THE POTENTIAL, kiran patil [top ten books to read txt] 📗

THE POTENTIAL

THE POTENTIAL

What Is Potential?

We each possess skills and abilities that nobody else possesses quite like we do. We are each gifted with unique strengths and talents, whether this is a talent for display on the world stage, or on a small stage as someone who makes a difference to just a few other people. So how do we make the most of our personal potential? By creating the right mindset. Here are the key features of the maximising potential mindset.

 

Self-Improvement

There are two pulls in the human condition: to stay where we are and consolidate what we have or to discover what is still possible, what we could achieve, how far we could go. The result of these two opposing pulls is that some of us – perhaps the majority - choose the path of safety and security while wondering what we might have missed. Others take risks, go on adventures, seek to maximise what they possess, even at the expense of a quiet life. Managing the discovery of potential at minimum risk is the skill of self-development.

 

Happiness and Goals

Philosophers since Aristotle have linked happiness with the attainment of goals. That is why we find so much satisfaction when we reach our goals and happiness in the work that takes us there. For many people however, life is unhappy and unfulfilled. Daniel Yankelovich carried out extensive research into how people felt about their workplace achievements. 8 out of 10 people admitted that they could do much better. In a study by the California State University, Fullerton, 80% of people wished they were in a different job than the one they were in In a University of Michigan study, more than one in four employees surveyed said they were so unhappy with the products they made at work that they wouldn’t use them themselves.

 

Our Unique Talents

It is the mix of talents and other factors which produces potential. Potential can be regarded as the sum of talent, personality, will power, self-belief, drive and ambition, circumstances, opportunities and positive thinking.

“If a man has a talent and cannot use it he has failed, If he has a talent and uses only half of it he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded and won a satisfaction and triumph few men ever know.” (Thomas Wolfe)

The studies of self-development writers tell us that every single one of us possesses talents in some form or another. Our talents do not depend on background, upbringing, social class, job, ability or disability; hence the belief that they are divinely gifted. None of us possesses a greater or lesser talent than any other person. It is their use and application which distinguishes the so-called “talented” from the so-called “less-talented”.

 

Our Own Special Genius

The word “genius” means innate talent. It derives from the Roman mythological belief that everyone had two guardian spirits which attended them from birth to death; “geno” is Latin for “to be born”. One of the spirits was a good genius and brought good fortune; the other was an “evil genius” and brought bad fortune.

 

More popularly, the name “genius” is given to people who have displayed outstanding human achievements, endurance or accomplishments. We think of people like Alexander the Great, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci; Shakespeare, Goethe, Newton, Napoleon, Mozart, Einstein, Churchill, and in our own times, Bill Gates. But these people were no different from us. Their physiques, brain sizes, human strengths and qualities were essentially no different from any other. What was possible for them is also possible for us.

 

The Qualities of Genius

So just what are the characteristics of those who we regard as “geniuses”? Tony Buzan and Raymond Keene in their book, “Book of Genius” define history’s geniuses as those displaying the following qualities:

1. vision: the ability to see yourself succeeding in your goal

2. desire: the passion or wish to accomplish the goal

3. faith: the belief that you will succeed

4. commitment: the willingness to act on the vision

5. planning: the definition of how to realise the goal

6. persistence: the dogged determination to reach the goal

7. subject knowledge: a thirst to know about your subject

8. mental literacy: an understanding of the brain’s power

9. positive attitude: a belief that things will work out

10. intuition: the ability to sense that something will work

11. a mastergroup: a team of others who support you

12. an internal mastergroup: a mental image of supporters

13. truth: an awareness of what is true and real

14. courage: the ability to face fear and go on.

 

Do-It-Yourself

In our days of super-states, super-nations and super-organisations with cradle-to-grave care and dependency cultures, it is easy to adopt the view that it is up to others to manage our own self-development. After all, maximising employee potential results in self-motivated employees; employees who achieve more; people who learn more and can apply more: all valuable benefits for the organisation. But, as Chris Argyris of the Harvard Business School has pointed out, the natural inclination of organisations, particularly the large ones with the larger resources, is against the kind of people self-development produces. The conclusion is that self-development is a do-it-yourself skill and a do-it-yourself activity.

 

States of Existence

All of us in our adult lives find ourselves predominantly in one of three states: survival, maintenance or development. Survival means just getting by, a state that is like a shipwrecked sailor afloat on a life raft in a hostile sea struggling to cling to any passing wreckage. Maintenance means reaching a safe balance between ourselves and our environments where with luck we’ll come out alright. Development is the only state that we control and determine. If survival is like a swimmer in a hostile sea and maintenance is like a plumber on a leaky boat, development is like an oarsman with a course, a plan and a destination.

