JUST ONE THING
Your Potential Awaits Beyond Comfort
Episode 155
With Rick White, 180BIZ
I'm going to ask you a simple question. Are you defending your limitations? Are you setting yourself up where you're allowing past situations, circumstances, and events to dictate and define who you're capable of becoming? Are you staring at limitations or are you focused on potential?
Too many people allow the situations, circumstances, events, and opinions of others to dictate and define who they are and who they will become. Henry Ford said it brilliantly. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you're right.”
How do you know what your limitations are?
How do you know what your limitations are? Listen to the words you say. “I can't... We can't... It will never... It's always...” These are limitations that you're placing on yourself. What's that little voice inside of you saying to keep you from becoming who you're capable of being? Remember the number one regret of people who are dying. They wish they pushed themselves more. They wish they had taken bigger chances. They were so afraid of failure that they were held back.
Your limitations are there to protect you.
Your limitations aren't there to hurt you. Your limitations are there to protect you. That's what your brain thinks it's doing. Your brain only has two functions. The first is to survive. And the second is to save energy. Those are reasons why your limitations are there. When you're going after potential, there is risk. The risk of failure. But what is failure? Failure is falling. Failure is simply a lesson.
You have a choice.
You have a choice. You can change or you can stay stuck. You can do better. I want you to stop defending your limitations. I want you to think to yourself today, “How can I show up better? How can I show up looking at the future I want to create? Too many people allow those situations, circumstances, events, and opinions of other people to hold them back and define them.
Successful people see failure as a lesson.
Do you know what successful people do? They go through the same stuff. They're not different from you and me. They have the same number of hours every day. They go through the same heartache, sorrows, and struggles that we do. The difference is their focus. The difference is the meaning. When they go through something tough, they don't see it as a stop sign. They see it as a lesson. They see it as something to help them grow and get better.
Your potential is just outside of your comfort zone.
For example. Let’s say you have a shop and you're having a problem with car count. Maybe that means you must learn to be a better communicator. Perhaps it means you must better understand who your ideal audience is. It could mean that you must stretch yourself as a human being and look for opportunities to help and serve others. It means stepping out of your comfort zone because that is where your potential is. You will never succeed to the level you want in your comfort zone. You must push yourself.
This is one I struggle with. The only way I can exercise is if I go to the gym. And that's not true. That's a limitation I am imposing on myself. There are so many different things I can do. But that is something my brain does.
This week every morning I want you to dream of what the day could be. Not, “It was a great day, nothing exploded.” Or not, “It was a great day, everyone survived.” That is not potential. Thriving and surviving are about focus. People who are thriving have a better picture, a better destination, and a better focus.
Limitation or potential, it's your choice.
