Potential

The other day I posted a comment about not living up to my potential. This comment elicited a response from my parents. They said that none of us really live up to our full potential. That reply to my post struck me. Perhaps it’s true. We all fall short of fully becoming the most supreme “us” that we can be. That shouldn’t be surprising. It makes sense, really. I can’t believe I hadn’t perceived it this way before.

Years ago, a wise person I knew told me, “As you get older, your have to become more mentally healthy. Life only gets trickier, so what you do to get by today probably won’t cut it tomorrow. You have to get better at it.” Most people you meet only grow at a rate that allows them to keep pace with the increasing complexity of their lives. It takes deep, personal growth and the cultivation of an increasingly healthy mental and emotional state to actually make progress in life. Without energy focused on personal growth, we are bound to be overwhelmed by the tidal wave of mounting pressures that face us as adulthood and responsibility expand. All it takes to ride that wave to shore, however, is one thing: focus. Focus, my friends. Focus.

And what does focus look like? Well, that depends. Focus is a very personal thing. It will and should be something that speaks to us all individual. It’s a personal revelation about where we need our energy to be channeled. It is “strength” the way someone like Marcus Buckingham describes it: that which gives you power, energy, to exist throughout the day. For instance, focus can mean a commitment to self-reflection, to self-analysis. It can mean a commitment to taking the fruits of that meditation and putting it into words, for the benefit of that individual and the benefit of those who may read those words. Kind of like someone would do with a journal or a blog. For example.

Focus can bring us one step closer to enlightenment. If the goal is something less lofty, then focus can at least lead to progress. And progress is a satisfying thing. If my friend was right, then progress means getting better at dealing with Life, with a capital. With progress, then, we can expect a greater degree of mental and spiritual health. As we get healthier, our ability to positively influence the world should increase. So, the bar continually gets raised.

It is true that none of us live up to our true potential because our true potential will grow as we grow. It should be a moving target. Our aspirations, by definition, will always exceed our abilities. And that is as it should be. From the day we are born until the day we die, every one of us will have that to wake up to.

Potential.