The Dangers of Potential
Enjoy this video where Kyle talks about the dangers of thinking in terms of your own potential. We have been told a lie that if we just "tried harder" we could be the next Bill Gates or Oprah. What if you could let yourself off the hook and just be free to be you? How would your life change?
Check out the full video and some main points of our discussion below.
Key Takeaways:
Potential is one of the most damaging ideas out there.
It’s the idea that I could be or should be more than I am. Almost everyone carries around this idea of potential and thinks, “If only I’d tried this, or done that...If only I’d tried harder in high school…” Basically, it’s the thought that, you somehow fell short of your potential.
This is the reset on this thought...You can congratulate yourself. You have exactly and perfectly attained your potential.
Your potential is perfectly realized in every moment. It is not possible that you could have done better. Your future potential is also established. Kyle says this is because each one of you always does your very best in every moment. You absolutely could not have done better. You can’t go back and change it. In every moment, you and everyone else is undeniably, undisputably doing their very best.
When I think that I haven’t fully realized my potential I think that I’m behind and that I have to make up for it. That’s where people get stuck in drive: trying to be more, or do more or have more than you have. You’ve already done it perfectly and couldn’t have been any better!
Once you realize you’ve done your best there is a relaxation, a coming into the present, and a softening that happens.
The idea of potential is a national mania. The U.S. is seen as the land of opportunity, the land of drive, the land of potential. As long as you aren’t lazy you can be anything you want to be. Anyone who isn’t Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Oprah, or any other successful person is because they just haven’t tried hard enough. That just isn’t possible.
We read all these personal development books, self-help videos, listen to podcasts and it can be more ammo to beat ourselves up with. You might think, “If only I could reach my potential I could be as serene as Eckhart Tolle.” Be careful what you do with what you consume because you can use it as an expectation or judgment on yourself.
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