Potential for Greatness

By Sarah Luper, 1st dan

Everyone has potential.  Potential is a hight that every person can strive for.  Potential is being successful in what you want to accomplish for yourself.  Each person has a different potential for greatness, but that does not mean that there are lesser potentials.  Each person must also unlock their own individual potential and overcome their obstacles to reach their potential.  Sometimes a person’s potential can lie hidden and unknown, but everyone’s potential can be realized if they pay attention and give it their all. 

For example, everyone has the potential to become a knowledgeable and well trained black belt. It could be you or me, or the kid sitting across from you at lunch or even someone nice you met at the library last Tuesday.  If anyone worked hard for it and payed attention, they could live up to their potential to be an awesome future black belt.

Realizing our potential for greatness does not always come easy.  One cannot expect to become their bettered selves simply overnight.  Sometimes, improvement can take quite a lot of dedication and hard work.  Just like an Olympic athlete is at the very top of their skill, they did not wake up one morning to find themselves with a gold medal around their neck.  They had to put years of work and effort to realize their potential to become the best. One must have a lot of perseverance and integrity and indomitable spirit to build their potential. 

It also must be understood that having weaknesses does not limit your potential in any way.  Not a single person is without weakness. Even though weakness might be difficult to overcome sometimes, they cannot prevent us from attaining our individual potentials.  We can work on improving our weaknesses so we can successfully work on achieving our potentials. Those who never try in spite of their weaknesses will never move forward to achieve anything.

Personal potential is what everyone should strive for in their lives.  Everyone has different potentials and everyone is special in their goals and abilities.  The difference in everyone’s potential is what makes each of us unique. We should all be on the journey to unlocking our potential for greatness.