Unlock Your Full Potential: 3 Practical Steps
In 2003, a young, talented basketball player was drafted to the NBA straight out of high school.
After some years in the league, he decided that he wanted to go to the next level in how he played the game, specifically in the area of three-point shots. He wanted to win a championship, and he knew he had to get better in order to lead his team to victory. He hired a sports psychologist to help him achieve his goal. The specialist worked to train the player’s mind using a method called visualization. He wanted the player to see himself successfully making three-point shots.
The specialist recommended creating an eight to twelve-minute highlight video of the player successfully making various three-point shots: spot-up shots, off the dribble shots, and more. The specialist even recommended adding some of the player’s favorite songs to the video to help him associate his actions with positive feelings. The player was required to watch it every night before bed to stimulate his subconscious to replay the images while he slept. Finally, the sports psychologist instructed him to make a minimum of four hundred three-point shots every day while imagining the best defender guarding him. He did this for the next few years. As a result, the player went from shooting 33 percent to making over 40 percent of his attempted three-point shots by the 2012–13 season, which is very good. You may be familiar with this player. His name is LeBron James. His team at the time, the Miami Heat, also won the NBA championship that same year.
How you see yourself will dictate how far you can go in life. LeBron wanted to go farther, so he had to see himself going farther. He had to meditate on the reality that he was trying to create. Here is the principle that I want you never to forget: Your thinking will always seek to take you to the place where it can express itself the most. Some call it a mindset. Others refer to it as a belief system. However you choose to refer to it, it’s extremely important. It will either empower or suppress your success. You may have great potential, but that potential will always be limited by your mentality.
Part 1: Discovering Your Potential
In science, we learn about something called potential energy, which is the energy an object has because of its position, rather than its motion. Potential energy describes what could be, but has yet to be expressed. The potential inside of you, placed there by God, represents what could, be but has yet to be expressed. Potential is everything you could be in life, in seed form. It is your hidden ability, your concealed greatness. Others may not know about your ability. You might not know about all of your abilities, but the ability is there, nonetheless.
God placed your potential inside you—within your spirit—before you were even born. In fact, your potential is defined by God. Remember, your full capacity is big, because you were created in God’s image.
The Bible paints a picture of our full potential and authority, “God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods…. I said, ‘You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High’” (Psalm 82:1,6). In the New Testament, Jesus pointed out that in the law of Moses, God said, “You are gods” (John 10:34). In other words, you were made like God. The Hebrew word for god in this scripture is elohim, which is translated as “mighty men.”2 The extent and the limit of our potential is to be like God. We are not God, but we are to imitate Him. Everything that Jesus did as the Son of God, we can do. Jesus said that if you believe in Him, you can do greater things than He did (see John 14:12). This revelation is necessary for you to realize your potential. The potential is in you to do great things. I may not know you personally, but I know my God, and I know He has put great potential within everyone whom He has created.
Accessing Your Potential
The question we must all consider is how do we manifest our potential for greatness? The potential God has placed inside of us usually has to be squeezed out. In fact, potential works a lot like toothpaste. If I open a tube and turn it upside down, nothing happens. Turning the toothpaste upside down doesn’t get the toothpaste onto my toothbrush. Because it is a paste, I have to squeeze the tube to get the contents out. Your potential works the same way; it responds to the demand being placed upon it. Some form of pressure needs to be applied. Potential has to be pushed out for you to reap the benefits.
I remember feeling this way when I first started leading in my church. I was in my early twenties and had just started overseeing both the church’s youth ministry and all operations for Bill Winston Ministries, a global outreach ministry organization. I felt underqualified and unprepared. I didn’t know if I could do what was being asked of me. I was overwhelmed and desperately asking God for His help. But the pressure I felt unlocked wisdom, creativity, leadership capacity, and speaking abilities I never knew I had. God showed me that everything necessary for my assignment was already inside of me. I just needed to listen and trust Him to bring it to the surface. I needed to allow the pressure to do its work. The same is true for you. Whatever you need for your assignment is already hidden inside of you.
As you let God direct your steps on your journey, He will often lead you to things for which you feel inadequately prepared. Situations or circumstances may require something from you that you feel you don’t possess. You may have it, but you just can’t see it. But God can see it. He put it there. That’s potential. As I said before, potential is simply hidden ability. I’ve heard potential referred to as unused success. You just have to let God put you in the position where your potential can come out and success can be realized.
In his book, Revelation of Royalty, my father writes:
Some [people] have all the right ingredients inside of them but can’t flourish because they are not in the proper soil. As with an acorn, everything you will become is already inside of you—God is not adding anything anymore; he’s developing what’s already there.
