Unleasing Your Potential

The Oxford English Dictionary defines potential as “having or showing the capacity to develop into something in the future”. This definition certainly speaks to me. Many people believe that some things are totally out of their reach and because of these limiting beliefs, stop striving to achieve their goals. There may be no truth in the statement that anything is possible for anybody. For example, if you are a wheelchair user, it may be a very difficult feat for you to run a marathon, but you could certainly wheel one. This leaves it more realistic to say that anything is possible, for anybody, on their own terms. This now brings in the whole concept of a person’s potential, something that I believe is very overused and much mis-understood.

We all have potential to be something in the future and that future is ever changing. In years gone by, it was thought that the life we were born into was the only life you could live. This, thank goodness, has become a very outdated way of thinking. However, some people are very happy with their lot and would not change it even if they could. This I believe is a very important point to remember when considering your own potential. I ask you now to reread the definition again and again until it has well and truly sunk in and is fully registered with you. You can indeed be anything you would like to be, within your own parameters, but it will take new ways of thinking and behaving from you. You will need to know how to set goals and achieve them before you can achieve that potential. If you keep going down the same road, you will get the same result, so once you’ve identified the potential that you would like to move into, then I believe you will find the following goal setting strategy very helpful in helping you achieve that potential.

Goal Setting – Learning How To Set Goal
Focussing on the final outcome of a goal when it seems very far away can be overwhelming. This in turn can lead to a disheartening effect. It will be a lot easier if you break your goal down into mini goals. For example, you could set outcomes that you would like to achieve in certain time periods. Let’s say your plan is to achieve your goal in one year, you could break this into 12 sections representing the twelve months. For me, my health is something that I place great importance upon and therefore is one of my top 3 life goals. This is because without your health, you pretty much will have difficulty achieving any of the other goals in your life without it. So setting a goal like eating more health enhancing living food will move you towards this goal. This will mean being organised and not just grabbing the first thing that is put in front of you because you’ve let yourself get so hungry, your blood sugars will tell you to eat something, anything and quick! You could decide to make a new vegetarian dish every month for your family, which would also move you towards this goal. If you decide to take out all processed foods from your diet over night, you are setting yourself up for failure. This is because we need to get organised when we want to achieve a goal. If you have no idea how to cook a healthy meal, then you will resort back to your old ways of eating pretty quickly. Once you are back in your old and very comfortable way of eating, you will tell yourself that this is actually the way of eating that suits you best….all because you failed to plan! So each month set sub goals for yourself. Continue to keep your final outcome in your mind and subdivide your mini goals within the time framework that suits you.

Some questions to ask before setting your personal goals.
If we don’t know what we truly desire in life, it is difficult to create a situation where it can happen. Tuning into nature, regular physical exercise and quite contemplative time are ways that can help restore the connection to who we truly are.

• What do I really enjoy doing?
I love this one because most people forget that what they enjoy doing will bring them most pleasure….Note to self: must dance more!

• What am I passionate about?
Is there a topic that you feel very drawn towards and one that you find yourself speaking up about in particular? This will also serve as a good guide for you and will help you set clearer goals. No point in becoming the chairperson of the bingo club, if you’re really find nothing of interest in bingo.

• What makes me feel alive?
When I eat good food, I feel amazing and this is a feeling that I like reproducing. What makes you feel alive? Walking, nature, meeting friends, writing, painting. Do take some time to figure this out.

• What do I want out of life?
Ask yourself what do you value? Money, fame, family, community status, peace…..Asking
yourself these simple questions will help you get clear on exactly what your life is about for
you.

• Where do I want to be in five, ten years time?
This question will help you get organised. If deep down you would like to own a house in the country, and you live in an apartment in the city, then maybe you could take some visits to the country at the weekend and keep it alive your heart and mind.

• What are my core values? (what’s important to me?)
This is extremely important for you to figure out. As I’ve mentioned above, health is one of my top 3 goals. This makes many of my decisions around staying healthy much easier. It makes exercising pleasurable rather than a chore. Figuring out what’s important to you will help get really clear on what direction your life will take.

• Who are the people I admire?
Doing this exercise, you will be able to see what qualities these people have that you admire. Once you’ve done that, you can then consider taking on some of their qualities.

• Who are my role models?
This is similar to the above except once you’ve identified these people you can now become more of a copy cat. If they’ve been successful in a particular career, then you can be too. If it has been achieved by one person on the planet, then it can be achieved by you too. I have a sister who really admired a particular actress. The actress was particularly funny, and my sister became very funny too. In fact, it was uncanny how like her she became. You do not have to become the person fully, but you can certainly take on aspects that might work for you and also look at how they achieved their life goals and work with that.

• If I only had a year to live, what would I like to accomplish?
Isn’t this a great question? I still ask myself this to keep myself on track. It is so easy to get caught up with the day to day grind of life that we forget to stop, step back and see if we’ve set our sails in the right direction, living daily by focussing on what’s important to us. What would your year look like?

SMART Goals
If you remember nothing else from this article, do remember the following and put it up on your fridge.

SMART goals are – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-framed.

• Work off of lists and mark the items by their importance.
• Do the toughest things on your list first. This will give you a sense of freedom and you will be surprised at how quickly you will get through the easier tasks.
• Delegate tasks to others when possible
• Surround yourself by experts. You cannot do everything yourself.

While all this is going on, it is important to set time aside just for you; outside of your personal commitments. Treat yourself to a massage, reiki treatment or just a walk in nature. It is in these quite moments that your greatest bursts of inspiration have space to come in.

To your good health and empowerment!

Ruth.