I

have had a goal to run a 10 km marathon under one hour. This is an enduring goal that has been around for as long as I can remember. Somehow, when I came up with this goal, I always knew that I had the potential to do it. Initially, it was an over-ambitious goal of doing it under 30 minutes. At first attempt, I did it in about 46 minutes. That was about 7 years ago. Now I am older, 7 years older, so the goal has to shift to under 60 minutes.

An Epiphany

Yesterday, I went out on my normal jogging route. My desire is to participate in the upcoming Rotary Cancer run in Kampala in August 2018. I will use it as a benchmark to see if I can run for 10 Km under one hour. I have been at this preparation for a while now. At times, it has been arduous and embarrassing. But yesterday, it was different. I felt strong. I felt like I was going to shave off some minutes from my normal performance, and indeed, I did it. I could now clearly see the potential that I have to attain my goal. I still have a long way to go. But the epiphany that I had yesterday was that it was an absolute possibility to get this done. Just a week ago, I had dropped the goal to 5 Km because of my performance that day.

The Tipping Point of Potential

So there comes a time in your life that if you have been faithfully exploiting your potential, you hit a state or an aura of boundless possibility with what it can bring to you. That is the tipping point, the result of your incessant preparations. I have been writing for over 7 years now on this blog. However, I accelerated my writing about two years ago, averaging at least 15 articles a month. Initially, I would be doing 4 articles each month. In other words, I have quadrupled my productivity month on month on writing. Now, I am in a state where I feel like the tipping point is just about to come. This infuses me with such electrifying zeal to implore you to continue unearthing and deploying your potential as much as you can. Let’s find out how you can unearth your potential in the first place.

1. Living a Life of Depth

I am sure you might be asking yourself, “What in the world is that?” It is a good question. A life of depth means a life of impact, intentionality, urgency and purpose. Let’s break it down in manageable pieces. I heard Dr. Myles Munroe one day give an interesting statistic. He said that very many incidences of heart attacks in the work place were recorded on Mondays more than any other day of the week! It turned out that people dreaded Mondays because of several things. You see, a life of depth is not necessarily a life filled with activity from dawn to dusk.

More Than Activities, something deeper

In a life of depth, your idea of life is not existence. There is a heaven and earth difference between existence and survival. With survival, one is trying to overcome odds against them. In existence, there is no purpose, no direction…there is just drifting. Just being there. Just waking up, eating, working, paying bills and sleeping. Phillip Brooks said it best:

“Bad will be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely unconcerned with the life that he is living, with the thoughts that the he is thinking, with the deeds that he is doing when there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger, which he knows that he was meant to do because he is still, in spite of all, the child of God”
-Phillip Brooks 

Deep Calls To Deep

Living a life deeper than the surface calls out your potential and purpose. The life of depth will first of all be governed by purpose, vision and direction. Knowing what you want to do in life, knowing why you were created and focusing on that direction only causes you to tap in your potential. Your vision is connected to your purpose for being. Your purpose is made possible by your potential. Therefore, if you want to unearth your potential, the very first thing that you ought to do is to find out what your purpose in life is. This might seem as if it is a daunting task, but it is not. At least start from somewhere.

It’s About Impact

The simplest of acts that proffer a better life or situation for someone else will be firmly in the bracket of purpose. [ictt-tweet-inline]Here is the litmus test of purpose: it is for the benefit of others, not yourself. [/ictt-tweet-inline]A life of depth then focuses on adding value, helping or coming alongside to help those who are helping others. The interesting thing of course is that you do not need to travel to Africa and build schools or wells so that it is counted that you are fulfilling your purpose. Your opportunity to impact people is all around you. You do not have to travel even out of your neighborhood. And I can promise you this: [ictt-tweet-inline]The moment you start seeking to live a life of depth, inherently you will be compelled to look deeper inside of you in order to deploy your potential.[/ictt-tweet-inline] So what we are saying is that people are not unearthing their potential ostensibly because they are leading lives just on the surface–for themselves.

Let’s pick up these thoughts in the next post.