120: Living Up to Your Potential – Friday Fundamentals
Do you ever find yourself thinking “One day, I’ll go there, or see that place, or do that thing, or start that business, or build that idea, or be in that kind of shape”? If so, great! That means you have desires, dreams, and aspirations. The problem is most people stop there. They only dream and never act. Some people are afraid of failure. Others are afraid of success. Some think that these things aren’t possible. Others don’t want to put in the work to find out. We have a tendency to overestimate what we can accomplish in a year, and a tendency to underestimate what we can do in a decade. Take new years resolutions for example. How many of you have made a New Years resolution and not stuck with it? Now think how many things you’ve not considered because it would take too long, is out of reach, or is beyond what you can imagine accomplishing? For example, running a marathon or achieving financial freedom though cashflowing real estate. You have so much potential in this life. You can do anything you want. You just have to realize your full potential and live up to it. This isn’t some aha awakening moment. Rather, it’s a day in and day out practice. After all, living up to your full potential takes discipline. For me, this starts every morning, bright and early. I know what you’re thinking “But Jacob, I’m not a morning person”. Well I’ve got news for you. No one is a morning person. No one wakes up to their alarm and despises the thought of 5 more minutes of sleep. We all do that. The difference in those that hit snooze and those that jump up to take on the day is purpose. You have to have purpose if you’re truly going to live up to your potential. Otherwise, you’ll just get by with a life of mediocrity. These are all big-picture things that require some thought. Purpose, potential, waking up early?! These things sound hard and like something you would rather not deal with. Trust me, I get it. But it’s really not that hard. Figuring out our purpose, so you can live up to your full potential sounds like you might need to relegate yourself to isolation with budhist monks for a month meditating all day. But it’s not quite like that. It’s much simpler. Find what you love, and do that. It’s ok if you don’t have this figured out. Truth be told, I’m not even sure I do. I’m simply exploring the things that interest me and telling you about them in this podcast. I don’t have all the answers. Heck, I barely know what I’m talking about.