In a recent study done, it was found out that the mortality rate of humans in 2020 is 100%. In addition, the study failed to prove that there reincarnation. The scientist concluded that you only live once! For this reason, they are advising everyone to learn How to Reach Their Full Potential.
Okay. The research is a joke, but at the same time, it is a reality we must face. You and I only live once, and you shouldn’t take that for granted. You need to learn How to Reach Your Full potential, so you will not have regrets when you finally reach the end of your journey.
In this article, I will give you 9 Steps that You Can Reach Your Full Potential. Here is an overview:
How to Reach Your Full Potential
- Find Out Your Life-Purpose
- Discover and Develop Your Gift (Skills and Talents)
- Learn From Others
- Don’t Compare Yourself
- Build Healthy Habits
- Eliminate Bad Habits
- Don’t Be Hard On Yourself
- Read, Watch, and Learn
- There is no Retirement Age
How to Reach Your Full Potential
1. Find Out Your Life-Purpose
I believe the first step in reaching your full potential is to discover your purpose. In other words, you need to find out why you are here on earth.
Each and every one of us here is not born by mere chance or an accident. There is a reason for your existence and you will be on your way in reaching your full potential once you discover that.
Here are some simple tests that you can use to discover your purpose:
- What thing/s makes you really happy (feel alive) when you’ve done it?
- Does this thing/s consistently make you feel happy or is it a phase?
- If money and resources are not a problem, what is the one thing you want to change in this world?
- Are you naturally good at it or are you willing to learn the skills to do it?
- Will it benefit others?
Let me share with you my answers to these questions.
- What makes me really happy is empowering people so they can do greater things they think they would never be able to.
- Yes. It constantly brings joy to me knowing that I helped someone to become a better version of themselves. To be honest, there will be a season when I want to quit doing it, but overall the idea of empowering someone pumps me up.
- I want to build para-churches or organizations that will empower the marginalized so they can live a purpose-driven life.
- I enjoy learning the skills that I need to accomplish this. e.g. learning how to blog from scratch, learning leadership skills, etc.
- Yes, empowering others so they can live a purpose-driven life will benefit many.
Now it is your turn. What’s your answer? Let me know in the comment section below.
2. Know and Develop Your Gift
Another thing that I believe is we already have the gifts (skills or talents) that will aid us in accomplishing our purpose.
Others can easily say what set of skills or talents they are really good at while others will not discover theirs for a few years. In addition, not because a person is not good at it or don’t have the skill today means they will never be good at it a few years down the road.
For example,
I believed I will never be able to do public speaking because people made fun of my English when I first immigrated to Canada. Next thing I know, I am teaching and speaking in front of many people (church) and writing a blog. These are pieces of evidence that skills and talents can be learned.
Here is an advice. Sometimes, you might think that your life purpose is one thing, but if you absolutely don’t have the skills for it even after learning and honing if for several years, then maybe it is time to reconsider your life purpose.
For example,
You want to be a singer or celebrity, but you don’t have a voice or you really can’t act, then its time to rethink your life’s purpose.
3. Learn From Others
Once you discover your life purpose and gifts to achieve this purpose, your next step is to find people who are willing to mentor you in your life purpose.
The best-case scenario is to find an experienced person that is willing to seat with you and answer your question and guide you through your journey. However, if this scenario is not feasible for your situation, then you can also find an “indirect” mentor.
An indirect mentor is someone whom you can learn from without you actually meeting them. This includes reading a book from a reputable author, following their social media and engaging in their post, listening to their podcast, etc. I can guarantee you that you can still learn from them although, as I’ve mentioned, it’s better if you’re able to find a real person to guide you.
4. Don’t Compare Yourself
It is normal that you will encounter people (either online or in real life) who are really good on the thing you are pursuing. It would be helpful for you to learn and imitate the good things that they are doing if you encounter this type of person.
Note: Imitate! Meaning learn how they do things then apply the things you’ve learned on your own work. Imitate is not the same as copying. Copying other people’s work will only get you so far.
Again, be sure to learn how they do things and incorporate those in your style.
