I’ve been thinking a lot about potential lately and how much it can either point us in the right direction or make us feel like there are 100 bricks in a backpack and that we can never let go. So how can we really take hold of our potential and actually achieve a sliver of it?
I sincerely believe this is important because once we recognize our potential and begin to realize that potential, a funny thing happens… we begin to see the potential in others. What others can and ought to do. Once we have realized our potential and found out the “trick” to doing so, we unconsciously help those around us to do the same. Sometimes all you need is a helping (invisible) hand from those around us to help “lift us up to where we belong.” I think this is best done by you and I recognizing potential in others and treating them as if they have already reached that potential. This, in effect, pulls them up to their potential.
When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Focus on your potential, not your (or those around you) limitations.The hard part is recognizing that your potential is even greater than where you are currently at and always will be. But at the same time, being happy with where you’re at so that you can push for greater heights.
“Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the ’someday I’ll’ philosophy.” – Dennis Waitley
How can you use this to make life better for you today?
I just thought I would share this as it came up the other day. I really liked it!
“Genius is seeing what everyone else sees and thinking what no-one else has thought.” – Albert Szent-Gyorgy
These kinds of quotes are the ones that get my business sided mind going and really want to go out and do what my heart desires! I really believe I can do whatever I want if I really put my mind to it. Watch THIS. I’m excited for everything that’s going on in life right now.
I’m a little behind on this considering my birthday was last month (January 14th), but I wanted to just have some fun with a little list of 23 things that I’ve learned and grown to love in my 23 years. As you’ll be able to tell, I’ve still got lots to learn! Considering my love for quotes in general, I have attached a quote that I’ve happened upon recently to each item. Here we go…
Love life and life will love you back – AKA – what goes around, comes around. –
“Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back.” – Arthur Rubinstein
If there are two ways to take something that a peer says or does, always choose the best one. –
“Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it.” – Anonymous
Do what you really love, not what you’re supposed to love. –
“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” -e.e. cummings, 1955
Dream. Don’t let others limitations reflect where your dreams start and stop. –
“The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, 1996
Dreaming and wishful thinking is only the beginning, action is where dreams become reality. –
“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” – Henry Ford
The day is simply better when you take time to put the Lord first. Reading the scriptures and praying in the morning starts the day off right. –
“At … moments of crisis and challenge, some choose to abandon faith just at the time when it most needs to be embraced. Prayer is ignored at the very hour when it needs to be intensified. Virtue is carelessly tossed aside when it needs to be cherished. God is forsaken in the all-too-human yet mistaken fear that He has forsaken us.” – David S. Baxter, “Faith, Service, Constancy,” October General Conference 2006
School and work should teach you to think, not tell you what to think. Be careful which you choose. –
“An educated man is not one whose memory is trained to carry a few dates in history. He is one who can accomplish things. A man who cannot think is not an educated man, however many college degrees he may have acquired. Thinking is the hardest work anyone can do, which is probably the reason we have so few thinkers.” – Henry Ford
Exercise, but do it in a way you love. –
“An hour of basketball feels like 15 minutes. An hour on a treadmill feels like a weekend in traffic school.” – David Walters
Stressing over inevitable things will NOT make them go away. Simply take them as they come, one-by-one. –
“The field of consciousness is tiny. It accepts only one problem at a time.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
First impressions are important. –
“Everyone sees what you seem to be, but few know what you are.” – Machiavelli, The Prince
Faith is a principle of action – nothing gets done, no matter how much you believe it, until you punch your time card and put in the work necessary. –
“Action alone is not faith in the Savior, but acting in accordance with correct principles is a central component of faith. Thus, ‘faith without works is dead’ (James 2:20).” – David A Bednar, “Ask in Faith”
It’s easier to think, focus, and feel the Spirit when your home, car, clothes, etc. are clean. –
“Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.” – Christopher Morley
Always serve for no other reason than because you love and want to help others. –
“You cannot live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.” – John Wooden
Plan. –
“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” – Tom Landry
When all of your plans fall through, laugh. –
“Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.” – Bob Newhart
Money is a means to an end. There’s a difference in having money and counting your money. Money is the means, NOT the point. –
“Men for the sake of getting a living, forget to live.” – Margaret Fuller
Know your priorities, set specific goals to help with your highest priorities. Achieving those goals bring joy and a sense of success no matter the size of the goal. –
“When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life.” – Greg Anderson
Always do what you say, when you say you will do it. No exceptions. (See next point) –
“Promise only what you can deliver. Then deliver more than you promise.” – Anonymous
Legitimate excuses are few and far between. Just do your best. –
“Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down. And this is all life really means.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
Whatever you do, do it with your whole heart and your best self. –
“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius
(Almost) Every bad thing starts with an attitude of laziness or desire to get something for nothing. –
“In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.” – Henry Miller, The Books in My Life
Say it how it is in the most loving, honest way possible. –
“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.” – Mark Twain
If you don’t love life, you’re doing something wrong. –
“Life is good, if we live in such a way to make it so. [...] A ‘good life’ comes as a result of the way we do things, of the words we choose to say, and even of the kind of thoughts we choose to have. [...] ‘Wanting to’ is the determining factor which leads us to lay hold upon the word of God and be happy. Perseverance in making correct decisions is what leads us to happiness.” – Benjamin de la Hoyas, “True Happiness: A Conscious Decision,” October 2005 General Conference, Saturday Afternoon Session
happens… we begin to see the potential in others. What others can and ought to do. Once we have realized our potential and found out the “trick” to doing so, we unconsciously help those around us to do the same. Sometimes all you need is a helping (invisible) hand from those around us to help “lift us up to where we belong.” I think this is best done by you and I recognizing potential in others and treating them as if they have already reached that potential. This, in effect, pulls them up to their potential.
