Note to Self : Potential

Potential is commonly though of as one’s capacity for achievement. We’ve all heard talk of rising stars in the sporting arena; their limitless talent and ‘huge potential’ paving the way to unprecedented success.

Note to Self invites us to think of potential more broadly than this. It reminds us that potential is something we are all capable of reaching for in any area of our life. It’s not only about what we want to achieve in the world, it’s also about who we want to be.

It’s easy for us to get attached to outcomes but the one thing we can count on is that life is full of potholes. We might feel like we have failed when we don’t reach our self-imposed goals, yet the possibility for us to be the person we want to be exists regardless of our destination. The goal is never as important as the person we become along the way and every day we each have the chance and the choice to be the person we really want to be.

At times we’ve all felt that we were living on auto-pilot; days rolling into weeks, and months passing us by in a blur- our potential seemingly lost in the busy-ness of daily life. The reality is that opportunities exist daily for us to move closer to fulfilling our potential; we just need to be open and aware. If we get in touch with what excites us, we can use this energy to help create what we want.

Success is personal; we each have our own picture of success, and our own means and methods for measuring success. Getting in touch with what we want to achieve and who we want to be is essential if we are to begin to reach our true potential.

Ask yourself:

• What is my picture of success?
• When have I felt successful?
• In what ways have I succeeded today?

And remember, achievement and accomplishment aren’t exclusive to large projects and long term goals; mending a relationship, keeping our cool in a difficult situation, taking that first step toward something new, can all be counted as successes.

By Gena McLean, from Note to Self booklet

Further reading

Preservation and Wellbeing

Going Ahead in Tweaks and Bounds