A sharp sword cuts through an object. It has this potential. When it fails to cut it acts like an old and rusty sword. What a waste of its potential!
Humans who have the potential to realize their potential are the same. The potential is still there but it is inert. Identifying and releasing these potentials are of paramount importance.
No one wants to be like an eagle with strong wings but is unable to fly.
I mentioned in my previous post “The Salt Effect on Our Attitudes” the power of salts to release the sweetness of the ingredients in making cakes. The paradox of salt is its ability to release sweetness.
The questions this fact brings to mind are what holds us from releasing our potential and what can we do about it?
Great leaders know how to release the potential of every team member. Those leaders know what salt suits every team member to do this. What can we learn from those leaders?
We trap our potential when we tend to stay in our comfort zones. We face hardly any shocking experience. There is no salt to sweeten what we do. In fact, we do the opposite. We add false sugar to our comfort zones. We enjoy being there more.
Our tendency to procrastinate is a second factor in us imprisoning our potential rather than releasing them. People need as much time as we give them. When we give people more time than they need we do not give them challenges to alert their potential. On the contrary, we give them more time than necessary. They respond by procrastinating. Their potential becomes dormant with nothing to shake them up.
A third factor is fear of change and facing challenges. Fear chills our potential and freezes them.
This coincides well with a comment by Susan LePlae Miller “One of the things I have learned as a Positive Intelligence Coach has been to see the gift in the challenge more readily. In the moment, it can feel quite daunting. But the salt of the challenges helps us to grow beyond our original thoughts.”
When we see challenges as gifts we release our potential.
A fourth factor is a lack of curiosity, wonderment, and passion. Nature is a great source of filling us with curiosity. Staying in closed rooms closes our potential. With time and no ventilation by curiosity, our minds become turbid. Turbid minds preclude the release of our potential.
A fifth factor is fear of feedback. Feedback may provide us with the needed salty criticism that would release our potential.
A sixth factor is the inferiority complex. Comparing ourselves with others may lead us to develop an inferiority complex. This complex traps our potential. We need to realize our need to be authentic and be ourselves.
I request the readers to release my potential by answering the following questions
- What other reasons are there holding our potential?
- What challenges released your potential?
- What held your potential from flowering?
I hope that we all help each other in realizing our potential.