With the accessibility that modern technology brings today we find ourselves exposed to vast amounts of impressive and seemingly impossible feats performed by others. What once would have been some form of sideshow amusement or traveling exhibition is now commonplace and can be viewed on nearly any handheld device. If you’re anything like me viewing these incredible things makes me reflect and ask, “Where is my ceiling of potential?”
To be frank, I have yet to find my ceiling in anything. As famed American philosopher and psychologist William James put it, “Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.”
Now some of that is from lack of trying through prioritizing, as how we choose to invest ourselves is important. We have a limited amount of time on this Earth and that makes how we spend it paramount. I’m not about to train my ass off for months on learning to spit watermelon seeds as far as I can to attain the world record, but I will evaluate my deepest desire for what I want to do with my time and plan for how to apply myself to that, then execute the requisite tasks. Many choose not to follow their desire to learn and be excellent at things because of the fear of effort and commitment to it. That effort takes time and energy and the thought of it is enough to keep most at bay from beginning their journey to a successful life. What they fail to recognize is that abstaining from that effort is far more taxing than anything they would encounter if they fully went for what they want! Constantly keeping a dream at bay, though it generally requires little outward and therefore observable physical energy, will sap incredible sums of energy over time. In essence, weakening you from the inside out. In a world with near limitless possibility we are the ones responsible for crushing our own soul.
Now the question posed as the title of this post is quite “loaded” as the honest answer will be unequivocally “yes”, there is always some way to improve our personal development. I want to get you thinking. For a moment just allow all of the noise around you and inside of you to subside and visualize what living up to about 75% of your potential would look like. How much joy would that bring you and your family? What would that sense of satisfaction do for your peace of mind?
Some think that reaching your full potential is a fool’s errand, as there is no possible way to reach it, so they never try. I’m going to let you know that it is not a fool’s errand. The truth of the matter is that you will never likely reach full potential, because as you get closer and closer to the ceiling of your potential, that ceiling gets higher and higher, and that’s a damn good thing! It’s called improvement. Let me use a severe example here. So many people just want the goal that is set and oftentimes lose sight of the journey. If we transpose that, only living for the end-game logic, we’d want to die as soon as we were born. Life is not about the end. It’s about the journey. We’re here to improve ourselves and enjoy what happens along the way.
I encourage you to put yourself out there. Get outside of your comfort zone and start defining the areas of your life that you want to improve and find a way in which to do so. The technology that has exposed us to such incredible feats as aforementioned also allows nearly unfettered access to those who can help you in your journey. Use it to make your life what you always wanted it to be!