Maximum Living: How to Reach Your True Potential

Glen / 30 Comments / March 26th, 2009 / Subscribe via RSS

I’ve said it before and I’ll happily say it again, each of us has amazing potential and a great opportunity to make a real difference in this world. I’m trying to do my part by writing on this site, and making a good income online so that I can help benefit even more people.

That being said, I would be nowhere near the position I’m in now if I hadn’t followed the steps I’ve outlined below, and started living up to my full potential. Our time on earth is short and we don’t know when our luck will run out, so maybe it’s time you started living to your full potential?

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You may be well aware of some of these points, but I hope that my personal examples in each point help give you something to relate to and realise how important these steps really are.

Rid Yourself of Internal Excuses – I bet that there’s one excuse you have in your life that is holding you back from doing certain things. They can range from specific excuses like ‘I’m shy so can’t get anywhere in life’ to more common excuses like ‘Good things don’t happen to people like me’. Either way, these excuses are irrelevant and unnecessary.

I used to think that I was too young and didn’t have enough experience to make money online, and then I went on to make over $5,000 in one month at the age of 17. Whatever it is you want to achieve, stop letting your excuses get in the way. They are nothing more than a lie you feed yourself when you wonder why you aren’t reaching your potential.

Stop Selling Yourself Short – Sometimes it’s not even that we have excuses which stop us from getting somewhere, it’s simply the fact that our goals are small and they don’t test our limits. I first wanted to focus on making a steady, liveable income from the internet, and now I want to push that and make some serious cash. Cash that I will use to help charities and expand the reach of this website.

Look at your current goals in life, and magnify them. Increase their difficulty, reduce your chances of success and then start going for what you want. If you’re going to dream, at least dream big. Even if you don’t reach this huge goal, you’re going to get further than you ever would by completing a small one.

Realise Your Dreams Can Become Reality – I can’t think of anything more off putting than someone telling us that we can’t achieve what we want to achieve. But we see it every day don’t we? People moaning about how others seem to get all the luck, the media highlighting one or two people as those who have ‘made it’ and missing out on the billions of other people in the world.

“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right”

- Henry Ford

It’s very likely that someone out there has had the same goals as you and managed to achieve them. Find out who they are and how they did it, then use them as your inspiration. Even if your goal is completely unique, be your own inspiration, be the light for others to see that achieving it is possible.

Set Out a Simple Plan – It amazes me how many people I know have aspirations for where they would like to go in the future, yet have no actual plan on how they would like to get there. Without my current strategy plan in place I would be literally months behind on my schedule compared to where I am now.

I’ve already shared my goal setting approach, but it basically involves a task each Sunday evening to decide what I want to achieve in the week ahead and I try and stick to that as closely as possible. If there’s ever a time I don’t feel like doing an item on the list I ask myself “Do you really want this, do you want the end result?”

Needless to say, it doesn’t take long till I…

Take Action – Quite simply, you’re never going to reach your full potential if you carry on with the exact same lifestyle that you are living today. I’m sorry, but somewhere along the line things will have to change, and you may need to compromise. Around 2 years ago when I started making money online, I was in College from Monday to Friday and I worked 8 hours per day on Saturday and Sunday in a clothes store.

I was exhausted day after day but I would make the most of my time and focus on building websites whenever I could. If I hadn’t taken action back then, I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in now, and I certainly wouldn’t have spent the last 16 months in South Africa, working my dream job.

Don’t Hesitate

We all have this magical spark inside of us, I see it in my friend Candice when she talks about things close to her heart; I see it in my friend Diggy when he struggles to find the meaning of life and I see it in all the great bloggers who try to make a difference in this world. This spark to do more, this passion to really take life by the scruff of the neck and twist it into something amazing and that they’ve created.

Don’t start living up to your potential tomorrow, do it today, even if it means you are cutting short your lunch break. Actually put these steps into action and start being the person you want to be, the person you are meant to be.

Start making your own spark, and change your reality into whatever you want it to be by living up to your potential.