We are born with the potential to be the best we can be. Our potential is the talent that each one of us is endowed with. Unfortunately, we take it for granted. Our inability and unwillingness to discover it prevent us from turning that talent into a skill. That raw material, which is your talent, can be polished through passionate and consistent discipline and turns into a valuable skill. This is the only road worth undertaking. But it seems easier to reach the moon than reaching our potentials; to reach outwards than reaching inwards.
Related: You are a True Masterpiece in the Making
It takes a self-aware person to realize his unfulfilled potential. Though you might be reaching your goals, moments of frustration hit you from time to time. Your low self-awareness keeps you from seeing the treadmill you are in. The treadmill of pursuing career goals, family obligations and the like. There is barely moments of relaxation in your life that might open your eyes. And when these breaks happened through mindful practices such prayer, meditation or keeping a journal, your soul seems to be flourishing.
To realize and reach your potential, one leap of courage is the only resolution. It just needs a belief in yourself. A belief that can be achieved through making a small win of achieving the first $500 dollars along a path of targeting $10,000 sales a month. Belief in thinking big but acting small. This will breed confidence of your ability to achieve more. Motivation kick starts your behavior and a consistent self-discipline keeps you going and hitting your target. Fear will intensify the more you achieve, but celebrating every small win is capable of mushing the negative voice inside of you.
It’s not hard to spot a talent who wastes his potential. One of those is in the world of football. The Italian player Mario Balotelli has unconsciously chosen to be a victim rather than being in charge of his own destiny. His football career was manifested by his rampant inconsistency. When at his best, he is the finest and unparalleled midfielder in the world, but most of the time he is making problems for his team. By time and as his career progressed, he seems to be unable to control his flight of vanity and foolishness.
Balotelli’s low-self-awareness has caused his downfall. He lends deaf ear to the tips of the best coaches that have trained him as well as to the top players who supported his rash behavior. Top coaches like Jose Mourinho and Roberto Mancini did their best to help him reach his potential through steady discipline but he wasn’t ready to commit. Even a great player like Steven Gerrard lamented Balotelli’s fall as a “spectacular waste of talent.” Balotelli has the potential to be great but he refused to. Instead of being committed, he chose not to.
Believing in your untapped potential is the doorway to greatness. But turning that gift into a skill takes a lot of consistent effort and patience. The process involves arduous steps starting from making a decision to commit, to developing high level of self-awareness that will help you accept the brutal and honest remarks of your mentors.
