U - UNDERSTAND YOUR POTENTIALS

Understand your potentials? Now that’s a concept you don’t hear often because most people just talk about discovering your potential and leave it be at that, not knowing that there are 4 other stages to pass through which I term the ‘DUNUM’ process; an acronym for discover, understand, nurture, utilize, maximize (check my previous posts to get you acquainted. Click on the link below) before you can say that you are fully achieving success with your potentials.

I believe the first question now is why should I understand my potentials?

Let me use this scenario – you discovered and bought a new equipment/machine that will make your work easier and help you maximize your productivity. The fact that you’ve discovered it and even know how to use doesn’t mean you can just take it out of the packaged box from the manufacturers and start using it. You need to first understand how to couple and use it by reading the manual attached to it before you start using it, see this article as a manual to use to understand your potential. A lot of us live through life assuming we know how to do so because of what we have learnt from other people, we live through life using other people’s manual for living, the same is what we do with utilizing our potentials. Although there are general rules that works on how to do so, but your potentials are so peculiar to you that you need a personal manual to understand the peculiarity of your potentials because you are unique and there is no one else with the same combination of potentials as you. Another scenario is -most times people don’t read the manual for a new model of car, we assume because we have been driving for years, it’s the same principle. So, we apply this principle to driving & managing the new car, it most likely will work until the car starts acting up or starts developing some faults. The same also goes with an android phone user using an iPhone for the first time without prior knowledge or understanding, obviously you don’t operate an iPhone the same way you operate an Android phone, you have to first understand how an iPhone works before you can fully maximize its potentials, by the way most people don’t fully maximize their iPhones because they don’t know and understand all the functionalities of the phone. If you really want to maximize your potentials, follow me as I tell you how to understand your potentials

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One of the most important things to do in order to understand your potentials or the uniqueness of your potentials and how to best utilize them is by knowing and understanding yourself. Just like in the words of Socrates:

“To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.” ―?Socrates

And the application of this knowledge (wisdom) will make it easier to understand what you have and how to use it.

I believe the next question is what am I to understand about myself and how do I understand myself?

There are lot of questions you can ask yourself and when you answer them, it gives you clarity on who you are. Though there are lot of self-discovery questions that can point you in the right direction, I am going to be highlighting just 3 salient questions that can get you started and they are:

1.??????What are my strengths and weaknesses? – I have to note that there some traits are neither strengths nor weaknesses, they can create a positive or negative result when exhibited, it all depends on how it’s been applied. For example, knowledge is neither good nor evil, how you apply it is what determines whether it is. These traits are actually part of your potentials, your strengths and weaknesses give you a better understanding on how to utilize them

2.??????What is my temperament? - One of the best ways to understand your temperament (which is defined as a person's or animal's nature, especially as it permanently affects their behavior) is by reading the book titled “Why You Act The Way You Do?” by Tim Lahaye, trust me, it will help you a lot.

3.??????What major experiences in my life has shaped me? – some experiences in our life have defined us and brought out some behavioral patterns. These behavioral patterns have either had a positive effect on us and brought out some potentials in us or it has had a negative effect on us and it has made some potentials dormant or inaccessible because of trauma. Sometimes the way forward means going backwards first then connecting the dots

In all, to truly understand who you are and your potentials, just ask who created you.

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Watch out for my next article on Monday…