One in a million: live up to your potential

Are you one in a million? 

Psychologists estimate that not one person in a million is living up to their potential. Wait, what? 

Next time you're out-and-about--walking, on a bus, in an elevator, look around and imagine everyone being their best selves. What kind of impact would that have, on them, on us, or in world?   

I'm paraphrasing Eric Butterworth's Spiritual Economics, a book I'm reading for a class of the same name. He doesn't cite a source, and it's from 2001 so not current, but the estimate has a ring of truth even now, although I hope it's exaggerated.  

He then asks, "Look in the mirror and reflect on this same thing. Can you imagine what your life would be like if you could realize your potential?" 

The idea of self-actualization is relatively recent, at least in western culture, and we're just now starting to understand neuroplasticity, the mind-body connection, and motivation. He does go on to also offer encouragement and hope, noting our "civilization is just beginning and the best is yet to be." 

We're actually better than ever

While locally and globally we have great cultural problems, including gaping class and cultural divides, statistically we're better in more ways than not. Author Steven Pinker talks about this and offers a lot of data in Better Angels of our Nature, to name just one example. 

So much of what we experience is our perspective, no matter where we fall on a socio-economic scale. There's research that indicates we don't get happier with more affluence; in fact, sometimes the more we have, the less happy we tend to be. So potential is not tied to perceived success or monetary gain. 

Here's an exercise Butterworth suggests: 

Choose the most difficult thing you're facing right now and say, 'I know that this is the best thing that could happen to me; I know that in the happening there's a new lesson to learn and some new growth to experience. Within me is an unborn possibility of limitless potentialities and this is my opportunity to give birth to new ideas, new strengths, and new vision. I accept the reality of the difficulty but not its permanence. ... By knowing 'it has come to pass', something wonderful is on its way to me far surpassing anything I have ever known before...'

Everything is impermanent

My mother was fond of saying, "this too shall pass" and it drove me nuts. However, she was right (of course). Everything is impermanent. What happened moments ago will never happen in the same way again, nor will what happens next. 

I recently heard someone suggest we view our 'problems' as 'projects'. I like it. Projects end. They always resolve. We can break them into pieces and take on easier-to-digest small part by small part. And they usually end well; at the least, they're always opportunities for learning.  

Spiritual Economics is full of wise words, but because Butterworth was a 'new thought' minister and borrowed heavily from Christian language, I do mental gymnastics with his use of Biblical terms. Conceptually, however, it's gratefully different, and the book is fine-tuning my own thinking—and getting me closer to living my potential. 

What difficult thing can you ask yourself about today?  



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