How Do You Reach Your Potential?
I am sure that we all set ourselves targets, goals and ambitions. I guess that you will agree with me, when I say that we acheive some of them, but not others. Sometimes that is because some of the targets are not achieveable, and some are reliant on other factors and events happening first.
Sometimes, particularly with work targets set for us, they can seem virtually impossible to achieve and they weigh very heavy in our hands, hearts and minds. The pressure can bring us down and when we don't meet those targets, we feel a failure, feel suffocated and it takes so much effort to function.
Targets are good. We need to set them for oursleves to give us hope and something to work towards, but that doesn't mean we are a failure for not achieving them. It is very easy to get stuck in a downward spiral when we feel a failure and soon we can think that there must be more to life that what we are living and we can wonder if there is any point to our life at all.
So does not reaching your targets really mean that you are a failure? I believe not. We win some, we lose some but that doesn't make us failures.
For those of us who have children, we know that we have plans, hopes and dreams for each of them, based on their character and abilities. They don't always live up to those hopes and dreams, sometimes they make their own, and sometimes they don't seem to. All we can do is advise and be there for them.
As parents we have to let them make their own decisions and mistakes. We rejoice in their successes and achievements, and are there to pick up the pieces when they fail.
I believe that, as in the words of the Lion KIng, that we are more than what we have become. If we have a relationship with Jesus, we can reach our true potential. We know what our own children are capable of achieving and God knows, even more than that, what we are capable of achieving.
The closer we are to our children, even though they go their own way, the chances are that they will listen to what we have to say. We can give them advice but they still choose the way they want to go to.
Likewise, the closer we are to Jesus, the more we are likely to be able realise our full potential. Realising our full potential is how we achieve the most. We shouldn't compare ourselves to what others are achieving because their potential is different to ours.
Now I'm not saying that we cannot achieve anything without a relationship with Jesus, because we can. God made us to live according to our freewill and not be His puppets. What I am saying, however, is that a life with Jesus as your friend, is a much more fulfilled life. Just as we long for our children, and we want to help them to acheive their potential, we can achieve our full potential if we have a relationship with Jesus.
Photo by Neil Thomas on Unsplash
