The Connection Between Motivation and Potential

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?" - Marianne Williamson

So I've read this quote a couple times in various places on the internet and it never really made sense to me. I personally have always had a fear of being inadequate or not being enough. I finally realized though that she is right. While we all have this fear that maybe we aren't this great person we think we are, we are 10x more afraid that we are and we aren't achieving it.

How scary is it when we see our dreams in front of us and realize that they are attainable? "I could never be an actor." is way more simple to deal with than "I could be an actor but it would take a lot of work, mental fortitude, and 10 years of dedication." Once we identify what our goals are, we as humans, have a tendency to view them as a mountain to climb rather than a series of small inclines.

It behooves every person to have a dream or a goal for themselves. I can't imagine living without one. The more clearly it's defined the more likely you are to achieve it. It has taken me a very long time to understand the concept of defining a goal and then figuring what incremental steps I can take to get there. Anything else is a dream and all you can do with a dream is hope. It's about changing a state of mind from inaction to action, wishing to doing. Losing 50 pounds sounds impossible but losing 2 pounds a week for 6 months sounds hard but attainable.

It sometimes happens that the weight of our potential hinders our motivation. When you know what you want to achieve and its a big task, it's easy to get overwhelmed. The key is to break it into small steps and complete them. The Kaizen Way to Self Improvement states that you just need to get 1% better each day. This in turn will create a snowball effect that will help you reach your goal.

As a friend of mine states "You just gotta get some W's everyday." That's all it takes. If I run one sprint outside, I beat yesterday. So on and so forth.

"It always seems impossible until its done" - Nelson Mandela