1. Potential by Ron White


The stage was a Texas Rangers baseball game. I stared at the batter and muttered “potential” as he held the bat over his shoulder waiting for the pitch. No sooner had the word escaped my mouth when my friend leaned over and said, “What did you say?” I replied, “I said potential.” Her confused question was, “Okaaaay? Potential in regard to what?”

I then explained. “Well, in science they have something called potential energy and it basically says that the higher an object is the more potential energy it has. For example, a rock on top of a building has a potential energy in it—if it were to fall. I was just thinking about the potential energy in the player’s bat and how that relates to me.”

She looked at me intensely, somehow sensing that I was telling the truth that these were my thoughts. She proclaimed, “I never cease to be astounded at the weird things you think about.”

Perhaps it is an odd thought to cross my mind at a baseball game, but it happened. Potential energy basically says that the higher an object is, the greater the potential energy. A ball on a six-story building has more potential energy than one on a three-story building. As a matter of fact, the doubling of the height doubles the potential energy.

At the baseball game, when I started thinking about potential energy, I was considering it in regards to me—and you, for that matter. You see, it has been said that from those to whom much has been given much is expected. Based on the fact that you have access to a computer, understand how to read and have a thirst for learning, you have been given much. Or, in scientific terms, you have tremendous potential energy. You are like that rock on a tall building. However, if you sit there, the potential energy is never utilized or accessed.

One of the greatest tragedies of life is when an individual has tremendous potential energy and squanders it. That is one of my greatest fears. I am constantly faced with the prospect of not using my potential energy. To me, that is one of my largest motivating factors. Every day as I age, I look in the mirror and question if I did everything I could to use my potential energy. Did I do everything I could to figuratively jump off that building and expend the energy?

Pent up inside of you right now is tremendous potential energy that could be utilized to cure cancer, send humans to Mars, write a novel or become president of the United States. The great tragedy is not expending your potential energy and falling short. The great tragedy of life is to be that boulder—to have tremendous potential energy—and squander it through inaction.

There you have it. I was thinking about potential at the baseball game. I was thinking about it because I know that humans with nothing more than primitive tools constructed the pyramids, Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. These are testaments to human potential. They are testaments to certain individuals thousands of years ago expending their potential energy for the ages to witness and marvel at. The challenge today for you may not be a monument for society or culture; however, it is a call for you to understand potential energy and implore you to seize yours.


Potential/Possibilities

“The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good.”
—Brian Tracy

“Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” —George Bernard Shaw

“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.” —Helen Keller

“The only waste of human resources is letting them go unused.” —Mark Victor Hansen

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” —George Eliot

3. Confidence: You Only Sell You by Denis Waitley
This article’s focus is on self-confidence and self-esteem. In my opinion, there is nothing more important than your belief in your own potential for success and happiness, regardless of your age, gender, ethnicity, looks, education or background. The truth is, every day “You only sell you.” You don’t sell products or a business concept. You sell the value of the person offering the products and services. The decision of the buyer is based on the value of the seller. Just as products are branded as “the best,” “cheap,” “ineffective,” “trustworthy” or “unreliable,” so, too, are individuals branded by others as “winners” or “also-rans.” Who you are shouts so loudly that people either can’t hear, don’t want to hear, or listen carefully to what you are saying. Everybody loves a winner, and we all want to buy from winners who pass their own value on to us.

Self-confidence isn’t something you were born with. It’s something you develop. Many of us were cultivated like weeds as children. We played inferior roles to the adults around us, who frequently reminded us of our faults and shortcomings more than our successes and abilities.

If you had that type of childhood, as I did, you face a special challenge in building up your self-confidence as an adult. Here are some basic points to remember about yourself:

1. Realize that the most important opinion about you is the one that you hold. Ultimately, nobody else is responsible for your life but you. Nobody else is accountable for your actions but you. Therefore, nobody’s opinion about you is more important than yours.

2. Recognize that the most important conversations are the ones you have with yourself. Whether or not you are aware of it, you have a running conversation with yourself from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep. Your thoughts and ideas are “you talking to you.” Have daily conversations with yourself that are supportive and reinforcing. We know the value of talking to people who praise us, reward us, recognize us, are happy to see us, and let us know they genuinely enjoy talking with us. Talk to yourself with those same qualities—silently as well as audibly.

3. Develop a strong system of internal values. Weigh what you hold to be true, good and lasting. Write down some of your values for periodic review. Read material that reinforces what you hold to be significant in life. Know what you believe and why you believe it. At times, have discussions—even debates—with yourself. Draw conclusions about life. Think about deeper issues. Your values will greatly affect how you relate to others. The stronger your values are, the greater the impact. If you are lacking in internal values, you will tend to draw from and even use other people to try to mimic their behaviors, if only superficially. Instead, seek to become a model, one who can help and give strength to others.

4. Don’t reinforce your failures. Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street. Failure is a temporary setback, not a residence. Failure is a learning experience, not a person. Like success, failure is a growth process, not a status. Don’t wallow in your mistakes. Correct them and move forward.

5. Don’t demand perfection of yourself. An A is usually awarded to the person who scores 90 percent or better, and sometimes the score doesn’t need to be that high. Professional basketball players only make half their shots. Professional quarterback complete only half their passes, and professional baseball players reach first base less than 40 percent of the time, and that includes walks. And we all know what our averages are in picking stocks to invest in that are always going up. That would be never! Give your best effort every day and keep ratcheting forward. Perfection is not only totally unrealistic to expect and virtually impossible to achieve, but it greatly deters your ability to move forward. The person who is constantly looking over his or her shoulder at what might have been done better, can’t possibly be focused on the future. Drive with your eyes ahead; don’t drive by concentrating on the rearview mirror.

6. Give each job or task your best effort. Countless individuals say, when confronted with a chore, “I’m too good to be doing this.” They have contempt for their current situation and position, and get discouraged easily. Success is an accumulation of what you do in the minutes of each day. No task is too unworthy to do well. There are no small parts, only small actors.

7. View the big picture of life. Step back from the landscape of your life today and take a long walk, ride a bike, or just sit silently, observing the wonder and abundance of God’s creation in nature. You are a part of a much bigger whole. Listen to the subtle rhythms of your environment. Recognize that you have rhythms and cycles of change in your life. Relax and open up to the vast creative and interrelated world around you.

To develop confidence, you must see yourself ultimately as a unique part of creation. You must recognize—with pleasure—that nobody else is just like you. No one else has exactly your temperament, history or experiences. No one else has your footprints, your fingerprints, your voice print or your genetic code. No one else has precisely your set of talents, capabilities and skills. You are one of a kind. The value is there. It just needs to be dusted off and polished.