Potential – how to realize yours?
Vasi is here. The-Spotifying-Vasi is here.
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Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 41 seconds.
What’s the issue about?
We often ask ourselves questions like What can I do for my personal growth? How to develop faster as a professional? Why am I not developing?
On the podcast, we’ve received a number of case studies from IT professionals that echo these questions.
Digging through the archives of our “laboratory,” a presentation that Petya and Hari from our team gave some years ago, along with an article on famous Japanese masters written by Petya, winked at me, revealing the answers to these questions.
In the following summer doses, I will share with you parts of the presentation, focusing on some important topics for our personal growth.
Let’s grab our backpacks and head down the Path of Growth.
First stop – How to realize your potential?
Enjoy!
If you wonder how to explain a concept -> tell its Latin translation… 😀
The word potential comes from the Latin language and means power.
Every human being has potential. Everyone has the necessary force, energy, or power with which to create, i.e., to evolve.
Everyone can develop more than one gift, i.e., one may be good in one area but develop their potential in a number of others if they only pursue it.
Few know, for example, that the man famous for his talent in the field of physics was also a good violinist. World famous for his Theory of Relativity, the fact remains that Einstein was also an excellent violinist.
If the famous genius wished to develop exclusively his musical passion and focused on it, he might now be famous for his music, alongside Mozart..
Even the development of some of our abilities, which we consider weaker, can unlock opportunities in unexpected areas. And these words by Pablo Picasso illustrate this:
“I always do what I can’t do so that I can learn to do it.”
Now it’s time to add two important ingredients to be able to develop your potential.
Potential + Efforts + Finding the Flow = ?
The potential each of us carries is not enough.
To achieve success in any field, you need to make an effort to get better and better. But pay attention – at something that matters. To you.
If you have ever tried to grow at something that doesn’t matter a lot to you, then you probably have noticed that it was a real, disappointing struggle.
On the contrary, when you find something that you really love, something to dedicate yourself to, the effort goes unnoticed. Because the things we love and enjoy help us find flow.
“Flow is the state people fall into when they are engrossed in an activity and nothing else matters. The experience itself is so pleasurable that they continue to seek it, even if they have to sacrifice other aspects of their lives just for this activity.”
⟹ The definition of this modern psychological concept given by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
He is the psychologist who introduced this concept, marking it as the optimal experience of full concentration and dedication to a specific activity, in which a person fully realizes their potential.
(from “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)
The important aspects of the flow are:
1. To have a clear goal
2. To have a focus on the process
3. To work on a single task, neither too difficult nor too easy, so that it wouldn’t lead to frustration
4. To work at something that matters to you
You can probably think of times when you were performing a task, falling into such deep concentration that you forgot about yourself and the environment around you.
(just like me now writing at 4:20 am…)
And so we arrive at revealing the end of the equation:
Potential + Efforts + Finding the Flow = Achieving Mastery
In his book “Drive” Daniel Pink points to mastery as one of the three intrinsic motivators (the other two being Autonomy and Purpose).
He defines mastery as the desire to get better and better at something that matters. Mastery involves the urge to constantly improve and grow in a significant field or skill.
(How to motivate the people on your team to do something of their own free will?)
How is mastery achieved?
According to Daniel H. Pink mastery abides by 3 laws:
1. Mastery is a mindset
It requires the capacity to see your abilities not as finite, but as infinitely improvable. Those who are mastery-oriented respond to obstacles as an invariable part of their path to mastery, and even use them as pointers to the direction in which to proceed.
2. Mastery is a pain
It demands effort, grit, and deliberate practice. And for long periods of time. Grit is the raw endurance, perseverance, and passion that keep you working towards long-term goals.
(I broke down the magic behind some common social media headlines like How to Become a Master on X in 5 Min in 5 Easy Steps…)
The truth is that behind every mastery there are hours, months, and years of dedication.
3. Mastery is an asymptote
It is never attainable, no matter how close you get to it. This makes it simultaneously frustrating and alluring. You can approach it, but never quite reach it. Because the pleasure is much greater in striving for something than in achieving it. It appeals precisely because it cannot be reached all the way, there is always a next level.
And do you know who the greatest masters are?
Children have the ability to devote their full attention and interest, exploring and experimenting with something. To fall and continue again. To really play with something. And they tend to be more likely in flow.
Let’s Wrap Up
So if these questions are running through your head What can I do for my personal growth? How to develop faster as a professional? Why am I not developing?
⟹ Define something that is important to you and that you want to achieve
⟹ Make an effort for it
⟹ Find the state of flow as you strive for it
⟹ Be constant in your devotion to it
⟹ … and be a little bit childish – play with it.
Okay, next stop – How is our experience measured?
Stay Healthy, my dear Pill-er!
– Vasi
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