Unleashing Your True Potential
It’s easy to let life’s challenges sap your energy, dissipate your motivation and give you a pessimistic outlook, but there is a way to to prevent difficult situations and negative thoughts from standing in your way of success and happiness. There is a way to unleash your true potential.
I know this from personal experience. In high school, I was voted “Least Likely to Succeed,” and on top of that, I had a guidance counselor tell me that I wasn’t smart enough to go to college. I laugh about these things now, but it was those negative labels that fostered toxic beliefs, that in turn began to shape my general outlook and hold me back from success and happiness as an adult. Let me make this very clear: Nothing—absolutely nothing—will keep you from seeing your self-worth and experiencing your full potential more than toxic beliefs.
In the early stages of my adult life, I couldn’t understand why opportunity wasn’t knocking at my door. Looking back now, I realize that opportunity was knocking, but my fears and toxic belief system were preventing me from perceiving and taking action on it. I had the talent and potential to succeed, but I lacked the confidence to move forward.
Our brain has a negativity bias: We tend to pick up on the unpleasant, uninspiring elements in life more than the motivational, positive factors. That’s why it’s important to make an active effort to train your brain to think more positively in order to attain your goals. With the power of positive thinking by your side, every setback becomes another learning opportunity. What could have once brought you down can be used as a means of elevating yourself to do and be better. Pushing out the negativity and opening yourself up to gratitude and joy are significant steps toward fostering a positive mental attitude that is conducive to tapping into your hidden potential and thereby realize that there is a solution to every problem.
It is essential to be optimistic while also being practical. When setting out to change your life by enhancing your level of motivation and vigorously taking action on your dreams, acknowledge that you need to take baby steps. The process can be slow, and there can be many failures and obstacles to overcome, but the right mindset can push you through. If you spend time every day retraining your thought process, developing a real awareness of your thought patterns, both negative and positive, and consciously restructuring them so that your focus shifts to the good elements in your life, you will unleash your true potential. You will be able to tackle any amount of adversity, feel genuine joy and peace every day, and take steps toward achieving success with unfaltering confidence in yourself and your choices.