Your potential is limitless. It is a gift from God, and your gift to Him is what you do with it. Yet, the unfortunate reality is that most people live their entire lives without tapping into this God-given gift, wasting this resource as though they have another life to realize it. Why? Because while potential allows you to do anything your heart and gifts desire, you can’t do everything. The desire to do everything causes us to miss out on a necessary ingredient for successfully living out our potential; focus. My dad use to always talk about being a “jack of all trades and master of none.” You are God’s “masterpiece” so focus on being the master of the potential He has placed within you by prayerfully seeking His guidance as to how you should focus to release and live out your full potential.
Potential
To truly understand and focus on living and fulfilling your God-given potential it’s important to first give definition and clarity to potential. Potential is that gap between what you are and what God created you to be as His masterpiece. While it’s easy to see the gap in others it’s often easy to miss it in ourselves or to rationalize it away. For many who are reading this right now, you have tried to bury your potential for so long because of fear of failure or hopelessness. Today is the day that you need to tap back into the hopes and dreams that you use to have based on the potential you know is dwelling within. Then begin a strategy of living each day fulfilling potential.
1. One Step At A Time
You cannot fulfill the potential of your entire life in one day. This goes back to the old adage of “how do you eat an elephant?” Answer: “One bite at a time.” You will fulfill a life time of potential by living out the potential in the opportunities that are before you today. Take one step at a time, or as the great philosopher said “baby stepping” (Bob in the Movie: What About Bob)
2. Consider The Cost
Making the decision to live your potential today is followed with a question that must be answered: “what are you willing to sacrifice to narrow the gap between your God-given potential and where you are right now?” I lost some of you on that one. You’ve spent your lives thinking that you can live your potential without having to sacrifice anything. Whoever told you that or gave you that idea was lying to you. Masterpiece living requires sacrifice. Know this, the results are directly related to how much you are willing to sacrifice – you get to choose – a little sacrifice – a little success, great sacrifice – great success.
Make today a day that you take one step forward toward closing the gap between the masterpiece God created you to be and where you are at this very moment. Then, do it again tomorrow and the next day and the next…
3. Look Forward
God gave you two eyes in the front of your head to see where you are going and where you want to go. Quit spending all of your time looking backwards at the past. Can you imagine if the people on the road driving around you today only looked in the rear view mirror as they were driving? It would be disastrous. The same is true for you and your life, if you spend all of your time looking at the past you will crash and burn in the present and future. There is merit in learning lessons from the past and not repeating them, but get past the regret and fear that past decisions, disappointments, and failures have brought into your life and look forward toward your future. Regardless of your age, 5 years old, 50 years old, or 90 years old, you still have potential in today and in your future. Live in it and quit living in yesterday.
The apostle Paul wrote these words regarding the past: “…I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (Phil 3:13-14 NLT)
Next Steps For Your Strategy:
What one step can you take today to narrow the gap between where you are and the masterpiece God created you to be? What are you willing to sacrifice to do it? Quit living in the past – now! Look forward with hope and expectation!
Feedback:
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