7 Valuable Ways to Unearth Potential [Part 1]

“The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but life without a purpose”

“All men are sent to the world with limitless credit, but few draw to their full extent”

–Myles Munroe

What we all crave to hear

One day about 10 years ago ( in relation to the time of writing this), a comment by my bossy and no nonsense Manager made me cry. I was in my mid-twenties and was facing yet another career blackout. The organization had expanded but not with me–I was left behind because of my stinking attitude. In fact, the reason as to why I was left behind was so that I could successfully oversee closure of the premises…and consequently usher myself into joblessness.

The manager came by on the first Monday of the transition to see how I was doing. After ‘lording it over’ to me, he all of a sudden fell silent and uttered these words: “Lawrence, you are a great person and you do have lots of potential!“. To this date, I do not remember what else he said, but I chocked up teared up and developed a large lump in my throat…

Why I cried

You see, what he was telling me was what I inherently knew. I knew that I was filled with so much potential. I knew that I had so much promise. I knew that given the chance and in a proper environment, I would be able to shine. That is one of the reasons as to why I cried.

I also did cry because here I was with this great potential, great promise and absolutely nothing to show of it! I cried because with all the potential that I thought I had (I still know that I have lots of it and have not utilized even one quarter of it), I was actively overseeing my unemployment!

What if

What if the very next day after I received that feedback from the manager…I passed on and died? How do you think I would have faced my death?

With joy?

With satisfaction?

With a sense of accomplishment?

With pride?

Eager to meet God and give an account of my life?

Those are the questions that we ought to ask ourselves daily. Hardly could I say “Yes” to any one of those questions above at that moment in life…but there still was and still is some good news:

The good news

The good news is that I had realized that I had unused potential…unaccomplished purpose, unfulfilled dreams and un-expended talents and gifts. What If I was told that I had great potential and never believed it? What if I never realized in the first place that I had potential? That would be the biggest bad news ever…and if per chance I died, then the questions asked above are completely immaterial…for I had already died long time ago!

The Greatest Leveler

“There is no human being born of a woman in any dispensation who never had potential for anything! If you ever proved to me of such a one, then that is the day that I will become an Atheist, believing that there is no Eternal Creator”.

Lawrence Namale

You know, we have people from all walks of lives. We have people from different races, tribes, nations. We have people who are high born and those who are low born. We have people living in extreme poverty and those living in extreme opulence. We have religious as well as pagan people. We have people living in difficult, life restrictive conditions and we have those living in free societies affording them greatest opportunities to thrive. We have people born with disabilities and we have those born without a defect. We have those born in dispensations of war and those born in peace. We have those born in great technological advancement and those born when the greatest technology was fire!

Yet there is just one thing that each of every person in our human race, past, present and future do have in common,  apart from red blood flowing in our veins: Potential

Let’s agree on one thing: There is no human being born of a woman in any dispensation who never had potential for anything! If you ever proved to me of such a one, then that is the day that I will become an Atheist, believing that there is no eternal creator.

Why Write About Potential?

I have decided to write on this great subject for two reasons:

1. For me, it’s a heart Issue: I have not been able to set this subject out of my heart. From experience, I know and I have written that “If it matters to me, it surely does matter to the world”. So I have to be true to what ideas are flowing in my heart at the moment.
2. There Is Little Information: If you searched on the internet on the subject of potential, you would find it difficult to obtain concrete steps that can help anybody anywhere to:
   1. Know what is potential
   2. Believe that they do have potential
   3. Explore their potential
   4. Deploy their potential
   5. Make the world a better place with their potential

In the next 7 posts, we will highlight one aspect of potential: How to unearth it.

Stay tuned.