essay onrealise your potential

1. Believe in themWe all have self-doubts from time to time. Our confidence is shaken. We lack the faith in our talents and skills to go for an important promotion or launch a new initiative. Having someone believe in you at these times is priceless. The stories of great men and women are saturated with examples of someone who believed in them even when they didnt fully believe in themselves.

2. Encourage them You can do it. I know you can. These are words that are all-too-infrequently voiced. Sincere encouragement can go a long way in helping someone stay the course. The more specific you are, the better the results. I remember when you got through your slump last year and ended up winning the sales contest. Im willing to bet that youll do even better this time.

3. Expect a lotWere often told not to get our hopes up. Were encouraged to have REALISTIC expectations. But when it comes to helping others operate at their best, we sometimes have to up-level our expectations. This can be taken to extremes, but there are many times when a teacher, a parent or even a boss has required more of us than we thought we were capable. And weve risen to the challenge which enabled us to see further than before.

4. Tell the truthAnd tell it with compassion. We often avoid telling the hard truth because we dont want to upset anyone. We want to be NICE. But telling the truth is a loving act. You may be the only person who can or will say to another what needs to be said. And you can confront someone without being combative.

5. Be a role modelOne of the best ways we influence is by our own actions. Who we are speaks much more loudly than what we say. Dont think that people arent watching you. They are. And theyre registering everything about you consciously and unconsciously. We automatically emulate our role models. And were ALL role models to someone so lets be good ones.

6. Share yourselfToo often, we miss the value of sharing our failings. We dont want to be vulnerable so we hold back. In doing so, we deprive others of our experience, our learning and our humanity. When you share from your own experience — especially your failures — you increase empathy, youre more approachable and you increase your relatability to others.

7. Challenge themThe word challenge has some negative connotations. The meaning were using here is, a test of ones abilities or resources in a demanding but stimulating undertaking. We all need to be challenged from time to time. Doing it for another is an art form. Go too far and it will backfire. Go too easy and you will appear patronizing. Remind people of their commitment to being their best and state your challenge. I challenge you to overcome these unimportant opinions and get on with the real task at hand, get the job done, make the commitment, etc.

8. Ask good questionsA good therapist or coach doesnt tell their clients what to do. They ask good questions in order for the client to understand themselves better, to get clear on what the issue is and from there to make good choices. You can do the same. By asking elegant questions, you cause people to think and come up with solutions. Theyll appreciate it. Gary Lockwood has a good article about this called Asking Intelligent Questions with Impact.

9. Acknowledge themYou find what youre looking for. If youre looking for the best in someone, youll see it. If youre looking for their failings, youll see those. Catch people doing things right and tell them. When we acknowledge the good deeds of others, they tend to do more of them. Write a note. Send a card. Give them a call. Praise them in front of others.

10. Spend time with themWe love what we give our time to. By devoting your most precious resource (time) to another individual, youre showing them that you truly value them and your relationship with them. Invest time in your relationships; its what life is made of.

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One of the most wonderful and exciting facts about your life is that you already know a lot of the things you need to know to become the person you want to be. You have your �hearts desire� deep inside of you. Theres something that you were put on this earth uniquely to accomplish. Theres something that you, and only you, can do. And when you find your hearts desire, youll have the key to unlocking your potential in every other part of your life. Youll have the key to happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment and the joy thats your natural birthright.

You can unlock your inner potential only when youre doing something that you really love to do. You can fulfill your innermost aspirations only when youre doing something that interests you, something that holds your attention, something in which you can become completely absorbed.

And this is the key to unlocking the giant within. You must dream big dreams and do what you love to do. You must decide whats right for you, what will make you happiest, before you decide whats possible. You must set ideal standards and goals and results as your aim and then determine how to accomplish them.

In his book The Act of Will, Roberto Assagioli, the Italian psychiatrist, said that the starting point of great individual achievement is the definition, by yourself, of the ideal result that you wish to accomplish.

Take Some Time to Determine Your Ideal Lifestyle Take some time to determine the kind of person youd like to be, and the kind of person youd have to become in order to live the kind of life that youd like to live. Remember, you cant accomplish it on the outside until you become it on the inside.

I recently read a beautiful line in a book: �In order to achieve things youve never achieved before, you must be willing to do things youve never done before.�

To unlock your inner potential, you must set very clear, challenging and, yet, realistic goals and then make plans to accomplish them. You need to work, step-by-step, every day, in the direction of your dominant aspirations. You need to develop an unshakable level of self-confidence that makes you virtually unstoppable.

Momentum is The Key to Long-Term Success The momentum theory of success simply says that while it may take 10 units of energy to get you moving in a particular direction, it takes only one unit of energy to keep you moving once youre in motion. You have the principle of momentum working in your favor.

For example, if youve come back from a vacation of a week or two weeks, youll notice that it takes you several days to start working at peak efficiency again. This is part of the momentum principle. When you stop, its hard to get started again. But once youre moving forward, its easy to continue moving forward.

How do you use the momentum principle in your life? Well, its simple. You decide upon one key quality that you need to develop in order to accomplish one key goal that you want to accomplish. Then every single day, you work simultaneously on developing that quality and on taking steps toward the accomplishment of that goal. Once you put the ball into play, you keep the game going, every single day, without stopping.

