Wanna Get a Little Glimpse of "Hell"?

“The Definition of Hell: When you die, the person you became meets the person you could have become.” - Unknown

Years ago, when I first read this uncredited saying, it chilled me to the bone, and it never gets too far from my consciousness. I promise I am not going to get all morbid on you, stay with me for a few.

Long before I figured out that I wanted to be a coach, I knew that I could always see the untapped potential in people and that sight pained me, tremendously.  It makes me think of that Haley Joel Osment line from "Sixth Sense" - "I see dead people," - and how my version is "I see dead potential."

Years of trying to understand this ability, and finally figuring it out, brought me to where I am, today. I help people see their untapped potential and guide them as they work to achieve it. So many people just can't or won't see it for themselves.

The thing is, I can’t bear the thought of my coaching clients experiencing the figurative hell of realizing they didn’t become who they could have been. That they left so much possibility hanging in the balance.  There is something so painfully tragic about wasted potential.

In the next couple of days, I hope you’ll find a few quiet minutes to ask yourself where you are with your potential. How will you make sure that you are tapping into it so that, in the end, you can be proud knowing you became the best you possible? 

I gotta confess, part of me wants to call BS on this idea and thinks that you can grow your potential continuously…and that there’s always something left to achieve.  I go back and forth. That will have to be covered in another post, someday.

For today, though, I want you to feel a little scared about this particular notion of "hell." I hope you are just afraid enough to really think about what you need to do to ensure you never have to face that "hell" or feel the corresponding emotion.  Alright, alright - fine, this is probably a lot for a random Thursday. I'll take it down a notch. How about you just ask yourself if you are doing everything you can to achieve your potential in your sales career, or whatever your respective career may be? If you are honest with yourself, I suspect you will recognize that you are not.

That's ok, acknowledging it is the first step. Next, identify one thing you know you aren’t doing to the best of your ability. Something that is preventing you from being your best self. Make that the area you focus on for the next few weeks – let it be the muscle you stretch. Like a Teaser New Year's Resolution.

You should still ask the tough questions about your potential with life, in general, at some point.  Check out this article and exercise that I think can help you get centered on what matters most to you and where you need to devote the time and effort to achieve your potential. 

For me, right now, it’s my potential to grow my business where I know I have barely scratched the surface. I know what I need to do, but it has felt so overwhelming that I have struggled to find the motivation to do it.  For the past few weeks, I have been making a major effort to develop and gain discipline in this area.  I've already seen incredible results. Let me tell you, it ain’t easy. I know, though, that it’s a lot easier than realizing, someday, that I failed to give it my best or, worse, that I never really tried.  This thought-provoking quote and that scary little glimpse of my own personal "hell" that came with it, have been an incredibly powerful source of motivation.