Now a fair warning. Something that is worse than copying other people’s work is envying them or wishing you have the same success as they do. This attitude is a no-no and you must avoid it at all costs. Falling into this mindset will only hinder your progress and, worse, it will kill your motivation to pursue your purpose.
5. Build Healthy Habits
The next thing you need to do is to build healthy habits that will help you achieve your purpose. Most life-purpose is a lifetime mandate, so you have plenty of time to develop healthy habits.
Understand that building habits are not an overnight project. Many successful leaders develop one habit per year and that’s okay. Imagine, in just 10 years, you will add 10 healthy habits in your life. What if you are just in your 20’s right now. You can easily add 20 healthy habits in your life.
Want to Learn More about building habits? Check out the Video Below!
Get a copy of Atomic Habits here:
So remember! Do not cut corners, do not cheat your way to success. Those strategies have a tendency to bite back.
6. Eliminate Bad Habits
Related to step 5, one way to reach your potential is to identify and eliminate bad habits! Now eliminating bad habits is kind of tricky because you will either have a hard time identifying them or getting rid of them would be hard.
Before we go to how to eliminate your bad habit, let us solve first how you identify your bad habit.
The solution is actually fairly simple. Ask other people. Yes! Ask for feedback! Others can easily see your blindside, so they can easily tell you what are the things you need to improve.
Now, you cannot just ask feedback from any people, else you will get skewed feedback of your bad habits.
7. Don’t Be Hard On Yourself
Let’s be honest. The moment we start to understand things, we are already bombarded with ideas and lessons that in order to be successful in life, we need to avoid committing mistakes. This culture is actually harmful because we subtly punish ourselves whenever we fail (low self-esteem, lack of confidence in ourselves, setting the bar for ourselves low, etc).
This mentality is ironic because the key unlocking a person’s full potential is by being curious and finding answers to their questions. Often, finding these answers end up in failure but that doesn’t mean its end of the line. As Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,0000 ways that won’t work”.
Now, in order to reach your full potential, you need to be curious and find the answers to your questions. I like what I’ve said, you will be guaranteed to fail, but when you do, don’t be hard to yourself. Let yourself know that it is okay, that there is another chance. Again, do not compare yourself to other people and say to yourself that you can’t do it or don’t have what it takes to be successful.
Always declare positive things to yourself. Forgive yourself when you messed up and celebrate all the success you’ve earned no matter how small it is. Do these things and I can assure you that you will surely achieve your full potential.
8. Read, Watch and Learn
Once you stop learning, you start dying. – Albert Einstein
Never stop learning!
So you figure out your purpose, you start developing your skill, and you begin building healthy habits, so what now?
There will be a point in your journey, where you will feel you finally learned the ins and outs of your life purpose and it will be very tempting to put everything on auto-pilot. DO NOT fall into this trap.
There is no such thing as “I know everything.”
Always seek new information. Read books from diverse authors, watch a podcast, attend seminars, etc. The world is always changing and there is always a new discovery so it would be wise to consistently be on top of the trend.
9. There Is No Retirement Age
Another trap that you must avoid is thinking there will be a time to retire.
In one of John Maxwell’s seminar, he jokingly said that you will have all the time to rest once you are under the earth, so better to do lots of things while you are still able.
I think those are very wise words!
As I mentioned earlier, most life purpose is a lifetime project, so if you finish it way before your time, then it is probably not a life purpose. Go find one again!
What if you are reading this and you are already in your 60s?
It doesn’t matter what is your age right now. If you are reading this and you don’t know your life purpose, go back to step 1.
Are You Up For the Challenge?
Now you know the 9 things you need to do to reach your full potential, what are you going to do?
Are you still going to sit there and waste your life watching on Netflix or playing video games in your parent’s basement?
Or will you declare 2020 will be the year when you will finally start reaching your full potential?
I hope it is the second option that you will choose and if it is please let me know in the comment section below.
Questions and Feedbacks?
Do you agree with the list that I gave? Did I miss anything? Is there are a step you think is unnecessary or impossible to do?
Let me hear your questions and Feedbacks down in the comment section below.
Thank You!
Well, thank you for reading this article. I hope you liked it and I hope it added value to your life!
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