Respect your Potential

What does it mean to respect something? I believe it means to pay attention to it, to realize its capacity and be aware of its potential. Well then how much potential is in your potential? I would have to say that the answer to this would be infinite. There really is no limit to the potential of your potential. It feeds itself and builds on itself perpetually with every growth and learning experience.

Several years ago I coached a 12 year old baseball team that started off losing several of its first 10 games. I could tell that this team was either going to succeed or fold based on how they handled these early days. We discussed potential over reality. We discussed that we may not be winning many games now but that if we worked hard and were willing to persevere our potential would kick in and things would turn around. The boys all decided to stick together and get to work. We practiced for hours and hours every day, up to 8 and 9 hours on the weekends. There attitude and work habit became infectious and they began to win some games. We decided to enter a tournament in Las Vegas and match our skills up against some the best team on the West coast. We scraped by our first game and knocked off some of the doubt that had crept in as a result of listening to the rumors of how good everyone else was. We won our second game by a big margin and the confidence began to rise even hire. Our potential was building even more potential. Two days later we found ourselves in the finals against what was believed to be the best team in California. We pulled a meeting before the first pitch and discussed all of our hard work and all of the barriers we had overcome in the past few months. We talked about how far we had come and how this is just one more of those breakthrough moments for us. Two hours later we were lying in a huge dog pile, the champions of the Las Vegas Fall Classic! Truly one of the great memories of my coaching career.

We had embraced our potential more than our abilities. “Hard work beats talent because talent often times wont work hard”. Your potential deserves more respect than your abilities. If you are willing to out-work the field you will often out-perform the field! Most people won’t work hard because they believe their limits instead of embracing their potential. Unfortunately this then hamstrings your work habit and the passion behind your efforts. The only way to insure that you will never miss a goal is to never set one. We have to be willing to set goals that are beyond our current beliefs! By the very definition of a goal we are required to set it beyond what we think we can do. They need to be something that has multiple obstacles to overcome in order to achieve the goal. How thrilling would it be to watch a sporting event if there was no defense? The greater the challenge the greater the thrill, thus calling up your supernatural abilities that lay dormant until passion, hope and adrenalin put them into action.

After all who really risks more? The person who sets huge goals and goes for it or the one who sets no goals and hits every one of them? Those that are willing to risk and then pursue with all their heart at least have a chance! They may just hit them or find something even greater along the way! But the one who risks nothing is guaranteed to get exactly what he strives for, NOTHING! Your only limits are based upon your own beliefs and what you are willing to attempt. Never forget that omission and commission are a decision. Commission gets the juices going and gives you a chance. Omission only fuels doubt and fear which will eventually kill all hope and terminate any actions.

So I would suggest that if you are someone who likes to avoid risks, to get going! If you do nothing you risk everything. If you set some goals and get going you reduce your risks and give yourself a chance to unlock the massive potential that is inside of you. We all have it but we must decide to step up, reach out and throw our hearts at our dreams. I cant wait to hear your stories. Please feel free to post hear and let me know of your personal breakthroughs. You will empower many and might just set someone free!