Ever watched a YouTube video where a “Success Coach” is passionately urging you to reach your potential? I recently watched a series of them and found the experience exhausting.
We’re pressured to reach our potential and taught that it’s something we should do in order to feel fulfilled.
But what does reaching your “potential” mean?
How will you know when you’ve reached it?
Feverish advice to rush toward our “potential” may initially energize us but will ultimately take us nowhere. Reaching our “potential” is a fuzzy, unarticulated goal with no real clarity.
Eventually, we wind-up discouraged and perhaps even feeling like a “failure.”
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I don’t care to pursue my potential (whatever that means…).
I much prefer a mindset that focuses on areas of incremental improvement. My goal is to be better than I was before in a specific area of my life.
A couple of examples:
Focus: To be a better person as guided by my values.
What are my values, and which one specifically am I working on? Perhaps I want to be better in relationships and at communicating. I may choose to examine the following:
Am I more open-minded? Am I listening better? Am I experiencing less frustration? Am I kinder to others?
Focus: Being more effective at work.
First, I must clarify what aspect of my work I would like to focus on. I might look at my value of being most effective for my clients. I may examine the following:
Have I followed through with my intention to keep learning? How are my knowledge and skills playing out on the job? What specifically can I do better?
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Will I reach my potential in those areas?
I doubt it – I wouldn’t know it if I did anyway.
Does that matter to me?
No.
By allowing for my limitations, I often experience joy and contentment when intentionally engaging in a process of self-improvement that is guided by my values.
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Seneca helped to keep me grounded after listening to the latest histrionic “success coaches”:
“For love of bustle is not industry – it is only the restlessness of a hunted mind.” – Seneca, Letters: 3
The very best to you all.