 

Creating Your Destiny

Philosophers and thinkers have for centuries puzzled over the extent to which our lives are in our own hands and the extent to which they are pre-ordained. Some believe we are who we are because of our inherited characteristics. Others believe we are the product of birth and upbringing. But all of us can set ourselves on the path we want by simply making our minds up to do it. Even in the most limiting society, we still have the free will to try. And that is the first step to creating our own destiny.

 

The Options of Change

So, if you are stuck in one of the survival or maintenance modes of development, ie just keeping your head above water.

do nothing. This may work but it also leaves you open to what others may do. It also may extend the

 

unhappy situation that you don’t like.

 

 

The Greatest Rewards

 

All of us have two distinct choices to make about what we will accomplish with our lives. The first choice is to be less than we can be. To earn less, have less, do less, and think less. These are the choices that lead to an empty life, a life of constant apprehension, instead of a life of wondrous anticipation. Our second choice is to strive, produce and accomplish as much as we possibly can. Just as a mighty oak reaches up towards the sky, we have the worthy challenge to stretch to the full measure of our capabilities.

 

Our ultimate life objective should be to create as much as our talent, ability and desire will allow us to create. The greatest rewards are reserved for those who bring the greatest value to themselves and those around them as a result of who they are and who they have become.

 

Key Points

1. Potential is the possibilities we each have inside us to perform to our maximum capability.

2. We each have unique talents not possessed by anyone else.

3. It is the way that talents are developed and used that distinguishes the so-called “talented” from other

People.

4. What we can achieve in life is a blend of talents, drive, circumstances, skill, luck and positive self-belief.

5. Self-development is a do-it-yourself skill and a do-it-yourself activity.

6. If an organisation wants to develop its staff, it cannot treat them as immature people.

 

2. Self-Development

 

Everyone has it in them to develop themselves to their fullest potential, whether in work, relationships, family, endeavours, sport, whatever. It requires a mix of qualities, mindsets, and behaviours. Here are the most important of these qualities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attitude

Attitude is the start and end point of all self-development work. Without the right positive attitude of self-belief, you will not achieve anything of importance in your life. With it, everything is possible. As Charles Swindoll put it: “I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.”

 

Mike Pedler in his book “Managing Yourself ” suggests that there are three key mental attitudes that self-managers require:

 

• security based on your past experiences and an awareness of who you see yourself to be;

• faith based on a belief in your talents, your opportunities and your abilities;

• hope based on a certainty that you can advance towards your goals.

 

 

Ability

 

You’ll have a tough time achieving your full potential in life if you try to do something you have no gift for. It is much easier to take time to find out your own unique gifts and develop these. Here’s what Quentin Crisp says: “It’s no good running a pig farm badly for thirty years while saying, “Really I was meant to be a ballet dancer.” By that time, pigs will have become your style.”

 

Faith

The one thing that distinguishes those who realize their full potential and those that don’t is Self-Belief. In fact, the strength of your self-belief is the one thing that determines whether you conquer mountains or conquer foothills. But self-belief, or faith, is not easy. It means a belief in something that you can’t prove or be certain of. It means believing in life’s magic. “Faith is like a bird that feels dawn breaking while it is still dark.” (Scandinavian proverb)

 

There are many inspiring stories of people in everyday situations who refuse to give in to received wisdom and limit their dreams. Chris Perrier for example. Chris was a 15-year-old looking for his first job on leaving school when he made up his mind that he would pursue his dream of becoming a professional football player. On April 15th 1997, Chris achieved his dream by signing on for Second Division Walsall in front of a 6,000-plus crowd. Nothing remarkable about that, you might think. But the photographs tell a different story: Chris was born with only one arm. Chris achieved the first step in his dream by overcoming his own mental and physical limitations.

 

Industry

There is a common fallacy that self-development work is purely a mental undertaking. Much of it is, perhaps most of it. But when the mental side is right, you still need to take action and work your socks off to achieve the goals you want for yourself. Novellist Charles Dickens put it this way: “Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity.”

for yourself. Novellist Charles Dickens put it this way: “Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity.”

Courage

It is easy to start the process of self-development, much harder to keep it going, particularly when the score seems to be going against us. That’s when we need courage. Lots of it. Sometimes we need a bold David versus Goliath kind of courage. At other times, we need a quieter courage, the kind described by Mary Radmacher-Hershey: “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying: “I will try again tomorrow”.”.

 

In 1995 Norman Vaughan conquered his mountain at last. Norman Vaughan was one of the earliest explorers to map out the landmass of Antarctica. In 1925, he discovered an ice-capped mountain 10,000 feet high. His fellow explorers named it Mt Vaughan after