Your Full Potential

“No one ever lay on his death bed thinking, “Gee, I wish I had spent more time at work.”

If you have attended a funeral, you know what a eulogy is. Have you ever wondered about yours?

Everyone might benefit by asking him or herself, ‘At my funeral, what would I like the speaker to say about me?’ In fact I have had some clients write their own eulogies, in order to consider how they wish to be remembered and what kind of impression they made on their world.

But forget what others think of you. When you approach the end, what do you wish to think about your life? Do you want to look back with regret about bad behaviors, missed opportunities or failures? We all have those, to be sure. But don’t we all want to be able to reflect and take comfort about having given it our best shot and done some good in this troubled world?

Applying that to your current life, is there something … anything … that you could do differently, right now, to help you get to the end point of your life, knowing that you did your best? Maybe not in every situation; no one is perfect. But at some point in your life, you grew in maturity, faith, inner strength and goodness, and achieved something that you never expected to achieve. Ideally, that you made a positive difference to another individual, even if it’s only the life of one person. And if it’s not a person, maybe a pet, or a whole group of animals, if you prefer animals to people. 

The idea of reaching one’s full potential sounds awesome, doesn’t it? It can also sound impossible. What does that mean, anyway? Your full potential! Who ever gets there? But, actually, ‘getting there’ is not the point. The point is this: to set your sights on a regular basis on a goal that is just a little harder or farther than you think you can reach. If you can exercise for one minute on a treadmill, do one minute. The following week, two minutes, and so on every week, till you’re doing something you never expected. A half hour or more of vigorous walking!

Tennis players know that, in order to improve their skills, they must compete against a slightly superior player to challenge them to raise their skill level. This can apply to any endeavor. If you want to learn something, study it, train it, apply it with the help of someone who is smarter and more skilled than you are. If you’re a student, study with a smarter kid. Allow yourself to be pushed beyond what your brain believes you are capable of. 

So, do not worry, if you don’t reach your ‘full potential.’ Just keep challenging yourself to grow and to learn so that you can contribute and feel connected to people and to the world. This is the life experience that will help you know that whoever delivers your eulogy will be able to say in truth that your life made a positive difference, and that you lived out your potential.

If this article speaks to you, and you are ready to benefit from professional coaching, please feel free to reach out. The phone number is (219) 309-3928. It would be an honor to be of service.  

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Thanks for reading!