Potential: My best trait and my worst nightmare.
The struggle of constantly being thought of as the next big thing, and maybe you're just simply mediocre.
From the eyes of others you've been seen as a "potential" wonder, someone who could one day become something, achieve something different, do something that's never been done. Oh, check this kid he's got potential! From my youth years, I've been struggling with it.
First, some people thought I was good at football that I could potentially play at a pro level. A few years later and after several brief and very disappointing trials at bettering myself and following through the expected path of maybe becoming a footballer, I failed.
Things changed, and I realized I wasn't good enough, or maybe I didn't commit enough, or maybe things just didn't work out.
Then you go somewhere else, do something else. You find yourself stuck in a rut, in a life challenge that everyone goes through but only the strongest and most disciplined get through successfully, and because you've got potential, you're expected to excel. You're expected to succeed. You feel pressured and you lose yourself in it. You fail, yet again.
You don't give up, just yet, you pour yourself once again in an entirely different world, to test yourself, to test the potential everyone keeps talking about, and by being yourself those around you start thinking highly of your character traits, your values and ideas. You start hearing the word potential again. The burden gets heavier, you feel responsible and obliged to deliver, live up to the expectations and even surpass them and impress. You set higher expectations for yourself and fail to live up to them, but this time the reactions are mostly positive from the surrounding. A glimpse of achievement and a tiny bit of success is finally achieved.
You start to think that you needed to cut yourself some slack from the beginning and genuinely believe. Not that you're superhuman, not that you're special, not that you have something that no one else has, but to believe in the possibility that, with the right attitude; mindset and behavior, you can succeed. You start paving the road that you would like to take and learn how to pace through. Block out both praise and negative criticism. They both have the same effect.
Once you come at peace with the fact that you are only different by the results you end up with, not what others or even yourself think (or even believe) you can get, aspire and hope you can get, no, just the ones you actually get are the ones that matter. Because at the end of the day, only results do matter. Only then you've set the first foot to the journey of success.
The struggle of constantly being thought of as the next big thing, and maybe you're just simply mediocre.
From the eyes of others you've been seen as a "potential" wonder, someone who could one day become something, achieve something different, do something that's never been done. Oh, check this kid he's got potential! From my youth years, I've been struggling with it.
First, some people thought I was good at football that I could potentially play at a pro level. A few years later and after several brief and very disappointing trials at bettering myself and following through the expected path of maybe becoming a footballer, I failed.
Things changed, and I realized I wasn't good enough, or maybe I didn't commit enough, or maybe things just didn't work out.
Then you go somewhere else, do something else. You find yourself stuck in a rut, in a life challenge that everyone goes through but only the strongest and most disciplined get through successfully, and because you've got potential, you're expected to excel. You're expected to succeed. You feel pressured and you lose yourself in it. You fail, yet again.
You don't give up, just yet, you pour yourself once again in an entirely different world, to test yourself, to test the potential everyone keeps talking about, and by being yourself those around you start thinking highly of your character traits, your values and ideas. You start hearing the word potential again. The burden gets heavier, you feel responsible and obliged to deliver, live up to the expectations and even surpass them and impress. You set higher expectations for yourself and fail to live up to them, but this time the reactions are mostly positive from the surrounding. A glimpse of achievement and a tiny bit of success is finally achieved.
You start to think that you needed to cut yourself some slack from the beginning and genuinely believe. Not that you're superhuman, not that you're special, not that you have something that no one else has, but to believe in the possibility that, with the right attitude; mindset and behavior, you can succeed. You start paving the road that you would like to take and learn how to pace through. Block out both praise and negative criticism. They both have the same effect.
Once you come at peace with the fact that you are only different by the results you end up with, not what others or even yourself think (or even believe) you can get, aspire and hope you can get, no, just the ones you actually get are the ones that matter. Because at the end of the day, only results do matter. Only then you've set the first foot to the journey of success.
By taking that road, with that mindset, you'll most probably know your way and learn how to get to your final destination as you move.
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