormity in finding
what we could become. If we never reach our hidden potential,
it lurks as a gnawing possibility, hanging over us as a
marker of how we perceive ourselves. If we grasp our
potential, and reach beyond it, life is fulfilling and
expansive. If we chase after it, we journey beyond our
limitations to discoveries and explorations that shape who
we are. If we never try, we can remain blissful in our
ignorance. They say judgment day comes after life. In
reality it comes within life, because the choices we make
determine what we avoid, what we deny or doubt, and how we
excuse ourselves and finally settle for what is our
perceived lot.
