7 Ways to Rescue Lost Potential
Life is wasted by preparation.
“If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!” Richard Branson
7 ways to rescue lost potential:
- Learn while you go.
- Practice while you perform.
- Trust yourself while you step out.
- Apologize for mistakes.
- Listen to feedback.
- Adapt.
- Step into discomfort.
Comfort:
Fools look at discomfort and run.
Growth begins at the point of discomfort. Comfort is indulgence. Indulgence is the end.
The discomfort of change is the reason things stay the same.
Useful discomfort:
- Forget about great achievements in the future. Use your talent now. What can you trust yourself to do?
- Choose the most significant thing you can do right now.
- Find time to do what matters by doing less of what doesn’t matter. Remarkable leaders work harder at stuff that matters.
- Be foolish. Remarkable people, who constantly pursue excellence, sound like idiots to those who accept “good enough.”
Step back from resistance and the present continues unchanged.
Lost potential:
The way you’re wasting your talent is the same way you’re letting others waste theirs.
The excuses you accept from others are the same excuses you accept from yourself. Don’t let yourself off the hook, stay on it.
Good enough isn’t good enough.
Spit in the eye of “good enough.” Regain lost potential by stepping into discomfort. When you’re tempted to step back, step forward.
Found potential: Serve
Serve by meeting a pressing need.
Don’t wait to serve…
Don’t prepare to serve…
Don’t plan to serve…
Serve now!
Talk yourself into, not out of, service.
The person you wish you were prevents you from maximizing the person you are. Bring your best self, not the self you wish you were to a pressing need.
How might too much preparation block success?
This is great for adults who lost their way. But what about students? Do the 7 ways still apply? I think they do. “7 ways to reach your potential” maybe? Many of my students are afraid of trying for fear they won’t be perfect. Although I love it when they fail and really learn from it. “Perfection is the destination, not the starting point.” See my post on it at http://blogs.bellevue.edu/cybersecurity/index.php/2014/02/23/perfection-is-the-destination-not-the-starting-point/.
Thanks Ron. You bring up the important idea that culture/context plays a big role in how much risk is wise. Some environments reward a “learn as you go” approach. Others punish it.
How might learn as you go be safer? Perhaps we see it when surgeons practice on cadavers and pilots use simulators. 🙂
Having journeyman, mentors, and senior staff in a supporting/overseeing roll makes it safer to learn as you go. Knowing they are there to keep you from going over the cliff allows the space needed to work in ‘useful discomfort’ without the potentially paralyzing fear of failure.
With the great advice to jump into discomfort, etc. (I like the phrase, “embrace ambiguity”), the step you imply is so important: self-assess regularly!!! Mistakes and false steps are ok IF we learn from them!!!
Thanks John. Love, “embrace ambiguity.” 🙂 … It seems the need for clarity might be addressed by getting comfortable with our lack of it, at least in the beginning.
Amen to that Dan – love this post!
Diana
Each time am reading Every line of 7 ways to Rescue lost Potential am just existed thanks a lot.
Just read this to my friends! Thank you, LOVE it.
Excellent quality and helpful to not focus on past failures or future challenges, but to focus on the here and now! Great message.
“Good enough isn’t good enough”
You have to be careful here – your customer won’t pay for the extra, and you’re the one who has to explain what’s happened to the bottom line. You might feel good at the time, but it might not last when you get fired for missing the money target.
Great post Dan. Super excited about the ways to rescue lost potential. We will not be perfect but the least that we can do is try.
What a great post! There comes a time, or times in our lives when an opportunity presents itself to us, and we have to move. We may not think we are ready. We may be a little nervous about the change. But we know that the opportunity is one that will not come along very often, and we are compelled to step out.
Awesome! One must not get into the trap of being a perfectionist because this will be counterproductive to gaining confidence through discomfort.
This has come at a great time in my life. Like so many have said I’m nervous about moving forward but more scared to stay where I am – thanks for the great post.
Wouldn’t it be a shame to end life not having gone out on that limb? Even if failure out of that comes, you will have peace knowing you tried
Bravo, Weston. Having the freedom to step out there, go out on a limb, grasp a new opportunity is what makes your life count! For others, and you! It’s the only way to live, at peace with the world, and with oneself.
It is indeed wonderful to look at older workers, especially the ones who are resistant to change, as perhaps the pioneers and change agents of their day. Maybe celebrating that history can re-energize those older workers, overcome their resistance, and engage them better in organizational change.
Oops, wrong thread for the above!! Not sure how I did that. This is what I intended to say:
“Remarkable people, who constantly pursue excellence, sound like idiots to those who accept “good enough.”
And sometimes you might have to change direction and move on when you reach a wall of “good enough” culture that can be insurmountable in some organizations.
I also think it’s easier to take risks when you’re given a good foundation first by a trustworthy and supportive mentor. Throwing someone into an environment where the team tosses around a bewildering array of acronyms; where even the simplest administrative transactions are incomprehensible to all but a few “in the know”; and/or having a whole lot of unwritten rules, procedures and expectations that are not evenly applied—is not a good formula for developing a willingness for stepping out, risk-taking, and excellence.