No matter what inherent talents you were born with, what family you were born into, the money you’ve made or lost, in times of difficulty or lucky breaks, nothing will get you to where you want to be better than understanding your full potential.
It’s the breaking point in every successful story. The popular “poor man gets lucky” story or the “how I changed the world with my bare hands” tale comes from one important factor; people who succeed are the people who learn how to tap into something great inside them and live out their dreams. Each one of us has potential inside of us that is uniquely ours. It’s a random mix of our genetics, our environment, the way our body has been designed and the talents we were born with. Everyone has something different, some gift to impart to this world. The first step is discovering just what it is.
For some this is an instinctive process often aided by a watchful parent, teacher or coach who spots something in us from an early age. For others, it’s a struggle to identify for a range of reasons. We often have an instinct feeling of what we want to do as young children. This can be torn from us or pushed down by parental disapproval or expectations that don’t match our own natural talents. For instance, you may have been shaped as a creative person who loves to put colors and designs together, but come from a long line of successful accountants and business owners. There may be an expectation that you’ll be working in business as you become an adult.
Environment can also play a part. We often learn about what we are good at by trying new things. If you lived in an area where there weren’t a lot of options, or you didn’t have a lot of money to pay for classes or for travel, then you may have not experienced the things you are naturally good at.
"Sometimes our very ambition, mixed with false belief can get in the way."
For example, there was a guy named Michael, a talented and creative designer, who loved to put concepts together. However, he was raised in a poor family and had experienced that embarrassing feeling of frequently being the only kid in his class without cool shoes or the latest gadgets. While he loved design he felt it couldn’t make him money so he went for more traditional methods such as finance and accounting. No matter how hard he stuck at it he found himself stressed, unhappy and even worse, and poor as he couldn’t seem to climb up the ladder to success. Finally in desperation Michael started to do some designing for friends on the side just to keep him sane. At first it was a free thing, but as his designs were shown to others, people started to ask to pay him. He discovered that he could actually be doing something he loves and get paid for it. He just wishes he’d known that a lot earlier in life.
Our potential can also be cut short by circumstance. If you are struggling to meet bills every week, and you have a family to support or other responsibilities, it can be difficult to see your way out of it to unlock that missing key and find success in the things you were born to do. Whatever the reason or reasons that have brought you to want to unlock your potential, the most important thing from here on in is that none of that has to matter. For every time you’ve struggled and stressed that you’ll never find your passion and then be able to use it, there is someone else who has already done it and if they can do it, well you can too.