DON’T LIMIT YOUR POTENTIAL…Believe in yourself.

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who feels afraid but he that conquers that fear.” – Nelson Mandela, 1st Black President of South Africa

I was on my way home one afternoon and spotted some guys putting up a huge billboard. I spotted the words ‘potential’, and was intrigued. I waited until they had completed putting all parts of the billboard together and a smile came across my face. The billboard read: Potential…Delivered. On one side it had a rough diamond with the words “Potential”, and on the other side, it had a glistening diamond with the words “delivered” next to it.

I smiled, shook my head, and walked off as I have always thought of every single one of my mentees in this way, a diamond in the rough. They have such passion and desire to succeed and all that is required is to put them through that process of believing in themselves and applying a mechanism and process for achieving their goals. We all have that inborn drive and tenacity to achieve phenomenal things. It does not matter what our status in life is, where we live, which school we attended, whether we have a degree or not, what our background, race or tribe is; we can achieve greatness. It’s in all of us. There are many who have achieved phenomenal success and who have come from one or more of these circumstances, but what differentiated them was their “power of purpose and determination”. They were hungry for success.

Are you hungry for success?

Some aspiring entrepreneurs tend to diminish their glow and fail in most instances because of “blame” and “excuses”. Yet some are not prepared to do what it takes to perform at this level. You blame your parents for not pushing you enough in school and at home, and for not setting the examples, and giving you the values you need. You blame your teachers in school for telling you that you were not good enough, and for encouraging you to choose a career you did not want or see yourself doing. You envy and blame others because they have achieved and can afford the finer things in life while you are struggling financially. Yet, we all have the ability to make our own choices using our brain (considered to be the most powerful machine on earth), to think, influence, make decisions and take action to change our circumstances.Some of you find “excuses” for your procrastination to decide to take action, to changing your state and building a more compelling story for success.

The only barrier to achieving your full potential, your goals and dreams is YOU. Stop being a “doubting Thomas”, always doubting your ability and your greatness. Stop listening to those inner critics that always seem to find an excuse or reason for you not taking that bold action. Manage that inner critic by “laughing at it”, and tell it that he does not know what you are about and is just a fool. You may also kill this inner critic, dismiss it immediately, and refrain from listening to it or you can “argue with it” until you get your way. Whatever way you find best to manage your inner critic, do it so it does not overtake your decision points. I prefer to “kill it”, but that is just my preference

Become resourceful; be innovative and creative with your ideas, and have that power of purpose and determination to get it done. There is an old African proverb that my Granny used to say: “for dry wood to blaze, it must seek fire”