What is your true potential?
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 by mmcdermo
Could you be more than you are right now? If you approached mastering paper airplane design with complete, genuine sincerity and dedication, could you? Consider mastering something that doesn’t really turn you on – perhaps it’s paper airplane design, bricklaying, or, say, washing dishes. Yes, you potentially could but if it doesn’t drive you, if you don’t get lost in thoughts about it or find yourself in bliss while doing it, then considering it doesn’t help you. When you ask, “What’s my potential?” you aren’t talking about your potential in all areas, but rather those that fill your life with a sense of accomplishment, purpose, and joy.
We ask about our potential with intent of discovering our limits. We crave the sense of knowing whether we should be royalty or if our destiny is to beg on street corners as an ordinary bum. And, just as we look forward, we also stare back into the ghastly recollections of our past and ask if we met our limits - whether we really could have warned Sally about the nuts in the cookies or if she was doomed to break out with that unsightly rash and succumb to the nasty headache all along.
Simply put, all this worrying, comparison and theorizing does you no good. If you want to become the next Leonardo da Vinci, become an aerospace engineer or sell your fried-chicken franchise at the age of 73 for 10 million dollars, then go for it! Going after your dreams, no matter how unrealistic they may seem, will stretch you and challenge your determination. More important than this growth, pursuing your passion will bring fulfillment and happiness into your life.
The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
-Albert Einstein
You must grow beyond your current mindset to achieve your dreams and reach your full potential. One of the parts of mindset people have the hardest time evolving is motivation – you may desire something above all else, but without this mystical force creating action, nothing at all happens. Your dream sits as a puppy locked home alone – and usually causes just as much trouble and unrest.
So how do you go about working towards your dream? How do you acquire this motivation, and how do you “grow” a different mind set? There are several quality books that discuss this, and articles on this site that do the same, but one crucial tactic for cultivating unstoppable motivation deserves to be shared right here and now: Rolemodels. There exist for each of us people who have excelled in one way or another, the magnificent individuals whose accomplishments shine through history and reverberate within us: our heroes. I think everyone can gather more of these as they explore the people of the past and present, but I cannot overstate how incredibly important it is to just have them.
Rolemodels let us know that we’re right in feeling discontent with our daily grind; they lend us inspiration through the fabric of time and give us hope for the future of mankind, and the tangible, tantalizing anticipation that next week, next month, or next year we could be entrenched in our passion, completely loving life. This is important: you’re not just another schmuck on this planet! You’re a human with unique abilities and inclinations, and as a human you not only have the power to envision amazing, wonderful things that have never existed, you also have the power to make these things real. But without rolemodels, it’s easy to get lost in self-doubt.
Rolemodels also make our lives easier; they’ve already figured out what it takes to do what they want to do, and many times if they’re successful enough, the philanthropic urge overwhelms them and they write about it. Or, if you’re lucky enough to have a role model as a real living mentor, they can share their secrets to success with you. Some of these great people passionately pursue sharing what works – when you run across these people, take note and open up your mental sponge: you absolutely need this information to build your mindset.
As an example, consider one of my greatest personal rolemodels, Morihei Ueshiba (called O’Sensei, or great teacher by his students), founder of the Japanese martial art Aikido. Born in 1883, Ueshiba lived through a time of world war and conflict, and in this decided that his path was to share a system (Aikido) for the cultivation of universal harmony. While this sounds very lofty and new-agey, take note that Ueshiba was an undefeated martial artist, accepting challenges from any who wished to fight him. He took Daito-Ryu Aikijutsu, a highly lethal, traditional Japanese martial art, and used variations of its techniques to forge a way of peace! This man was even a hero in our modern sense - his life stories are often accompanied by tales of supernatural powers and impossible feats. As a martial artist, I always have O’Sensei to look up to; whenever I consider pursuing a martial path to be as effective in combat as possible, I know that this man took it all a step further: I must not only be able to control myself and any attackers, but I must use this control to bring about peaceful resolution. With great power comes great responsibility.
Okay, so the spiderman reference was really corny, but the point has been made: a hero rests inside each of us, and a slight few have freed themselves and let their real hero out. By observing these rolemodels, we have a great foundation to grow from and granite motivation with which to crush through problems.
Seeing how our heroes overcome diversity (did I forget to mention? O’Sensei was barely 5 feet tall) , and pursue their burning passion with every ounce of their being (think of Einstein, who didn’t even stop to tie his shoes) builds a sense of movement within us, not obligatory but absolutely seductive: we can no longer resist the call of our passions, and so we give in. We give in and start really living life, casting our history before that moment as the back-story to our own personal, heroic tale. We may be just text on a page 200 years from now (unless you happen to be a bioengineer dead-set on deep-freezing the aging process), but right now we have this life, this body, and these circumstances. Now that you’re well aware of your lucky situation, I have one last question for you: Are you sure the path of a hero is yours? They always say that a hero is nothing without a good villain…
