Humans Can Never Reach Their Full Potential

Human beings can never reach their full potential but they can die trying. Potential can be defined as capable of being but not yet in existence or having possibility, capability, or power. Also, the inherent ability or capacity for growth, development, or coming into being. Simply put, you can always do more than you currently are.

All humans have an infinite potential in everything that they do that they have not yet achieved and never will. From a personal paradigm only your self potential is limitless but in comparison to others you may or may not have the potential to compete with them.

For example, most of us have a lot of potential to improve our basketball game but for most of us the potential to match Michael Jordans potential may never be met in this lifetime. For myself, I don’t have the body structure to compete with an Olympic sprinter even if I dedicated my entire life to trying to compete with them it’s very unlikely I ever will.

That’s why they say winners compare their achievements with their goals while losers compare their achievements against the achievements of others.

It’s important to recognize that potential can be both statistical and probable.

Statistical potential is the realization that based off of your current traits and characteristics, such as intelligence and physique, that you have potential at becoming “great” at a lot of things.

Probable potential is the realization that no matter how many things you could be good at, all of us usually choose to pursue only a few things we are passionate about.

The time and energy required to become the president, a musician, a doctor, a good father, a valuable member of the community, a good husband, or a professional athlete limits the number of other things we can achieve in our life because our life is a finite resource and these things require both our time, energy, and commitment to reach our potential.

Please understand that very few people will ever admit to reaching their full potential and even fewer people will acknowledge that another person has reached it. That’s because no matter what you do or what you hope to become, you will always know in your heart you can do better. You can keep pushing yourself to do better for the rest of your life but at some point the 80/20 rule applies.

For those of you who don’t know, the 80/20 rule is when 80% of the work you do gives 20% of the results while conversely 20% of the work you pursue gives off 80% of the results. Many people make it a goal to only spend time doing the 20% that gives off 80% of the reward. In some cases doing the other 80% is mandatory and part of your job.

For example, a professional receiver in the NFL might be able to run the 40 in 4.5 seconds and catch 80% of the passes thrown at him with minimal effort, however, because the job is so competitive he may have to spend 80% of the time trying to run the 40 in 4.3 seconds and catch 85% of the passes thrown at him just to keep his job.

While there are special circumstances where doing the 80% is required, it should be avoided at all costs, otherwise you really can’t reach much of your potential.

This is hypothetical and unrealistic but just to demonstrate the 20/80 rule let’s assume you have 5 passionate interests you want to reach your potential in: work, parenting, relationships, running, and baseball.

Let’s say you have 100% to give so you can split 20% of your time and energy to each activity and get 80% results. So most days you’re doing really good as a parent, at work, and in your relationship. You’re also able to run 3 miles in 18 minutes and you’re batting average is .300.

This is the potential you have reached by splitting your time evenly between these 5 interests using the 20/80 rule. In order to pursue further potential in any of these 5 things you have to dive into the 80/20 area which will remove time from all the other areas.

So let’s say you want to run the 3 mile in 16 minutes and you calculate that it’s going to take another 20% of your time. So now you’re at 40% running, and you’ve taken 5% from all the other things to make this happen. Essentially everything else becomes a 15/60 (downsized by 1/4th) now while you’re running is 40/84 (added 1/4th of the extra 20% you are now pursuing in exchange for 20% more time).

Because you lost a lot of the 20/80 time in your other areas and you are now 15/60 you start to see significant decreases in how good you parent, in your relationship, and you’re falling behind in work. Your baseball average is even getting worse because you aren’t practicing as much as you were to maintain it.

Even though this is hypothetical and unrealistic it starts to explain the dilemma of the human condition. We are restricted by the time we can contribute to all things. Anytime we neglect something we fall away from our potential in that thing.

To be fair, humans have memory, both muscle and mental, that helps them maintain some of the potential they’ve acquired. There are things we learn that we don’t forget. If I play the guitar for 10 years and take a year off when I play again I’ll be rusty but I’ll be able to get back to where I was quicker than if I had never played. The same goes for problem solving, riding a bike, and so many other things.

So your potential is a balancing act limited to your current pursuits and interests.

Sometimes it takes another person to tell you about the potential you may have in another area for you to recognize it. Maybe it’s because you were doing something wrong all this time, you needed some guidance, you didn’t believe in yourself, you weren’t interested in it, or you completely overlooked what your talents could have been used for. In this aspect your potential is a judgement or opinion of another person but your maximum potential is something only you will know.

You will never reach your full potential in anything but have you reached the potential you wanted to for the things you were passionate about? In a way the potential you hope to achieve is limited by your goals and dreams.

Furthermore, most things we are passionate about are part of a system that has limits. Some by time, some by money, and some by other things. Some games athletes train for only last so long and you can’t make more than 100% of your shots. Some investments are limited by a value, you won’t be able to rent an apartment for an unreasonable rate very long which can stunt your money potential.

You may think you know your full potential but rest assured that when you push hard enough you’ll surprise yourself. Eventually you will hit a wall in things that you do, a spot where it doesn’t seem like you’re getting any better or going any further. Some people take the path of least resistance and give up or turn around but walls were put up for one reason only: To stop those who don’t really want it bad enough.

You see if everything was easy then there would be nothing special about being good at anything. When you make it over these walls you’ll be amazed at how much further you can go, it never seems to stop. Just when you think you’ve reached your full potential you begin to realize that you were just preparing to go beyond it.

I think of the dead spots in life like a slingshot. You think you’re not going anywhere and maybe you’re back peddling but in reality you’re pulling yourself back in the sling shot so you can fly forward again toward your wildest dreams.