Can you actually fulfill your potential?

"The big challenge is to become all that you have the possibility of becoming. You cannot believe what it does to the human spirit to maximise your human potential and stretch yourself to the limit." - Jim Rohn

Many people speak about fulfilling their potential. For many years, so did I. I even had this phrase in my mission statement -?Helping leaders and their teams fulfill their potential and perform at their peak.

This begs the question, can you ever really fulfill your potential? The longer we think about this question, the more we come to the conclusion that we can't. Particularly if we use the 'just beyond - well beyond' model (which I wrote about in my last post, you can read about it here) to understand potential and how we can develop our capability. Every time we achieve something new, we shift the limits of our known capability which in turn shifts our frame of reference for what is just beyond or well beyond.?

In this way, our potential is like an asymptote. An asymptote is a geometric term that describes when a curve on a graph approaches a straight line, but will never actually touch it. If you look at the graph below you will see the red curve coming close to the x-axis. In an asymptotic scenario, if we continued the x-axis of this graph to infinity the curve would continue to get closer but would still never touch the axis. In the algebraic equation for this curve, the y variable would continually reduce but would never actually reach zero.

So we can describe our potential as being asymptotic. Every time we achieve a goal and we shift our limits, there is always something still left in the just beyond. As we develop our expertise and get closer and closer to the theoretical absolute limits of our potential, the distance between what we have achieved and what lies beyond reduces. Once we develop expertise the reality is that each time we shift our limits in that specific area, the size of the shift gets smaller and smaller.??

The first time I ran half-marathon distance, I did it in a bit over two hours. Each time I ran that distance again, I would be quicker by a couple of minutes. In the lead up to my marathon, I completed a half marathon event. I ran 1hr 49mins. Over a 12-month period, I had been able to reduce my time by over 15 minutes. Elite runners will work harder than I did over the same time period to be able to shave just 10 sec off their personal best time. If we look at the best marathon runner in history, Eliud Kipchoge, who is the only person to have ever run a marathon in under two hours (1:59:40), any gains he will make on his time will be minuscule. Does he have the potential to run faster? Yes, but not by much. Any gains he might make are likely to be in the single-digit seconds realm.?

Fulfillment means there is an endpoint, an absolute limit that once reached no more can be achieved. If you use this model to understand our potential, that is not the case. The use of fulfillment when describing potential is also dangerous for another reason. It's dangerous because it places limits on our mindset. If potential is something to fulfill, then the process we go through is to set a series of just beyond goals until we reach our limits. If our final goal is at the absolute limit of our potential, once we achieve it, what then? Then there is no more to be achieved after that.?

This sudden realisation can have a significant impact on us. It can cause us to lose motivation, which usually is not limited to the domain in question but also seeps into and erodes the drive and discipline in other areas of our lives.?This becomes especially prominent if the achievement of our potential has become part of our identity. If who we are becomes intertwined with trying to fulfill our potential in a particular area, then the fulfillment of it can lead to an existential crisis.

What now is my purpose in life?

Am I as good as I will ever be right now?

Does everything only get worse from now on??

The other danger to conceiving potential as something to be fulfilled is that it places limits on our mindset. For many years, people believed that four minutes was the absolute limit of human potential when it came to running a mile. Runners came close but many believed no one would ever run a mile in under four minutes. Young runners grew up being told and therefore believed it was not possible. They had a limit placed on their thinking and beliefs. Yet on the 6th of May 1954, Roger Bannister ran 3:49.04. Since that time over 1500 runners have achieved a sub-four-minute mile. The same was said of the two-hour marathon. We've already mentioned how Kipchoge proved that possible.?

Fulfillment implies limits. Limits limit. They limit our mindset and what we believe is possible. This limits our ability to dream of what could be possible. A person can only achieve what their mind can first conceive. If we do not first dream of what could be, then we won't believe what can be. In this case, we won't even begin to do what is necessary to make those things a reality. As John Maxwell writes,

"If you put a?pumpkin in a jar when it is the size of a walnut, it will never get bigger than the jar. That can happen to a person too. Don’t let it happen to you."

Rather than talk about fulfilling our potential, I choose a subtle change in language... I now describe the?pursuit?of potential.

The shift in language is a small but powerful one. While fulfillment implies limits, pursuit does not limit. The language of pursuit also fits with the concept of the asymptote. If we understand our potential to be asymptotic, something we might get closer to but never actually reach, then striving for fulfillment which implies reaching and completing is akin to striving for the impossible. The language of pursuit however evokes the thought process of, 'Let's see what is possible.' Let's see how far we can go. Let's see how close we can get. Let's see how good we can become.?

The language we use frames the thoughts we have. It is our thoughts that both shape and reinforce our mindset. It is our mindset that shapes what we do and therefore whom we become. Henry Ford once said, “There is no man living who isn’t capable of doing more than he thinks he can do.” My question to you is when it comes to your potential, does your language and your mindset facilitate you doing more tomorrow than you thought you could yesterday? Does it implicitly limit you and focus you on your limits, or does it encourage you to focus on what is and might be possible??

I love the gentle encouragement Sue Augustine provides when she says, "Who you were yesterday does not control the person you have the potential to become." I know I never want the perceived limits of my yesterday to determine what is possible for my tomorrow and restrict what I do in my today.

So when it comes to my potential, I'm intentional about the language I use. I've made the switch from fulfilling potential to pursuing potential.

Will you?