Potential
Everything in life was created with potential and possess the potential principle. In every seed there is a tree…in every bird a flock…in every fish a school…in every sheep a flock…in every cow a herd…in every boy a man…in every girl a woman…in every nation a generation. Tragedy strikes when a tree dies in a seed, a man in a boy, a woman in a girl, an idea in a mind. For untold millions, visions die unseen, songs die unsung, plans die unexecuted and futures die buried in the past. The problems of our world go unanswered because potential remains buried.
We are responsible for the potential stored within us. We must learn to understand it and effectively use it. Too often our success prevents us from seeking that which lies within us. Success becomes our enemy as we settle for what we have. Refuse to be satisfied with your last accomplishment, because potential never has a retirement plan. Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. In essence, what you see is not all there is.
All men are sent to the world with limitless credit,
but few draw to their full extent.
It is a tragedy to know that with over five billion people on this planet today, only a minute percentage will experience a significant fraction of their true potential. Perhaps you are a candidate to contributing to the wealth of the cemetery. Your potential was not given for you to deposit in the grave. You must understand the tremendous potential you possess and commit yourself to maximizing it in your short lifetime. What is potential anyway?
Potential is…dormant ability…reserved power…untapped strength…unused success…hidden talents…capped capability
All you can be but have not yet become…all you can do but have not yet done…how far you can reach but have not reached…what you can accomplish but have yet accomplished. Potential is unexposed ability and latent power.
Potential is therefore not what you have done, but what you are yet able to do. In other words, what you have done is no longer potential. What you have successfully accomplished is no longer potential. It is said that unless you do something beyond what you have done, you will never grow or experience full potential. Potential demands that you never settle for what you have accomplished. One of the great enemies of your potential is success. In order to realize your full potential, you must never be satisfied with your last accomplishment.
The greatest tragedy in life is not death,
but a life that never realized its full potential.
Perhaps you are wasting your life doing nothing with all you have. God packaged some things in you for the good of the world-use them. We will never know the wealth God planted in you until you bring it up. There’s always something in you that we haven’t seen because that’s the way God thinks. Release your ability before you die. Use the power and strength within you for the good of yourself and others. I believe that there are books, songs, art works, businesses, poems, inventions and investments in you that God intended for my children to enjoy. Don’t give up until you have lived out the full extent of your potential, because you have no right to die with my things. Don’t rob the next generation of the wealth, treasure and tremendous gifts buried within you.
If you want to succeed, strike out on new paths. Don’t travel the worn paths of accepted success.
No man can climb beyond the limitation of his own belief.
Every day sends to the grave obscure men and women whom fear prevented from realizing their true and full potential.
Failure is not the absence of success. Failure is the neglect of trying.
What you see is not all there is. There is something in everything.
Book: Understanding Your Potential by Dr. Myles Munroe -ISBN 156043046X
The poorest man in the world is a man without a dream. The most frustrated man in the world is a man with a dream that never becomes a reality. The ability to dream is a natural instinct instilled by the Creator. These dreams are visual manifestations of our purpose, seeds of destiny planted in the soil of our imagination. I am convinced that God created and gave us the gift of imagination to provide us with a glimpse of our purpose in life and to activate the hidden ability within each of us. Purpose is the reason why something was made. It is the end for which the means exist. It is the source of the dream and the vision you carried in your heart from childhood. It is the key to your fulfillment.
Living with ability brings responsibility.
Dying with ability reveals irresponsibility.
The tremendous potential you and I have been given is locked inside of us, waiting for demands to be made on it. We have a responsibility to use what God has stored in us for the good of the world. We dare not leave this planet with it. Many of us are aware of the ability we have inside, but we have been frustrated by our failure to release our ability. Some of us blame historical circumstances. Others blame social status. Still others transfer the responsibility for their failure and frustration to their lack of formal education or their less than ideal opportunities.
Over the years, I have come to realize that no excuse can be given to justify the destruction of the seed of potential that God placed within you.
You can become the man or woman you were born to be.
You can accomplish the vision you saw.
You can build the business you planned.
You can developed that school you imagined.
You are the only one who can stop you.
No matter what your environment, you have the ability to change your attitude and your internal environment until they are conducive to the germination of your potential seed. The world needs what God deposited in you for the benefit of your contemporaries and all the generations to follow.
Tap the untapped. Release the reservoir.
Book: Releasing Your Potential by Dr. Myles Munroe - ISBN 1560430729
The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but life without reason. It is dangerous to be alive and not know why you were given life. The deepest craving of the human spirit is to find a sense of significance and relevance. The search for relevance in life is the ultimate pursuit of man (Increase). Conscious or unconscious, admitted or unedited, this internal passion is what motivates and drives every human being, either directly or indirectly. It directs his decisions, controls his behavior, and dictates his responses to his environment. This desperate desire to feel important and relevant to one’s existence also causes the sacrifice of common sense, good judgment, moral standards, and basic human values. Many individuals have sacrificed excellent reputations and years of character-building life styles for the sake of advancement to a desired position, or a place of recognition and fame in their society or workplace, so they could feel important and worthwhile.
In essence, this desire and drive for sense of importance, significance and relevance is the cause and motivator for all human behavior and conflict. This passion for significance knows no boundaries. Rich and poor are victims of its power. Kings and peasants suffer under its rule. This yearning for relevance and significance is evidence of an internal vacuum in the nature of mankind that needs to be filled. This age-old passion is the pursuit of purpose, a relentless reaching for a reason for the gift of life.
Ask yourself these questions:
Who am I?
Why am I here?
Where did I come from?
What was I born to do?
What can I do?
Why am I different?
What is my potential?
Where am I going?
Why did I come to this planet?
These are universal questions that haunt every human being. Each of us must find the answers to these questions of purpose if we are going to enjoy a meaningful, effective, fulfilling life. You must realize that your fulfillment in life is dependent on your becoming and doing what you were born to do. Anything less makes life your enemy and death your friend. It is essential, vital, crucial and necessary that you understand this fundamental principle of purpose and pursue it with all your heart. For without purpose, life has no heart.
Remember those who don’t know where they are going
will probably end up someplace else.
Book: The Pursuit of Purpose by Dr. Myles Munroe - ISBN 1560431032
Posted By: Kevin Gunnells
Monday, December 8th 2008 at 1:52PM
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