Living Your Full Potential

I have a recurring conversation with one of my clients about what it means to live your full potential.

She periodically gets herself tangled up in a belief that if you’re not doing everything you are capable of then you are wasting your potential. When she holds that perspective it triggers guilt, pressure and stress about all the things she could do.

The inherent problem with that definition is that we are all capable of a multitude of things for which we have no passion or interest. Or that might not fit with the life you want to create.

I spent the first fifteen years of my career in accounting and finance. I’m very good at it. And it’s not my passion nor do I believe it’s what I’m here to do.

Here’s my definition of living your full potential:

Making choices to use your strengths, gifts and passion in a way that makes you happy while consistently striving to grow.

Whether it’s as an attorney, executive, full-time parent, florist, non-profit fundraiser, writer, massage therapist, CPA, teacher, business owner, chef, marketing professional, yoga teacher, engineer, salesperson, barista, journalist, or any of the other hundreds of things people do … if you’re aligning your passion and talents, stretching out of your comfort zone and growing, and fundamentally happy, you’re living your potential.

It often takes a leap of faith to make those choices but in the end it’s so worth it.

That’s what I believe.