PSG Legacy Articles: Discover Your Potential – Time For a Mid-Year Stock Take

“Mindset is everything.”

                                                                                                            – Unknown

This June we have been enjoying warmer days, perfect for being in nature. We are about to start the second half of 2018, always a great time to check how we are feeling in relation to our goals for the year. 

This week, we bring you an article from 2013 called ‘Discover Your Potential – Time For a Mid-Year Stock Take’, which reminds us about the endless resources we all have and how empowering is to be aware of our own potential.

Read it carefully, reflect on your internal stock and recognise where you are at, everything you have accomplished so far. Review your mindset and remember: everything is possible!

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You have as much potential as you think you do. In other words, it is your own mindset that determines what you can and cannot do. Isn’t that empowering?

Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are right”. This simply means that we all can choose our way of thinking. One allows us to move forward, the other at best slows us down or at worst stops us completely even from trying.

Thinking that you can, makes your chances for achieving your goals much higher right from the beginning. Therefore wouldn’t it be great to improve your thinking to expand your potential?

What we know is that our brains need evidence. We are more likely to believe a positive thought that has real substance behind it. We need some proof.

So often we rush to use dismissive statements towards ourselves: “I don’t know how to do it”, “I have no experience”, “I can’t, I have no confidence” “I haven’t achieved much so far”,  I have to try harder” etc.  But are these statements really true? So often the skills and abilities we use at home or in private interactions disappear when needed in a workplace and vice-versa.  For example, the motivation that we show and use at work that we cannot seem to find in other circumstances.

Take Stock

Your potential is already much greater than you think it is. So at the end of May take stock and see exactly what you have at your disposal. Check if the labels you attached to yourself “inexperienced“, “unable” maybe “demotivated” stand the test of reality.

Here are 7 important areas that you might want to review for the purpose of this mid-year stock take of your potential. Let’s have a look at your personal treasury:

• Moments of courage and confidence – how many of those can you remember? Can you see them vividly? What happened exactly and how did you show your bravery. Be specific and try to recall as many instances as you can. Regardless of how big or small they are. In those situations, you found the strength that you don’t always believe you have. Here is the evidence of how confident and courageous you can be.

• Remember all the courses you’ve ever completed, all degrees and every step in your education. This will help you get clarity on all invaluable skills you have learnt to date. Find them all again and remind yourself specifically what knowledge you have already and maybe somehow forgot about. How can you use it now? What about other lessons you have learnt throughout your life.

• Find where your passion and motivation comes from. Do you know what drives your ambition for success? When have you last experienced what professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls “the flow”. When are you at your best and what can you do to create such circumstances more often?

• What is your experience to date? Look at all different areas of life and clearly state what experience you have in work, interacting with people, problem-solving, decision making. etc. Choose areas you want to focus on because our life experiences are truly endless. At the end focus on probably the most important of all experiences – self experience. What do you know about you already? Identify how you operate and what needs to be present in order for you to deliver true greatness.

• Who is in your support system? Those around us are often the best source of advice, help and strength when we need it most. Remember about this rich resource. Determine who can support you, how and specifically in what situations. It is also important to know how you can support others. By now you know that you have a level of expertise in life that others can benefit from. And last but not least how do you support yourself every day?

• Successes and achievements are probably one of if not the most important area of focus when looking at your potential. We often centre our attention on the goal or success that we want to achieve in a distant future and this (even though important) distracts us from noticing that we take small but firm steps towards it every day. They will eventually add up to this bigger success. Aren’t they, therefore, small achievements in themselves? Identify every one of them and with this awareness continue yours. You will not believe how incredibly successful you already are and how all of those achievements can inform your way forward.

• Remember all times when you were persistent and continued in your chosen direction against all odds. You have been consistent and certain of your own decisions. You have been able to push through and come out victorious on the other side. Can you now recall all of these moments? Maybe at those times you remained calm and motivated. You have those traits too.

Your personal stock take could be endless. Take as much time as necessary now and continue every day. This is an important process of discovering the foundations of your own success. It may be an exercise that you have never done before. Stay still and prepare to be amazed as you continue your search. Become aware of your full power and start benefiting from it in every situation and circumstances. No matter what, you know that you already have the skill, the knowledge, the confidence and the experience. Enjoy your discoveries!