Everyone can do amazing things. Yet it is sad that many people live and die without realising the greatness inside of them. Sometimes, different situations and experiences bring to light people’s inherent abilities. But, why should the concept of discovering all a person can be, be allowed to change? Why should anyone settle for anything less than what they were meant for?

Many people wish to do and be more but have settled for the lie that it is very little they can achieve. In another vein, some people believe that there should be more to their lives than what they currently see. However, they don’t know how to go about discovering their potential.

This article seeks to address how to discover the potential within a person.

What is Potential?

Potential is the inherent ability that is present in a person, and potential can be groomed and developed as well. This means that potential can be developed within the boundary of what a person likes and wants. Therefore, the potential is any ability found in someone either naturally or learned.

Self Discovery Questions

Having understood the concept of potential, let’s look out one good way to analyse a person’s potential. One principle to getting results from the Bible is seeking out answers (Matt 7:7). Some questions provide answers to them will help individuals ascertain their potential. For the purpose of this article, let’s explore three of those questions.

Question one: Who Am I?

A good number of people believe this is a difficult question to answer; however, this is not necessarily true. The question of “Who am I?” It is aimed at self-awareness, which is very important in understanding oneself and necessary for understanding one’s potential.

To answer this question is to pay attention to one’s tendencies and responses under certain circumstances and conditions. For everyone, knowing your personality, temperaments, value system etc., is the key to functioning maximally.

It is quite funny that people don’t pay attention to themselves, hence, do not know themselves. This makes it easy for them to succumb to the things they have been told over time that are not true and dangerous. A simple example is Albert Einstein. Imagine he believed only what his teacher told him about himself; there is a lot of discoveries that might never have been made in the world.

Question Two: What are the things I love to do?

In all honesty, both question two and question three are subsets of question one. However, paying attention to them is the key to self-discovery, which explains why they are treated separately.

The question of what you love doing is an easy question to answer, and the question simply targets those things that bring satisfaction and fulfilment to an individual when they are done. This does not mean they might not be stressed or tasking, but one sure thing that comes with the activity is an accomplishment.

Now, the importance of knowing what one loves doing is the fact that a person would do so much better in a thing they are passionate about.

Question 3: What are my special abilities?

No matter what anyone has been told, we all have one or more things we can do with very little effort. The problem people have is the “Branding” of these abilities. Some abilities have been tagged “special”, making a person feel that their abilities that do not fall into ” special ” are not worth investing in. Paying attention to what a person can do with a certain level of ease and developing such abilities can produce tremendous results.

Steps To Utilising Your Potential

It is not enough to merely discover your potential without putting them to good use. The following are simple guides to utilising your potential:

Take an Inward Look

Before stepping out in the journey of unleashing potential after discovering them, it is important to take out time to answer the question of self-fulfilment. This should guide what should be listed under what a person wants and hopes to achieve. Knowing what you want goes a long way in guiding the process of utilising your potential. This serves to guard against actions taken out of mere excitement of the moment and have a better motivation for living out your potential.

Seek Personal Development

The thing about potential is that the degree to which it can be expressed is directly dependent on the individual’s capacity. Capacity enhancement is a product of personal growth. Therefore, it is important for anyone who is interested in utilising their potential to pursue the course of personal growth. The major thing is that growth does improve the understanding of a person. This, in the long run, affects the discovery of potential positively and consequently, its manifestation.

Have SMART Goals

SMART here is an acronym that means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound. To effectively utilise your potential, everyone must have SMART goals. The specificity and clarity of what is set to be achieved within the confines of a particular time are necessary for defining success. This is needed in helping a person know what to work towards.

Don’t Be Afraid of Failure.

As Christians, one instruction that has occurred repeatedly in the Bible is not being afraid. The Bible clearly states that fear is not of God, but love, boldness and a sound mind is. Understand that failure is not really a thing until all is done and completed. Instead, any time things do not play out well, it can also serve as a means of learning.

Start Something No Matter How Little

Potential not utilised is as good as not discovered. Therefore, no matter how small it may be, taking steps to ensure potential is used is important. One thing this does for any individual is given such a person the boldness and courage to try out more daring and profound things: those infant steps matter.

Have a Success Reminder List

Having SMART goals help in success measurement. Documenting small and big wins alike and celebrating them is necessary. This list serves as a reminder of more that can be done. This might not be a written document, and the idea is to have moments where victories are remembered and celebrated.

Set Success Benchmarks

Having a standard to measure success against is important in today’s kind of society. This is to keep a person focused on the things that matter, ensuring unhealthy competition and inferiority complexes are eliminated. Not having a personal success benchmark makes it easy to measure up against other people.

Learn to Serve Others

The whole idea of discovery and potential utilisation is to make the world a better place, not just validate egos. So, it is necessary to intentionally and subconsciously serve others at every juncture, and this on its own has a huge sense of fulfilment.

Inside every man created by God are gifts and abilities that can be stretched to do wonders. Therefore, being intentional about your life and seeking out more you can do is a good way of honouring God with your life.