Don’t live up to your potential

I have couple of heuristics for life: “stand in possibility,” and “be a contribution.”

A lot of people use the heuristic, “live up to your potential,” but I think standing in possibility and being a contribution are far more powerful and empowered ways to approach life.

Here’s why.

4 reasons you shouldn’t live up to your potential

1. The language “live up to your potential” assumes there is a ceiling. 

It is limiting language. If you were to live up to your potential, what happens the day after? 

Do you plateau? Do you begin a steady decline? It’s pretty depressing to think that you might achieve your potential and then there’s no where to go but down.

 I don’t believe any of us have a ceiling on what we can do or be. 

The language of possibility offers us a much more expansive way to frame what I think this expression is trying to capture. 

When you stand in possibility, there are infinite next steps. Each moment is created. 

Photo by Guilherme Stecanella

2. Implied within “live up to your potential” is that your potential is this fixed, pre-determined thing that can’t be influenced during the course of your life. 

If someone chose career path A over career path B, would only one of those paths help them live up to their potential? 

Potential feels too confining, too restrictive. 

Possibility, however, opens doors. Possibility is invitation. 

When you stand in possibility, you create your future. Nothing is fixed or pre-defined. When you stand in possibility, your universe expands. 

3. “Live up to your potential” makes it all about you. 

It sounds self-serving.

I’m fascinated by people interested in having an impact in the world. People who are committed to a mission that is bigger than them. 

Any gifts and talents they have are in service of something bigger. 

People who are in service, rather than self-serving. (Don’t confuse service with lack of boundaries and self-care).

Imagine your epitaph, what would you rather, “She lived up to her potential,” or “She was a contribution to all who knew her”?

When you ask, “How can I be a contribution today?” your eyes are opened to new possibilities. You begin to see ways you can live into being a contribution. 

Try it. I guarantee you will see opportunities that you hadn’t seen before. 

4. “Live up to your potential” doesn’t leave room for collaboration.

There is no room in “live up to your potential” for 1+1 to equal 11. 

When we collaborate, though, that’s exactly what we do.

We combine our talents, ideas, and efforts with others to create things that couldn’t be done by one person.

Possibility allows for us to collaborate and co-create with others in exponential ways. 

We become a contribution where the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts. 

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Don’t live up to your potential! 

Instead, experience the excitement, expansiveness, and impact of standing in possibility and being a contribution.