Hidden Potential of Adversity

Potential, by definition, is something yet to manifest. It is a belief that we have an unrealized ability that we haven't tapped but are capable of tapping. Most of us believe that we possess much more potential than we tap in childhood. The older we get, the less time we have to take action on it, which causes some to bury it. But you don't have to; you can dig down and tap it.

But like with anything pursued, there is a cost. What's the price of setting out to tap your potential? The first step is shedding some cultural programming and seeing yourself and the world afresh through your eyes.

Our culture likes to sweep the nature of reality under the rug. It presents a world where things come quickly, and unpleasant experiences can be avoided. But this world does not exist. And too many people try to contort and bend themselves to "fit in." However, the problem with ideals is that nobody can ever live up to them. Think about it: your life experiences and expectations have been far from ideal.

The truth is that we experience adversity, pain, and grief. We also experience transformative moments, joy, and love. You will also experience plenty of ambiguity, uncertainty, and insecurities. And when we actually work with these challenges, we usually experience greater moments of transformation, connectedness, and joy.

But why does it take adversity to experience moments where our potential can rise to the surface and give us a new lens, a transformed perspective, and an overall better feeling of life? Let's take grief. There is no worse experience than the death of a child. But it's the throes of that grief that you have to navigate. What the world or anyone else has to tell you is of no consequence.

And something else happens. In the worst circumstances, the absolute best in the people around you shines. We all have these untapped qualities that somehow emerge from behind the curtain to inspire faith in our existence, that we are more than capable of depth and quality of giving to each other to improve our surroundings. Each person somehow contributes in their own unique way and yet somehow knows that the griever has to grieve.

The fact is that these moments take work. The type of work that gets our heads and our hearts working together. That work begins with you. We are making time to reflect, invest in relationships that force you to stretch, and to forget about looking to gurus who might have the next quick fix. Time is our most precious resource, and our ability to find opportunity in adversity gives life depth and vibrancy. The people around you need your unique talents and your soul. Our gratitude for being alive is an obligation to reach into our innermost essence and tap our potential.

Danny is the co-founder and CEO of Pathways and the author of Meaning at Work: And Its Hidden Language in which he explains that meaning is a fundamental human drive that has profound and practical applications in business and society. Danny has spent his career in pursuit of understanding the role of meaning in our lives and, especially, in our work. He has collected thousands of hours of recorded interview data from hundreds of teams discussing how they saw the connection between their work and what mattered to them personally.

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