10 Ways You Can Tell You Are Not Fulfilling Your Potential – Part 4

T he amount of money spent on military and tactical intelligence in the world’s security systems is astounding. That we want to know what the enemy knows and what the enemy is planning is an obsession as it is a prudent thing to do. We want to know the potential that the enemy has or doesn’t have against us.

Top Dollar

Interestingly enough, when it boils down to individual lives, the story is the same. We spend quite a bit of time and money and other resources trying to muster the information that is without. All along, there is one critical piece of information that is always available but is never acted upon—our potential.

This intelligence about our capacity is there to be seen all our lives. However, it is one of the most ignored pieces of information the world over. There are many reasons for that as already explained in the other articles on the blog. Today, we continue to give you a test that will help you see that you are ignoring your potential.

Recap.

1. You are Not Living On Purpose
2. You are Only Focused on Survival.
3. You seldom introspect
4. Thinking You Have No Gifts/Talents
5. Not Using Your Gifts/Talents To Do Your Main Work
6. Fitting In Instead of Standing Out

7. Fear

The reason why fear is a big player that makes people not exploit their potential can be connected to what is already existing. We talked about fitting in and standing out in the previous article. The status quo exists to maintain certainty not just in individuals, but in a whole community.

Wars can be fought and multitudes of people killed because someone somewhere wants to maintain status quo. The same can be said about your potential. You see, your potential for the most part might not be supported by the status quo. When you are born, we do everything possible to make sure that you fit in the status quo.

Holds us Back

This is what gives fear is ultimate power over the life of potential exploitation. When we are going against the grain we are afraid of being different from the rest of the people in society. This fear keeps us hemmed in. We live our lives in pretense and all along the potential that is screaming in us is being silenced by the fear of being different.

Fear manifests in other ways too. As already shared, we live to cherish certainty. That’s why we follow things that are tried, proven and tested. Exploitation of potential, however, is different. It teaches us to venture into the unknown, untried, unproven, untested and the uncertain. Again, this is where fear rears its head big time.

One more sinister way that fear manifests itself is when we are afraid of the opinions of others. What will they think about us? Aren’t we going to look like weirdos? We welcome that fear and it paralyses us. Then we end up doing just the required, and never exploit our potential.

8. Procrastination

Someone said that this is dying in installments. When you look at the nature of procrastination carefully, you will find out that it is a cop out strategy. It is laden with excuses so that we can let ourselves of the hook of uncertainty and discomfort.

When we procrastinate, we are for the most part doing that which does not help us to cultivate our potential. We are indeed doing the opposite. Procrastination is sitting on your potential because you are comfortable enough to afford the laziness.

Productive Times

That is at times why we suffer a crisis. If you ever saw a crisis in your life, you notice that at times, it is one of the most productive times. You move heaven and earth to get things that matter to be done. And for the most part, the things that matter are connected directly to our potential excavation.

So every time you catch yourself pushing to tomorrow what can be done today, you are comfortable enough to waste your potential today. But every time you find yourself doing what you must do today to excavate your potential, there are two things involved. Either, you are under a serious crisis and must rise to the occasion or you are a self-leader and you are rising to the occasion.

Little By Little

Indeed, procrastination is not just what we do to postpone things to tomorrow. It happens even within the day where you get distracted by pesky things and don’t do what requires attention, grit, determination and discomfort. In the end, what could easily have been done is not done. It becomes what Christians call “bondage”.

At times, procrastination if fueled greatly by distractions. We have social media, games, movies, food, chats with friends and so on. The list of distractions is endless and it keeps increasing in each niche and the niches keep increasing too. The thing to do is to schedule all these things so you can do that which can excavate your potential.