Lets say that your goal is to become financially independent. To do this, you have to pay off all of your existing debts and build up a cash reserve of three to six months of living expenses. When you reach that point, your entire personality will change. Youll be more clearheaded, youll be more positive, youll be more determined, youll be more optimistic, youll be a finer and better human being when you absolutely know that youre not dependent upon anyone for your living expenses. Youll be able to choose the job you want to do and go to the places you want to go. You wont have to tolerate any situation that you do not enjoy or that you feel isnt the best use of your personal potential.

If you simultaneously work on strengthening your self-discipline and using it to achieve the goal of financial independence, youll become a better, stronger and more powerful human being. Youll cast off the bonds of helplessness and begin to feel that theres nothing in the world that you cant do or be or have.

When you set clear goals or objectives for yourself, when you dream big dreams and then determine to become the kind of person whos capable of achieving the kind of goals that you want to achieve, you convince yourself, at a deep, subconscious level, that youre absolutely unstoppable. You realize at last that nothing in the world can hold you back except your own thinking, and you dont even let your own thinking limit your potential.

If you learn to be powerful and develop self-confidence by working progressively, every day, toward becoming the kind of person you want to be, and toward living the kind of life you want to live, youll unlock the giant within you, and it will never go back inside.

Believing in Yourself In her wonderful book You Can Heal Your Life, Louise Hay says that each one of us has feelings of inferiority that are manifested in the conclusion that we are not good enough. We think that we are not as good as other people, and we feel that we are not good enough to acquire and enjoy the things that we want in life. Very often, we feel that we dont deserve good things. Even if we do work hard and achieve some worthwhile objectives, we believe that we are not really entitled to our successes, and we often engage in behaviors that sabotage our successes.

The fact is that you deserve every good thing that you are capable of acquiring as the result of the application of your talents. The only real limitation on what you can be and have is your absence of desire. If you want something badly enough, nothing in the world can stop you from getting it, if you are willing to persist long enough and hard enough. Over and over, we find that our beliefs, more than anything else, act as the brakes on our capacities. We have high hopes and dreams and aspirations, but we let doubts creep in and undermine our competence and effectiveness.

You need to develop your beliefs about yourself to the point where they serve you every day in every way. Men and women who accomplish extraordinary things are just ordinary people who developed themselves mentally to the point where they were able to overcome the obstacles that stood in their way, and they kept on keeping on until the goal was attained.

Psychologist William James of Harvard University said that beliefs create the actual fact. The reason for this is because we always act in a manner consistent with our innermost beliefs and convictions. If you believe yourself capable of accomplishing good things, you will walk and talk and act like it. Your behaviors will actually make your beliefs a reality.

The most harmful beliefs that you can have are what we call �self-limiting beliefs.� These are beliefs about yourself, most of which are not true; but they hold you back nonetheless. Sometimes you, or others, will say that you cannot achieve certain goals because you did not get enough education. Sometimes you will say that it is because of your gender or race or age or the state of the economy.

Many people blame their parents or their bosses or their families or their current relationships for their failure to make progress in life. Others say that there is no opportunity in their particular area or their particular field. Some complain because they have no money. Others complain because they received poor grades in school or did not go to, or finish, college. Still others say that they have never had a natural talent or ability for a particular field.

The humorist Josh Billings once said, �It aint what a man knows what hurts him. Its what a man knows what aint true.� It isnt the actual truth about yourself and your abilities that hurts you; its the things that you consider to be true and that have no basis in truth.

The starting point to change your beliefs is to get up the courage to question them seriously. Question your basic premises. Check your assumptions. Ask yourself, �What assumptions am I making about myself or my situation that might not be true?�

Its a fact that we fall in love with our excuses and our assumptions. We fall in love with our reasons for not moving ahead. Even if someone comes along and challenges those reasons, even if someone tells you that you have the capacity to accomplish marvelous things, you will argue with him. If someone tells you that you can do far better than youre doing right now, you will come up with reasons to dispute this persons greater belief in your potential.

The author Richard Bach wrote this beautiful line: �Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, theyre yours.� Very often, we become the prosecuting attorney in the case against ourselves. We dispute and argue and attempt to prove to ourselves and others that our limitations are real. And the less justification these ideas or beliefs have, the more adamant we become in attempting to prove them to others.

What Beliefs Might You Have That Are Holding You Back? Think about them. Remember, most of our self-limiting beliefs have no basis whatsoever in fact. They are based on information and ideas that we have accepted as true, sometimes in early childhood, and to the degree to which we accept them as true, they become true for us.

Your beliefs about reality are based on a thousand influences, many of which began even before you were aware of what was going on. You have beliefs that are deep and beliefs that are shallow. Deep beliefs, with regard to your religion or your political party or your family, or especially yourself, are very hard to change. Shallow beliefs are easily changed. And many of your beliefs are in fact very shallow. They have no substance to them whatsoever. If you challenge them hard enough, youll find that they are made of tissue paper. Theyll simply blow away.

You can always tell what your true values and beliefs are by looking at your actions. It isnt what you say or wish or hope or intend that demonstrates what you really believe. Its only what you do. Its only the behaviors that you engage in. Its only the actions that you choose to undertake. Your values and beliefs are always expressed in your actions and behaviors.

And out of your actions come all of the elements of your life. You are where you are what you are because of what youve said and done in the past.