Maximising one’s potential, talent

These are the days when you get up to 30 or 50 bites on a single day.
On a very bad fishing the day you can get as low as one bite.
A fisherman can only catch fish if he gets bites. Bite is the unspoken expression of interest by the bass to the fisherman.
The number of bites are vanity if not converted into catches.
In the past I have gone fishing with guys who got a lot of bites but went home with nothing.
Unfortunately, the quality of a fisherman is not judged by how many bites he gets but by how many fish he catches.
Rarely do fishermen catch bass which is equal to the number of bites they get.
Extremely good fishermen utilise nine out of 10 bites. But bad fishermen catch one (or nothing) out of 10 bites.
Average bass fishermen catch one out of two visitations.
The number of catch divided by the number of bites multiplied by hundred will give us what is known as the success rate in fishing.
The issue is how to maximise one’s catch. Maximising one’s catch implies how one can fully utilise one’s talent.
This entails identification of individual’s calling.
This also entails nurturing of one’s talent by focusing on maximising few main areas of your talent.
What prevents us from maximising our potential?
Most people are frustrated at their workplaces because they are doing jobs which they are not interested in.
They don’t have a heart to serve in those capacities. They are working for money and not to enhance their professions.
During the period before 2009 many women got into the nursing profession because it was relatively easier to get a job in Australia, United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Some of the qualified nurses are now a hazard to the nursing profession. Many of these do not have a heart to serve patients.
Shakespeare’s message is very prophetic when he remarked that “cowards die many times before their natural death”.
Indeed psychologists have noted that so many people are afraid of what they don’t know.
What is known is that they are afraid.
Many people fail to get to the top because they are afraid of exploring new opportunities, afraid of moving out of the comfort zone, afraid of leaving their current status, afraid of confronting the future. Some people are even afraid of themselves. Most people do not believe in themselves. They choose to believe anyone else except themselves.
They believe in other people’s potential but not their own. They do not strive to achieve anything and ultimately they do not achieve anything.
At times individuals fail to achieve a skill set that will enable them to utilise their potential due to the individual’s preoccupation with taking short cuts.
Most individuals are under pressure to make a quick buck using the shortest route possible.
This is quite evident in schools, apprenticeship dropouts (for reasons not related to failure to afford tuition).
This in some cases result in these dropouts doing jobs they are not properly qualified to do.
Religious beliefs sometimes can act as a barrier to one’s potential at times. I fellowship with lot of people who tell me that their Christian beliefs do not allow them to pursue higher learning because this is against their beliefs.
Some do not allow children to participate in any sporting activities. The sum total of these is the barrier created by these beliefs in stifling talent.
At times peer pressure works to the detriment of our talents. Sometimes peers compete on non-value adding activities such as alcoholism, drug addiction, etc.
These peer activities rob talented people of their full potential.
At times we overemphasise the effect of peer pressure without considering the individual’s attitudes and personal beliefs.
Most individual’s limitations are a direct product of an individual’s mindset. We create a big world for ourselves with our mind. We can also use our minds to create a miniature world for ourselves. Research has proved that the majority of people belong to the self-imposed miniature world.
An individual’s mind can dwarf their world or the opportunities available to them or their ambitions and in some instances the talent that individual has.
The potential of the fisherman’s is in bites. Most people have dreams but rarely do these dreams become reality.
The only useful potential energy is the one that is easily converted into kinetic energy. In the same token the only useful bites are the once that translate into catches.
What makes us utilise our full potential?
The most commonly known method of increasing utilisation of an individual’s potential is by increasing the ego of an individual in a positive way (Please note that an inflated ego is also undesirable.)
The issue here relates to how an individual can become aware of the possibilities available to him and the benefits available to him if he perseveres to attain those goals.
Good mentorship programmes normally assist in bringing the best out potentially highly talent individuals.
In other spheres of life one needs exposure and inspiration. If you never get to kick a soccer ball you may never get to develop into a successful football player.
The same applies to athletics, the professions and entrepreneurship. Having someone believing in you and exposing you to an environment that nurtures and nourishes your talent is key to one’s development. This is an important role of talent scouts and mentors.
Identifying your talent and starting to develop is the easy part but talent alone is not enough if passion and honest hard work do not accompany it.
How many promising footballers have suffered a still birth in their careers because they have gone for drugs, deviant behaviour or because of plain laziness.
l The writer is a managing consultant at CLC Training International. E-mail [email protected]