Discovering Your Potential
This article discusses some of the fundamental beliefs that, when present, will help you recognize your potential: this is only a starting point. Through this discovery process, though, you will be in a better position to determine some of the characteristics of your potential.
Background
We learn at an early age to explore or not. Depending on how our parent's encouraged us and what behaviors they fostered with us, we discovered things in our world or not. These are big ideas, and they may or could have set things in place for us.
The Image
Most people probably know this photograph of a rubber band ball – perhaps even worldwide. Did you know that some people put something special in the center of this rubber band ball? For those of you that have unwrapped an old gold ball, you would understand the concept.
If you let your imagination unwind the ball, what do you suppose is inside? Perhaps a treasure like a diamond? Maybe some other precious stone? How about a $100 bill folded into a square?
If you spent a few minutes, you could probably come up with a whole list of possibilities. Yes? No? Maybe?
Our article associated with this image will demonstrate some ways to set things in place for you to explore possibilities and your potential.
Definition
Potential - used as an adjective or noun, we list the standard dictionary definition in two ways:
Having or showing the capacity to become or develop into something in the future.
Latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness. Our link in this second way reflects the qualities we assign to aspirants.
Some Ideas About Beliefs
We posit that beliefs drive our lives, in many ways, wholly unknown or unrealized by us. Beliefs are very similar to our thinking about our possibility because we argue that it too is very much misunderstood and underutilized.
This article will introduce a few ways that you can unlock your potential as a person and, at the same time, open you to possibility. However, for you to gain anything from this read, you will need first to inspect some of your current beliefs about yourself: your behaviors will come present by you becoming aware of how you approach this subject. After this inspection, be advised to create a few of your own new beliefs about potential and possibility. We can teach you how to do this in several ways.
Beliefs Background
The way we explore our world is instrumental in the way we behave toward possibility and potential. We ask that you look at one or two of your current beliefs about these. There are huge clues for you inside your knowledge about them.
However, regardless of the awareness that you gain about yourself and your in-place beliefs, we ask you to inspect more deeply. We know that you can create new beliefs and change the results you attain to expand how your beliefs operate for possibility and potential.
What Do You Believe today?
In your world today, how do you perceive the possibility? Has it come present for you? It is a concept which you have little regard? What kinds of experience do you have with it, showing up? Is It something you find worthy of exploration, and do you have a history of exploring? Have you ever, or do you now consider this questioning helpful in your understanding of how you think and feel about this subject? Does this matter to you? Would you like to learn more about it? Have you seen it occur in others, but not you? This list of questions can be as endless as the possibility.
When answering these questions for yourself, select a number from 0 to 10 for your beliefs' importance and strength. We invite you to explore our CAM Awareness Scale because it can be helpful for your understanding of these fundamental beliefs.
Courage and desire are closely associated with possibility and potential. Passion is also generally coupled with motivation, which many times is foundational with potential. Does any of this resonate with you?
Limits Established by Others
Potential is very similar to the possibility, which we argue is unlimited. But, for most of us, limits have been placed on our potential. Those limits include earnings, personal and professional stature and growth, abilities, and capabilities – all set by some low, average, or high bar, usually defined by some survey or research studies: almost always created by other people. The intelligence quotient may be one of those limiting factors.
Limits sound familiar because we all have seen reports and studies about earnings by positions, groups of people classified by ethnicity, age, social-economic ranges, etc. Today there are more studies than we know what to do with, plus the drive-me-crazy top-ten list about something and everything.
This data can be helpful to gauge attainment, but it can also dampen our ideas about potential: inadvertently affecting our own beliefs. However, we want you to recognize how limiting your current beliefs about your potential is transforming the way you participate in the world today.
Questions About Your Potential
A way to determine a portion of your potential is asking some of the following questions and while answering them to score them 0 to 10 for importance to you and strength of your current belief about them:
What are my earnings and growth potential over the next five years?
How capable am I to change the way I perceive my potential?
Is my belief about my potential affecting the way I behave today?
Do others see untapped potential in me?
What of these following topics are best suited to me: communications? Relationship building? A new career? Etc.
What are my abilities and am I capable of expanding, enriching, and using them for others and my benefit?
Rick Warren has spent some strong effort in helping people unlock their potential, so we recommend reading his book "The Purpose Driven Life: What On Earth Am I Here For?". In his book, he defines the acronym SHAPE as:
S = Spiritual Gifts
H = Heart
A = Abilities
P = Personality
E = Experience
We think exploring this will be helpful for you.
Influenced by Others
Others influence us without realizing the impact, which we believe is tremendous. While we highly recommend turning off your television, radio, and other forms of media for large parts of your day or weekend time, that isn't the answer to unlocking your potential and seeing possibility arrive for you. Yet, this practice will help reduce the negative influence.
We want you to be influenced in useful ways that support your beliefs and help you grow personally and professionally by viewing all these influences through the lens of your beliefs: let in the helpful and exclude the limiting. Learning how to recognize limiting is a simple examination of the data: what will this information do for me, and how will it impact my thinking, behaviors, experiences, and beliefs?
What's Next for You?
This blog intends to get you started unlocking your potential, and it is only a starting point. Stay with us this journey and keep reading our blogs to understand beliefs and how they affect us all.