Sabotaging Your Potential
Are you unintentionally hindering your own potential?
Not the person next to you or the person on your right.
It's about YOU.
Before you instinctively react defensively, take a moment to ask yourself this: Are the goals you've set for yourself easily attainable? Is there a reasonable chance that you can achieve them with some effort on your part?
Most likely, the answer is yes, and that's perfectly natural.
We often have grand aspirations, envisioning endless possibilities. We may even write down a few of those dreams. But when it comes to actually pursuing them, we retreat. A small voice inside our heads says, "Come on, let's be realistic" or "Do you realize how much work and sacrifice that will require? If you aim a bit lower, you can still congratulate yourself without completely disrupting your comfort zone."
And so, unconsciously, we settle for less.
Let's consider an example: One evening, you make a commitment to grow your family's savings to $1,000,000, providing a financial safety net in case of emergencies or enabling you to fulfill a lifelong dream of owning a retirement home in the mountains. As you start planning and saving, that little voice chimes in and suggests that $300,000 is probably sufficient. The voice tells you that you don't really need THAT much of a cushion and your children might need you to stay closer to home, making a mountain retirement home a waste of money. Moreover, if you want to reach that $1,000,000 goal, you'll have to make some uncomfortable changes to your spending habits, which doesn't sound like much fun.
Outcome: Downgraded Goal
All too often, we set goals based on their likelihood of achievement or as a way to maintain the status quo. After all, we wouldn't want to step too far outside our comfort zone to pursue our dreams, right?!
Sadly, by doing this, we fail to reach our full potential. We remain unsure of what we are truly capable of because we haven't pushed our limits. We continue to confine ourselves within a box defined by our current perception of what is possible.
I challenge you to reassess your goals and aspirations. Ask yourself, "Why did I set this specific goal?" And follow it up with, "Does this goal truly align with the magnitude of my underlying motivations?"
When it comes to setting goals and creating strategies to achieve them, don't diminish them to fit within the realm of what seems possible today. Dare to dream big and formulate a plan to attain those aspirations. Confidence grows through action, and each step fuels the momentum of accomplishment.
Live with intent,