How can you put yourself in a position to reach your full potential? Start with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs…
First and foremost, you need to be able to have access to food, water, and shelter. It is impossible to reach your full potential without first having your basic physiological needs covered.
After that, we dive into your psychological/emotional needs. You need to feel safe and secure.
Also, you need to have a support system…whether you have the love of your life, a best friend, or a group of friends/colleagues that you can confide in, you need to be able to share not just your problems/issues with someone, but you need to be able to share your hopes and dreams with at least one person. You should not be afraid that they will ridicule you. You should be able to share anything and everything with them.
Third, you need to have a healthy self-esteem. You need to have confidence in yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself, you can never reach your full potential. How do you build confidence? By becoming competent. How do you become competent? By conducting purposeful research, undergoing trial and error experiments, and repeating (after you implement tweaks to what you’ve learned during the trial and error phase). Competence breeds confidence.
Once you have fulfilled the above needs, you can reach the self-actualization portion of the pyramid. It is at this point that reaching your full potential is within your grasp. You are so close, but this is not the end! Many people get to this level of the pyramid and stop. They think they’ve made it. But you never actually reach your full potential. There is always more – you’re capable of more than you think you are. But once you reach self-actualization, you begin to realize what you can be. At this point you can start working on creative pursuits and take on more risk, thus bringing you closer to reaching your full potential.
