5 simple steps to reach your full potential

“Don’t do it! Stay away from your potential. You’ll mess it up, it’s potential, leave it. Anyway, it’s like your bank balance – you always have a lot less than you think.” – Dylan Moran

1. Take risks and be prepared to fail repeatedly! Never settle into a situation because you are too scared to take a risk or scared of failure. If you never try, you will never achieve anything. Don’t settle even if you find you are “content” with your current situation. To be able to reach your potential you need to take risks – if there is more you can achieve you need to go for it, no matter what it takes. Do not let fear of failure limit you. Failure is a good thing – it is a learning process. Be flexible and adjust your plan or goal accordingly.

2. Believe you can achieve your goals! Self believe is key to actually achieving the goal. “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right.” To believe that you can achieve a goal you must picture yourself as having achieved the goal; imagine the feeling and visualize yourself being the successful person that takes the steps toward achieving the goal. This mindfulness technique is key to self-belief and motivation.

3. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals and create an action plan for achieving them. Write these goals down or create a vision board and write down the steps that it takes to get there. The action plan may change along the way. It is important to document everything and measure your progress for two reasons: (1) seeing how far you have come can be motivating and inspire you to continue, (2) it can make any missed steps in the process apparent and you can adjust the plan along the way. Remember to set a realistic time-frame and if you fail to reach a certain point in the time-frame you have set yourself then refer back to step 1 in this blog post – you should be prepared to fail! It is no reason to stop going; simply a sign to adjust.

4. Take action NOW. “Never put off for tomorrow what you can do today.” Reaching your potential requires pro-activity and productivity. You must set aside the tasks that are not relevant or rank as lower priorities and make sure you follow your plan toward achieving the goals you have set. If this does not come naturally to you there are ways to motivate yourself to become productive. This is through daily practice and habit building. Refer to my post on willpower.

5. Surround yourself with high achievers, motivated and like-minded people; it rubs off! The energy of those around us affect how we behave, feel and think. So surrounding yourself with highly successful people will make you highly successful too! Try going to a weekly meetup related to your goal and feeding off the positive energy of those around you to spark your own motivation.

Do you self-sabotage? If this is you then there is a 6th step!

6. Do not over-think the possible outcome of your achievements. The future is uncertain and maybe achieving your potential will not bring you fulfillment and happiness – but thinking about likely or unlikely outcomes in the future that may or may not occur is USELESS. Be in the present. Practice mindful meditation to stay focused. These are your goals NOW. Whatever your goals may turn into in the future is not your problem right this moment, so don’t even bother to think about them!