What's Preventing You From Reaching Your Full Potential?

What’s Preventing You From Reaching Your Full Potential?

Our brains are like computer hard drives and throughout our lifetime, we have been programmed through different ways with different things that eventually made us think and act the way we do today.

Our upbringing, environment, circumstances, parents, and people that we associate ourselves with – they all play a significant role in our so-called "programming" and if we're not careful, we might find ourselves with lots of "malware" which I would like to call in real life as negative thoughts including our excuses.

The other night, my mom's personal computer was infected with a malware called AntiVirus Soft. Yes "antivirus!" See, there are a lot of things in life that are dressed in sheep's clothing, representing themselves as good things on the surface, but they're really not. This is the same thing with this antivirus soft. It presented itself as a good tool to protect my mom's machine from virus attacks but it caused annoyance itself and caused my mom's computer to not function normally until she purchases a "full version." Ahhh another "come on" in life, ain't it?

If your computer has ever been infected with a malware or a virus, you know that it basically causes your computer to malfunction. It corrupts some of the major programs and before you know it, you can't navigate your machine properly. It prevents it from being used to its full potential.

What's preventing you from reaching your full potential?
I find that what prevents most people from achieving their dreams are their own excuses in life:

Excuse #1: I was not brought up in a positive and loving environment.
And so do some of the most successful people in the world! We all know Oprah Winfrey's story of abuse while growing up. Look where she's at right now. Hers is a great story of rising above her abusive upbringing to pursue her dreams. She's one of the most influential people in the world these days.

Excuse #2: I never had good education.
Bill Gates, founder and owner of Microsoft and a college dropout, is one of the richest man in the world. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, also never graduated from College. They are only two of the millions of other people in the world who may not necessarily had good education either by choice or not but they made a decision that they were going to do something remarkable with their lives to make the life of others better. There is no doubt that computer technology and internet are where they are at today because of them.

Excuse #3: I don't feel qualified enough.
Soichiro Honda was turned down by Toyota Motor Corporation for an engineering job. For sometime, he was jobless. What has grown to be one of the most recognized brand in auto was started by someone who was rejected by a "future competitor" and was started right from his own home making scooters!

Prior to starting this own company, Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for "lack of imagination and good ideas." Today, Disney earns billions of dollars from merchandise, movies, and theme parks all over the world!

Known as the best basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan was kicked out of his high school basketball team.

Albert Einstein didn't speak until he was four and didn't read until he was 7, causing his parents and teachers to think he was mentally handicap. We all know that Einstein made significant contribution that changed the world of physics.

Excuse #4: I have a negative past.
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison. After he was released, he dedicated himself to ending apartheid and became elected as the President of South Africa.

Excuse #5: I have physical handicap.
Nick Vujicic, born without limbs, found his purpose in life by becoming an inspiration to men and women across all generations and race and culture and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ all over the world.

Helen Keller was born deaf and blind and was the first ever deafblind person to earn a Bachelor's of Arts degree. She became a famous author.

Ludwig Van Beethoven composed five of his most loved symphonies of all time while he was deaf.

Excuse #6: I don't know what's going to happen.
Whenever there's uncertainly, I'd always like to think of this famous story in the Bible. The story of Peter who was one of Jesus' disciples. At some point you might have heard of him. He was the one who made that famous walk on the water. Surely Peter didn't know what was going to happen but he took that step of faith and got out of the boat despite of the "unknown." His quest was a story of faith and inspiration being shared to millions of people till this day.

Excuse #7: I don't have the resources to make it happen.
If you're still making this excuse, then I don't know where you've been for the past decade or so. The internet has grown to be a wonderful information resource where you can basically find anything and everything. You want to learn something? Google it! You need to find funding, Google it!

There's really no excuse anymore for lack of information and resources. They are available out there.

Excuse #8: I tried before and failed.
Harland David Sanders, better known as Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Sanders' famous secret chicken recipe was rejected 1,009 times before a restaurant accepted it.

Thomas Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb.

Henry Ford filed bankruptcy five times before he became successful with his motor company.

On one of Michael Jordan's interviews, he said:
"I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

Excuse #9: I am afraid of what other people will say.
I love what Steve Jobs said in his speech to the Stanford Graduates back in 2005:

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Excuse #10: I haven't figured everything out yet. I'll wait to be perfect.
The people I have mentioned above are ordinary people just like you and me! The only difference is that they made a decision to stop making excuses and do something about their lives. You must not wait to be perfect and till you have everything figured out before you pursue your dreams because guess what? You will never figure everything out all at once! life is a constant learning process and for the most part, you just learn things as you go.

So cut out your excuses, go out there, and pursue your dreams!

Until then!…

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Comments (2)

Joe says:

August 28, 2010 at 9:54 AM

Lynn, I am making a comment as you suggested on Facebook and thank you for being an inspiration. #10 is a biggie, I think a lot of people (including me) are big procrastinators. There are so many things that distract us from our goals. I feel one really has to make a plan a stick to it to overcome this monster.

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Kim@How To Overcome Procrastination says:

November 22, 2011 at 7:53 PM

This is a really great list and I thank you for breaking it down into such chewable chunks. There’s really are no excuses for not doing it and following your dream in life.
Kim@How To Overcome Procrastination´s last [type] ..How To Overcome Procrastination: The Only 5 Letter Word You Need

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