100% of your potential

You’ve probably been told that you have a lot of potential…that happens to smart, energetic, talented students who are headed to college. Students like you! You’ve worked hard to get here. You’ve given people ample reason to believe that you will achieve great things. You have a bright shining future ahead of you.

What exactly is potential? It’s defined as “capable of being but not yet in existence.” Your potential is what you are capable of becoming, but aren’t yet. It’s everything you will learn, strive for, and accomplish. It’s academic, personal, professional, athletic, social, civic, and everything in between.

Potential can be exciting – the sky is the limit and the choices are all yours. But potential can also be intimidating – what if you don’t live up to all of this “potential”? What if you fail to meet the expectations set for you by everyone else or you make the wrong choices? What if you don’t live up to your own expectations for yourself?

What is your potential? What are your possibilities? How much can you accomplish? What are your limits? Are there any limits to what you can achieve? How big can you dream? What is standing between you and your dreams? Do you have what it takes to leap those hurdles?

Your ability to reach your potential is largely due to three things – ability, hard work and attitude.

Ability

Ability is what you are capable of doing. These are the natural aptitudes you are born with plus the skills and talents you have developed through your life experience. They are your physical and mental limits.

Not all of us can be professional basketball players or propose the next theory of relativity. Some of us are naturally more able to learn a second language and others gravitate toward logic and quantitative pursuits. Some of us have exceptionally high IQs while others are gifted with high levels of emotional intelligence, curiosity or adaptability. Your abilities are subject to change through effort and focus on what is important to you though. While you are probably naturally better at some things that you are at others, in large part, your abilities are flexible and will change as you learn and grow.

If you think of the alphabet like a code where A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4 and so on then ABILITY = 1+2+9+12+9+20+25 = 78%. Ability will only get you 78% of the way to your potential.

Hard work

Hard work is the time and effort you put in. It allows you to take advantage of your ability and your talents and nurture them through diligence and focus. Motivation and hard work determine what you do with your abilities. Will you take full advantage of the skills, talents and abilities you have? Do you have the motivation to get up in the morning and work hard toward your goals? Do you have the drive to do it day after day?

Hard work is also what allows you to you learn and grow past what comes easily to you. If you want to develop skills in areas which are not your natural strengths, you will need to put in a lot of hard work. Branching out past your comfort zone can be uncomfortable. It’s challenging and requires a lot of hard work. Are you willing to put in the hard work to reach your full potential?

Without hard work those natural abilities will fade away through neglect and those abilities you have to stretch for will remain out of reach. Without hard work you will never know how great your potential was – you’ll be stuck at 78%. Hard work means doing the things you have to do to get what you want. It means overcoming short term pain for long term gain.

Using the same alpha-numeric code as above, HARD WORK = 8+1+18+4+23+15+18+1 = 98%. Hard work will get you 98% of the way to your potential.

Attitude

Attitude is the final piece of the puzzle. Attitude determines how well you do what you have to do and how much you enjoy it.

Do you have passion for what you are doing or are you just going through the motions and checking the boxes? Are you working your hardest and doing your best as a matter of personal pride and for the joy of learning or it is the grade or the degree you are after? Do you fully invest yourself in what you are doing or are you doing just enough to get by? Do you show up physically, but not mentally and emotionally? Is your goal to pass the class or to graduate with high honors? Do you take pride in what you do and find meaning and fulfillment in the process? Are you humble enough to accept feedback and work to do better next time?

A good attitude is what prevents you from doing things halfway, from skipping class when you don’t feel like going, and from failing to proofread your paper when it is late at night and you are tired.

ATTITUDE = 1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%. Attitude will get you all the way to your potential.

If you use hard work to build your abilities and approach the process with a good attitude, your potential is limited only by the scope of your dreams.