Sometimes in life you just have to sit back and take stock of where you’re at. When you stop and take a hard look at yourself, you’re not always where you thought you’d be. Perhaps you think you haven’t reached your full potential.
There are a number of reasons people don’t reach their full potential, but most of them have to do with inaction or effort. That’s actually good news. It’s not that your potential isn’t achievable, it’s that you just need to unlock your ability to achieve it.
It’s important you don’t let others define what your potential is. That type of pressure can lead to some real unhealthy habits. Just because someone thinks your potential is different than what you think it is, doesn’t mean their right. You know yourself better than anyone. Trust yourself.
It’s also important you don’t use yourself as an excuse. It’s easy to say that your potential is low, so you never have to achieve anything. You’re only holding yourself back.
Chances are you think you can do a little more though – that’s why you’re here.
Here are a few things that are likely holding you back from reaching your full potential.
Fear
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The granddaddy of all things that can hold you back is fear. It’s a big one. Fear can even halt your opinions and ideas. It can stand in the way of goals big and small. It can block you from new experiences, and keep you stuck in the same job for years.
Fear is actually fairly useful. In basic terms, fear prevented our ancestors from doing some really stupid things. It’s an evolutionary trait that saved countless lives. Too afraid to jump off this cliff? Probably for the best. Too afraid to rush into the woods at night? Probably avoiding death-by-wild-animal. Thanks fear.
The problem with fear is that we’ve evolved. When you stand on a cliff with a bungee rope, knowing you’re perfectly safe, you’re still afraid. You know, for a fact, that you’re safe – but you’re still afraid. It’s hard to turn off that feeling of fear.
This feeling can kick in with anything unknown. That new job, a project you want to start, the story you need to write. Fear can catch up with you anywhere. Even when you know you shouldn’t be afraid.
You’ll need to find a way to overcome your fears, and take a chance, to reach your full potential. The best way is usually by just tackling them head on.
Confidence
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Confidence can go a long way to helping you get your fear under control. Without confidence, you’ll probably never feel secure enough to know when that fear feeling is real, or you know you’re safe, and just need to get past it.
Confidence is a real tough thing to build, without tackling the thing you need confidence in. There are lots of ways to build your self-confidence.
A well-known trick is the fake-it-until-you-make-it way of building confidence. This takes a leap of faith at the start, but once you get going can be real effective. The key is to just start doing the thing you need confidence in. For example, if you want to be an illustrator, just be one. Fake it until you make it. After a while, you’ll just be an illustrator. You’ll look back wondering what all the fuss was about.
You need to realize it’s ok to make mistakes. Fear and lack of confidence, because you might make a mistake, are major stumbling blocks to achieving potential. Once you realize mistakes are the only way to truly learn, you’ll find that both fear and confidence are no longer an issue.
Procrastination
Every college kid knows what this is about. It’s the science project that’s due in a week, so today you can hit the pub. Then it’s the science project due in 3 days, you still have time, so you watch Netflix. Before long, you’ve shortchanged yourself on time to do a good job. You may get it done on time, but you’ll never realize your full potential on that project.
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The same can happen in life. It’s really easy to put off things because of one reason or another. Next thing you know; retirement is around the corner. You’ll look back and wonder where the time went. Here’s how to stop procrastinating.
If you never get around to actually trying to accomplish something, it’s impossible to achieve any of your potential. You need to get out of your own way, and let yourself get to work.
Lack of Planning
Not having a goal is a surefire way not to hit it. It’s totally possible to not hit your goals when they don’t exist. Having some sort of plan can keep you on the path to achieving your potential. Here’s how you can plan for a successful future.
“A goal without a plan is just a wish” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
You don’t need to have a detailed five-year plan. Just set a goal, then figure out the steps you need to take to achieve that goal. Every single day, you need to be working towards this goal, even if it’s just in some small way. The plan allows you to occasionally review and see if you’re getting off track.
It may sound hokey, but those dream boards that Opera was talking about are just this. It’s not about visualizing your dream and it will come true – it’s about seeing you dream every day. It holds you accountable. When you see it, you can confront yourself about what you can do today to help achieve your potential.
You Don’t Know What Your Potential Is
This is a cop-out. We all have dreams and desires. Passion is a different story.
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If you want to sit on the sidelines and pretend that you really have no ambition, you’re only hurting yourself. This is tough love. You wouldn’t be here unless you were looking for the truth.
You may have fooled yourself for so long, that you’ve actually started to believe it. If that’s the case, just try something new. Pick something, anything, and do it. Achieve it.
You’ll surprise yourself. When you put your mind to something, it’s amazing what you can achieve. You’ll find you can reach your potential – until you realize your potential is much higher!