imagining the potential
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“Not even the human
imagination satisfies
the endless emptiness of the soul. “
Allen Ginsberg
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nicesuggestions:
let the stardust inside your veins shine bright and light up the lives of those around you
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Potential is an amazing thing.
Well.
Amazingly good and amazingly bad.
It pulls, it pushes and it ties you down, all at the same time. All the while creating thoughts of what could be as well as thoughts of “am I enough.” And it certainly teases the human imagination to think about the endless possibilities within one’s soul & purpose.
Potential asks for great things from people. Sometimes it whispers the ask and sometimes it shouts the ask. Regardless. Once heard, potential demands some things from that person. Suffice it to say potential becomes alternatively an individual’s burden and an engine. It forces a test of ‘self’ with regard to potential, in this case, is your engine strong enough to carry the burden? Now. The engine has almost as many moving parts as a car engine does. It isn’t just belief, thinking you are capable of whatever it is you want to be capable of, it is also the hard work, the skill and the opportunity management in Life. You have to engage all parts to make the potential engine run effectively.
But, and this is a HUGE but, you have to wrap your head around this wacky thing called ‘potential’ the right way or you will not do so well.
What do I mean?
A shitload of people view ‘I am not living up to potential’ as some fucked up personal code for ‘not being recognized for how good I really am.’ Yeah. In order to understand potential it demands having some personal perspective.
I admit.
I want to actively vomit when I read shit like this:
I’m not living up to my maximum potential.
The biggest thing blocking my path right now is myself and I want to change for the better. I have big dreams, but it’s sad to be in the condition I’m in where the light and power is there but it’s not yet burning to the max.
I just want to say … “c’mon, get a grip <and grow up>.”
Look.
There is a difference between dreams and reality.
There is a difference between what I can do and that sometimes wacky perspective with regard to ‘what I can actually do <often called ‘potential’>.
There is a difference between pragmatism and possibilities.
Some people seem to think potential is like some magical wand they can wave to create some alternative dimension where anyone can do anything they dream or want to do. I am not suggesting potential doesn’t exist in everyone <because it does>, but it isn’t something you tap into and “make it burn to the max’ it is a, well, burden. And you either choose to carry it well or permit it to weigh you down.
But we should all get it through our pea like brains that we all carry this burden <albeit in different sizes and shapes> and how well we carry that burden pretty much depends on our perspective with regard to our potential <and potential itself>.
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“Greatness demands that I understand that I am not nearly as big as I thought myself to be, but that I am capable of becoming far bigger than I ever imagined myself to be.”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
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But “living up to our potential?”
Now that’s bullshit.
Yeah.
The idea that we somehow have a certain amount of potential that we must live up to is a bullshit. A total bullshit fortune cookie wisdom soundbite. I tend to believe the same people who say they are not living up to their potential are the same people who pretty much have no fucking clue with regard to what living means and what is important in life.
I believe 99% of people understand Life is very hard.
We all have some fundamental desires and goals which set the basics for our horizon thinking <even if it is waking up and having the optimism needed to aim for the horizon which on that day is simply the end of that day>. And with that thought … well … we get out of our fucking beds and go do some shit.
Some of the shit meets the fundamental needs. Some of the shit is just shit. Some of the shit is good. And some shit, on some days, seems to tap into what we truly believe we are capable of. Let’s call this ‘what we believe is our greater potential.”
It is that last shit that can screw us up.
We want more of that last shit.
We see it as “our true potential” and “why shouldn’t we do that, and be that, all the time.” It makes us happy to think we could do more of that shit. And, most importantly, it makes us believe we have better shit within us we could do if given the opportunity.
“You cannot use someone else’s fire; you can only use your own. And in order to do that, you must first be willing to believe you have it. “
Audre Lorde
But you know what?
Maximizing Life and your potential may quite possibly look exactly how I just wrote it out.
Waking up, doing some shit shit, doing some good shit and doing some shit which maxes out our potential.
Maybe that is Life.
And if you don’t think what I am suggesting is true?
Well.
Maybe get your head out of your ass and think about it <instead of listening to all the other assholes screaming about all the potential you are not maximizing>.
Maybe take a moment and acknowledge that potential as a concept is a fairly delusional concept. Acknowledge that most likely it is a concept not created from within but by someone or something without creating some perception.
Maybe acknowledge that potential more often than not implies you are in some fucked up race to be better than someone else. Life is not a race. In fact. It is not even a competition.
In a race ‘potential’ always seem to become relative to everyone else in the race. how fucked up is that? I mean … what the hell … its your potential. So maybe acknowledge that if you stop looking at Life as a competition you can most likely stop worrying about whether you finish first or not or even compare yourself versus other’s “use of potential.”
Lastly.
Just go ahead and acknowledge that ‘living up to your potential’ is a fucked up phrase you hear in your youth from older people suggesting you are capable of being the best or at least better than maybe what your reality suggests would be more realistic in your own head. And, if you think about it, this phrase more likely than not comes from people who have no fucking clue what you really want to do in your life and with your life <mostly because you have no fucking clue what you want to do in your life and with your life>.
You want to know how to live up to your potential?
Do the right thing <as often as you can>.
Do the best you can <as often as you can>.
Show respect to others. Show some kindness in moments where kindness may seem difficult to show. Show some dignity in the moments of loss … and success.
Live with some honor.
And if someone whispers “oh, you have so much more you could do” just look at them and shake your head. They don’t get it. By doing what you are doing you are maximizing living Life. All the rest of the crap is shit that can possibly earn you some more money and maybe even win some fancy awards, but they won’t earn you the really important stuff – maxing out Life itself.
Now that is what potential seems to me.
Yeah. Potential seems like … well … letting the stardust inside your veins shine bright and light up the lives of those around you.
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