Potential Is Never Realized Without Work

Yes, you read the topic right. However, I will like you to go back and ingest each word. I was opportune to read one of Myles Munroe’s books ‘Releasing your potential’ and I must say I am in awe of the wisdom of this man. I could not pass without writing down what I learned and hope to continue to reflect on this year.

There’s something different about each of the 7.9 billion persons in the world. If not, we would all look alike and somehow the world would be boring. You would know what to expect from everyone. Biology makes this concept more interesting with the crossing over that occurs during division. This is to say that every human being is unique. This uniqueness does not end at the components that make up our body, it transcends into the content of our minds. The thoughts that brew in it and the imaginations that come from it. This is because of the content that the Creator deposited in each of us at creation; our potential. It is an untapped resource that God gave to everyone because of a need in the world; that desire to write, that hunger to make an innovation, that quest for social impact and so much more.

However, it seems only a percentage of people in the world are effectively releasing all that has been deposited in them. Only a few people are makers of innovation and the rest of the world are the users, only a few people are writers others are readers, only a few people are artists others celebrate. The big question to ask is what makes the difference between the doers and the users. Myles in his book answered the question through the concept of work. An excerpt from the book gave a definition that intrigued me. “Potential is what you have, work is what you do.” Work is what one does to release the potential in him. God’s concept of work is one that he wants all his children to adopt. Having this mind, a person will wake early in the morning and get his hand on what he ought to do. Our jobs will not become a burden because we are doing what God will have us do through it.

In my own opinion, the generation in which I am privileged to be is one that had benefited from various developments that were not accessible to the older generation. Talk about technological gadgets, social media, and artificial intelligence. The world has become a global village in which most people have access to all they need. This privilege has incited laziness in us and the “I can always get what I want” mindset and has displaced the spirit of work in us. Therefore, the few people who seem to turn the tide are the workers. They are the ones that get up with the goal in mind; to be a better me. The imaginations I have will not be placed in my palms on a platter of gold. I have to work it out. The ideas for books will not put themselves to paper, I must get right to it.

It’s not easy but we can do it. The journey is not a sprint but a marathon so in the spirit of Denzel Washington we fall seven-time and get up eight. We owe it to the world to give all that God has deposited in us. We owe it to our generation and the generation to come not to add to the wealth of the graveyard The solution to a problem of the world is in us and she awaits it.