Potential doesn’t come out of us without work. Work is important. Work is biblical. God uses work to develop us. After God created the garden of Eden, on the seventh day the Bible says that He rested from all of His work (see Genesis 2:3). When He was creating something new, it was called work. It goes on to say that God put humans in the garden to tend it (see Genesis 2:15). The Greek word, abad, used here for tend, means “to work.” God put Adam and Eve to work after He placed them in Eden. This was absolutely necessary because it was the only way they could discover their potential. As potential is released, purpose is revealed. Jesus says we are to let our light shine so people can see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven (see Matthew 5:16). In the Kingdom of God, work is not an option. It’s a mandate because it is how we discover who we really are so we may bring glory to God.
Here are eight reasons why work is important:
Work is the way you can give something of value to the world.
Work releases and develops your gifts and talents.
Work keeps you mentally healthy by focusing your mind on something productive.
Work is a means by which dreams, ideas, and goals become a reality.
Work makes you a blessing to other people.
Work allows you to become a co-creator with God.
You will not fulfill your potential and purpose in God’s Kingdom without work.
Work provides avenues by which revenues can be directed into your hands supernaturally, avenues through which God can give you more seed to sow.
The demand or pressure on your potential may come from school, your job, an assignment, a leadership position, a promotion, the birth of a new organization or business, ministry, volunteering, writing a book, getting married, becoming a parent, etc. Until pressure is applied, your potential remains hidden, even from you. You will always know when potential is coming out because the pressure being applied can make you feel uncomfortable and out of your league. But stay with it. It’s good for you. It’s God’s plan working in your life.
Part 2: Growing Into Your Potential
If you grew up in an urban area like I did, chances are you probably don’t know much about farming. I have never enjoyed gardening or growing plants, so I don’t know much about it. I’ve heard farmers say that you can only plant the same kind of seed in the same soil for so long. After about seven years of planting the same kind of seed, you have to switch to something else, which is called turning crops. This is a necessary step because certain plants demand specific minerals from the soil. After so long, the dirt is depleted of those minerals and will no longer successfully grow those same plants. So the farmer has two options: either change the seed or go to a different patch of land. Otherwise, the future growth of those crops will be in jeopardy. The environment determines what the seed produces.
God first created Adam outside of the garden of Eden. Then he put him, or we can say planted him, inside of the garden, the very place where he was assigned to express his purpose. God commanded Adam and Eve to “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion” over all the other creatures (Genesis 1:28). Then Adam began to name every creature that was presented to him in the garden of Eden. If Adam was not planted in the garden of Eden, it would have been impossible for him to fulfill his purpose. His purpose required that he be planted in the right environment.
Your situation is no different. The purpose and potential that God has placed in you needs the right environment to flourish. A seed always needs to be placed in the right environment to grow. A seed cannot grow if it’s not planted. A seed needs certain things in order to grow, and the environment supplies what is needed. Likewise, you need a certain set of conditions to grow into who you were created to be.
Every seed has to die in order to ultimately become what it was created to be. God’s intent is not for you to die naturally, but rather to let the old version of you expire. This will yield a newer version of your character—allowing you to more readily release your greatness. It’s time to let God shift you into the environment you need in order to grow.
Get in the Zone
A few years ago, I attempted to do some landscaping in our yard. I had zero experience and had no clue what I was doing. I watched a few home and garden shows, read a few materials, and gave it a try. It was a failed (and expensive) attempt to say the least, but I learned something valuable. I learned that certain plants are designed for specific geographic zones. The plants won’t fully bloom unless they are in the right environment and the right geographical location. I found that out the hard way. It wasn’t that I had faulty plants. It was that I was trying to get them to flourish in the wrong environment.
The same is true for us. We are the seeds, and God is the planter. Your environment is the soil that nurtures the seed of who you are into full development. Where God places you ultimately serves as a catalyst to your growth. Parts of your personality will not blossom, in full, until you get into the right environment. I have personally seen this happen in my life as well as the lives of many others. My character has matured as the pursuit of my purpose became more intense and I allowed myself to be planted in the right environments.
All the environments that God is placing you into are meant to expose the potential inside of you. You are stronger, more gifted, and better equipped than you think. Your potential is just greatness in the embryonic form. Let it develop. Don’t leave the environment because it’s hard. Let the environment do its job. Soon you will see your potential bloom into something beautiful.
Finding the Right Environment
The right environment for you is the environment that almost seems to be lacking something that your gifts, talents, personality, and abilities can provide. It is the place or situation that is ready to receive what you have to offer. Here are six simple questions to ask yourself to help you identify if an environment is right for you:
Does it pull on something that your heart has already been meditating on?
Does it present an opportunity that lines up with your goals or purpose?
Are people in this environment willing and able to help you develop?
Does it intimidate you because you feel like you’re not ready for it yet?
Can they benefit from your presence?
Can God help you grow there?
In the book of Genesis, we read the story of Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob. God gave him big dreams, but he experienced serious hardship Just when things seemed darkest, Joseph discovered that he could interpret dreams. He interpreted the dreams of a few of the fellow prisoners, not knowing that this hidden ability would later get him promoted to the palace. When Pharaoh called him from the prison to interpret his dream, Joseph did so with such wisdom and skill that he immediately got promoted to second-in-charge over all of Egypt. The ability that he discovered in the least desirable environment eventually led to his promotion to the most distinguished environment. It was the environment that brought out Joseph’s hidden ability or potential. Without the right environment, development is handicapped. Never underestimate the power of being in an environment conducive to growth.
The Bible indicates that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (see Phil. 4:13). His strength gives us the power to overcome all things. God’s ability is not conditional. You can do everything that God wills for you to do through Christ (the Anointed One and His anointing). Some of the tasks and projects that come your way, which you really don’t like, are actually pushing potential out of you. If you sit around doing nothing, your potential has no way to come out of you. Remember, potential must have a demand placed on it. If you run from opportunities that pressure you, your potential will stay locked up inside of you.
Potential is more than just hidden ability. It’s untapped power and hidden strength. We all have it. Don’t discount the plan of God because you don’t think you are capable enough. Greatness is inside of you waiting to be released.
Part 3: The Refining Process
As God takes us through the process of exposing our potential, He is simultaneously refining our character. As our character is being refined, our gifts and special abilities are being refined as well. The refining process is like cooking meat. Nobody wants to order a steak, chicken, or other piece of meat at a restaurant and receive an uncooked piece of meat. Now the raw, unseasoned meat and the seasoned cooked meat are still the same piece of meat, but the cooked one is more palatable than the raw one. It has become more desirable due to the cooking or refining process. As you continue to be shaped into the image of Christ, your process of refinement is preparing you and your gifts to become more palatable to the world.
The refining process is also necessary for turning raw gold nuggets into beautiful pieces of jewelry. The gold nuggets are purified by fire. After the metal is heated and refined to a certain level, the gold is identified as 10-karat gold. But this is one of the lowest levels of refinement because it took the least amount of time in the fire. In order to increase the purity of the gold, the metal needs to be heated for a longer time. Gold can be purified into 14-karat, 18-karat, and even 24-karat gold. The 24-karat gold is considered pure, because it has gone through the most rigorous purification process. It also happens to be the most valuable type of gold. This is because it remained in the fire longer.
The process for purifying gold is a good metaphor for what happens in our own lives. Sometimes it feels like God is allowing us to go through the fires of life. Naturally, we don’t like it, and we want out of the fire. We ask God to excuse us from this trial, but God allows us to grow through it. He never promised that life would be easy, but He did promise to give us strength and to be with us through it all. The refining fires of life have a purpose: They are building us, shaping us, and removing the impurities from our hearts. The more we go through the refining fire, the purer we become. As our purity increases, more value is added to our gift.
Maybe you feel like you have the talent, potential, and skills, but nobody seems to want what you have to offer. The answer is to continue to go through the refining process. When you let God work on you, help you, assist you, and make you better, it’s like cooking the meat. It makes you more palatable for those who are receiving what you have to offer. They will ask for and salivate after your gift rather than resisting it. We all have God-given skills and abilities, but it’s up to you to enroll in the refinement process that will prepare you for presentation to the world.
You may say to yourself, “Why don’t they want to listen to my song, read my book, watch my content, or hear my idea?” As good as your content may be, it just may not be time yet for others to be exposed to it. And sometimes the audience that God has earmarked for you will be different than the audience that is in front of you now. At this moment, God might not allow you to be in some rooms or around some people because they have not yet cultivated a taste for what you bring to the table.
You are specific and unique, and you carry exactly what someone needs. You are someone’s future favorite. So if it seems like people don’t prefer what you have to offer right now, don’t sweat it! Just focus on being a blessing to those who are in front of you at the moment. Don’t be in a hurry.
Your audience is being prepared as you are reading this book. The truth is, people receive you so much better when they value what you carry.
I believe at times God will obscure our greatness from us to motivate us to be more dependent on Him. He knows that as we truly start to grasp the reality of our own greatness, the temptation to become dependent on ourselves grows. Pride tries to convince us that we can meet all of our own needs, independent of direction from or submission to God. This is why God takes us on the journey—to fortify our humility and solidify our allegiance.
I would never have done many of the things I’ve accomplished in my life if God hadn’t led me into them. To see your potential produce results and your dream become a reality, you need to do some work. Don’t be scared off by a little hard work, because it’s working to bring you closer to your destiny. It’s also simultaneously facilitating the uncovering of your uniqueness.
I challenge you to maximize your potential. The potential of an apple seed is to become an apple tree, not just one apple. If many more seeds are planted, then eventually we’ll see an apple orchard. That’s called maximizing potential—when the releasing of your potential helps to unlock the potential in others. A single apple seed doesn’t look like much, but it has great potential if planted. Without being planted, the potential inside the seed cannot be released. However, discovery is always the first step to a life of fulfillment. Discover your potential. Next, allow it to grow and blossom. Lastly, let God prepare it for mass distribution by refining it. God is pruning you so that you will produce even more fruit (see John 15:2). Someone is looking forward to enjoying your fruit!
