Reaching For The Higher Potential Within You - Part Two
Reaching for the higher potential within us is no longer an option but a requirement to remain relevant and competitive in this new post-covid world of business.
1. Why This Is So Important
Our rapidly changing workplace includes shifts in organizational ethics, employee diversity, geographic multiplicity (hybrid model), and new negotiation components in the onboarding process.
It’s a lot to take in, yet leaders must understand and master these new norms.
Remaining unaware of these new ethics and behaviors, leaders jeopardize their credibility and their organizations’ reputation.
Keeping current in our ever-changing societal ethic demands unlocking the untapped potential residing within us.
Reaching for your higher potential is the ongoing process of your intentional personal development. Mastering new skills while becoming acclimated to new levels of competencies is challenging yet most rewarding due to
The repetitive cycles of personal bests we experience as lifelong learners
Increasing our inherent value by challenging ourselves to learn and master new skills and developing new behaviors
Positioning ourselves to take advantage of new opportunities we’ll encounter by climbing higher
Becoming more confident and comfortable with the responsibility that comes with making increasingly difficult choices
2. The Process Will Test Everything About Us
Mental, emotional, relational, social, and practical skills are all on the table. Pushing through the process of climbing higher leaves nothing untouched. Our difficulties and fears are faced, challenged, and overcome.
I’ve gone through the process multiple times with varying degrees of success and setbacks. Early on, I’ve often been amazed at how deeply embedded self-serving tendencies can be, especially in giving myself away when mentoring leaders, I knew would become so much better than myself!
When we succeed at one level arriving at the next greets us with more open doors of opportunity for success.
3. Don’t Look Back
In her book “Brave Enough to Succeed,” Valorie Burton advises you to stop rehashing the past and begin your day with this declaration; “Today, I choose to forget what is behind and press toward what is ahead! I cannot move forward while I’m still looking backward. I trust God that the best is yet to come, but first, I must make peace with the past and face forward.” Valorie continues with some straightforward insights,
“Key Points
Rehashing negative feelings and situations mires you in stale, ugly old emotions.
Constantly going over pain from the past is a sign that you are not completely healed from the situation.
Be proactive about processing your past.
Get the help you need to work through it. It’s the place where we got stuck that can be so darn difficult to quit talking about.” (1)
4. Eliminate the Negatives and Accentuate the Positives
“Positive thinking invites motivation, encouragement, and determination. Learn how to change your negative thinking to positive thinking.”
— Zig Ziglar
“I am suggesting that as we go through life, we ‘accentuate the positive.’ I am asking that we look a little deeper for the good, that we still our voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously compliment and endorse virtue and effort.”
— Gordon B. Hinckley
Leader and Keynote Speaker Michelle Ray says, “The majority of our choices happen at a deep, involuntary level. The subconscious has been conditioned to respond at a faster rate than the conscious mind. Scientific research reveals that there is a 5:1 ratio of negative thoughts to positive. In other words, we are programmed to pay attention to the negative.
Therefore, we need to change the pattern of our thinking in order to activate our brain to override the “typical” control-and-response mechanism.” (2)
In Closing, Our potential can lie dormant, locked away in unused or unrealized capabilities. I have spoken to many people who regret their decisions that limited or ended promising careers in their fields. It’s sad to look back and lament never reaching your potential; sadder still are those who live a lifetime, never knowing what might have been. By all means, reach for the higher potential within you!
End Notes
(1) “Brave Enough To Succeed” – Valorie Burton (Harvest House Publishers)
(2) “Lead Yourself” – Michelle Ray (Changemakers books, John Hunt Publishing)
*** This article was authored by John Picarello, Chief Leadership Officer at Lions Pride Leadership Co. ***