Potential for potential

What do we mean when we talk about 'living up to our potential'?

And why do we so readily associate it with work?

Among the many obstacles to clear decision-making about what we want to do with our working lives is the perception of work as a testing ground on which we are required to demonstrate how much we are capable of doing.

Indeed, we may view it as the one and only testing ground. 

And then 'could’ all too easily becomes ‘should’, so that even if we've enjoyed a career with evident achievement and value, we may feel we've failed somehow because we could/should have done more.

The association of goals and work, plus the diehard assumption that success means getting as far up the career ladder as you can, creates pressure even if we don’t subscribe to that way of thinking. The decision to live by different values can feel a bit like having to opt out of an automatic enrolment system, making you conscious of being out of step with the supposed norm.

Yet the measures against which we are making such assessments are merely social constructs and we can choose to use others instead.

Perhaps ‘living up to our potential’ could be striking a good personal balance between work and non-work, and being happy with the outcome?

Perhaps a better work-life balance might itself include exploring our potential in other parts of our lives, beyond work, and ‘living up to it’ over there?

Work doesn’t need to deliver everything for us. It’s not the only ground on which we can prove ourselves. And relieving it of some of that burden might make it more enjoyable.

The important thing is to be clear about what we need in and from our lives, and which part of that we’re asking work to deliver. And what we want to give it in exchange.

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I help people step back and take a long, hard look at the role they want work to play in their lives, what they want to give to it and what they want it to deliver for them. If that sounds like the kind of support you need, get in touch for a free call without any commitment.

 Photo: Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash