3 Tips to Discovering Your Full Potential

In simple terms, potential is an unrealized ability, but I love how Dr. Miles Monroe puts it in his book titled "Understanding Your Potential," that it is dormant ability, reserved power, untapped strength, unused success, hidden talents, capped capability, unexposed ability.

He goes on to say that it is…

"All you can be but have not yet become"

"All you can do but have not yet done"

"How far you can reach but have not yet reached"

"What you can accomplish but have not yet accomplished"

So, that means it is something that already exists in you and me, it just hasn’t been realized yet. For various reasons, maybe there’s even a disconnect between you and your potential.

And it is saddening to see how much many of us allow our fears, responsibilities, and life disruptions to rob us of our greatness, preventing us from realizing our full potential.

I know this because I have let fear of uncertainty about a whole lot of things hold me back from following my heart in pursuing my passion for a long time.

Reflecting on this has led me to jot down the following 3 tips that I believe would get anyone started in avoiding this reality happening to them.

1. Know your identity

Knowing your identity helps you remain grounded and focused. Knowing your identity means knowing who your source is and what it says about you. Without excluding anyone with a different religion from mine, to help me drive my point home, I want to share a story of a man called Gideon from the Bible, which you may or may not be familiar with. I’ll summarize his story, only focusing on the context of my point.

Gideon was an Israelite. During his time, the Israelites were oppressed by the Midianites. Gideon was a fearful man and lacked self-confidence. One day, an angel of God found Gideon hiding under the winepress threshing wheat. Gideon was hiding from the Midianites because, had they seen him, they would have taken his harvest.

I’m not quite sure of the conditions of a winepress, but my imagination tells me that it must have been a humid place. To make things worse, Gideon was under it, which also means it must have been a dark place.

Now, you need to understand that wheat is meant to be threshed in an open, visible space where there is wind to allow the wind to blow away the wheat chaff from the grain. But what did Gideon do? He hid under the winepress to do this, which was probably a dark and humid place. For him to be doing that illustrated how fearful he was of the Midianites.

But something interesting happened. When the angel of the Lord appeared to send Gideon to save the Israelites, he referred to him as a "mighty warrior." That is what God, Gideon's source, knew him to be, although Gideon didn't realize that about himself. Instead, he had given the angel all sorts of reasons why he shouldn't be the one taking the role.

But after the angel had proven to Gideon that he was indeed capable of the task, he believed the identity his source had said about him that he was a Mighty Warrior. His faith and confidence grew, and he was able to defeat his enemies and brought peace for the Israelites.

That is what happens when you realize who you are and lean on what your source says about you. You get to accomplish things you never thought possible.

2. Stay in your lane

By this, I mean, resist the urge to compare yourself with other people. We are all special, unique individuals with different gifts. No matter the size of your gift, when used to its full potential, it serves its purpose and makes the difference it needs to make wherever it's needed.

Don’t try to be someone you’re not; be the best version of yourself. The world needs you, and no one else can do a better you than you can. Our creator created us the way we are for a reason. All you need to discover is your purpose in the universe and familiarize yourself with the fruits YOU are supposed to bear.

Notice that I have YOU in capital letters because it is most likely that you’ll identify your purpose but may say it’s nothing new. There are a lot of people already serving that purpose. You may wonder what it is that you will do differently. Yes, all of that may be true, but are they doing it the way that you would? There is someone out there that will relate more to you than the people you are referring to, and those people need you to serve them. This is one area I’ve struggled with in pursuing my passion, and I can’t say I’ve completely overcome it, but I have sure come a long way.

Let me make it personal for you. Who is the person you know when they speak, they always inspire you? You may even feel like they are directly talking to you. Is there no one else who does what they do? What makes them special to you compared to others? That is the very same reason why you too have your own role to play.

Sometimes you may need to collaborate with others to achieve a specific goal. When you do, you must avoid losing yourself in the process and also don't seek to change the other person. Know your mission in the process and stick with it, and they too, stick with theirs, and you’ll produce magic.

3. Nurture your individuality

The third and last point is to nurture your individuality. Nurturing your individuality means knowing what will help you move forward to help you become the best version of yourself.

While I encourage being content with who you are and where you are, I don't want you to be complacent. You know you are complacent when you feel too safe in your comfort zone. The moment you're too scared to explore and expand your knowledge, you must know you've stopped growing, and soon you'll feel stagnant and demotivated. The trick here is to aim at adding just enough variety to not overwhelm yourself in areas of your life where it's needed. This way, your mind is familiar with new things. You'll more likely not over-contemplate things and be crippled by fear. By virtue of human nature, we are wired for growth and we yearn for it. It shows from how we were born as infants to who we are today. The curiosity you had as a child may be sadly numbed by your experiences and more belief in what people say about you than what you know about yourself.

You see, just like a tree that needs water to grow, invest in your personal development, learn, share, and implement what you learn. That's how you will ensure you unlock your potential. It is devastating how we invest in a whole lot of things, such as finances, our families, clothes, etc., but not in our personal growth.

A little caveat about personal development: you need to be careful of information overload. Don't snatch every good thing that comes your way. Remember that something may be good, but it doesn’t mean it's right for you. And even when it's right for you, sometimes it's the timing that's not good for you. Learn to say no, even to good things, if they are going to set you off track.

Remember, a journey to discovering your full potential is the most satisfying journey that leads to self-discovery. So, if you haven't walked this journey, I dare you to embark on it.

Now, write in the comments: what personal development promise are you making to yourself today? To add a sense of urgency to it, also write down when you want to accomplish this. I'd love to hear from you.