It’s so funny how when you haven’t been to church in a few weeks and then when you finally decide to go, the pastor preaches a sermon that hits home. Well that phenomenon is how the backbone of this article was created

Potential is such a powerful yet destructive word. Everyone thinks of potential as this untapped greatness that holds fame and glory in the future. Many people have a fear of not reaching their full potential and ultimately never finding out about what could have been. Potential varies from person to person as we all have different ceilings. For example, one basketball player might only have the potential to play college basketball, while another has the potential to play in the NBA. With that being said, the extent of their success and personal satisfaction will be determined by whether or not they maximized their potential.

Do you ever get that feeling that you could be doing more with your life? It’s a restless feeling as you feel discontent with your life. Chances are that if you feel this way, you are living beneath your potential. What I mean by living beneath your potential is that you constantly underperform and live your life in a way that is not conducive to your potential. An example of someone living beneath their potential would be a student who is really smart but doesn’t study and earns bad grades. Another example would be a person who has fully functioning body but is overweight and out of shape because they have a poor diet and exercise habits. One's potential is not just linked to material success instead potential is multi-faceted as it applies to mind, body and spirit. If you constantly live beneath your potential then you will die in a pool of average. When someone dies the world remembers them by their legacy and the manner in which they lived their life. With that being said, people who live beneath their potential are typically forgotten or remembered as that person who never quite developed.

There’s a famous saying that says “God wouldn’t give people dreams unless He knew they could achieve them.” In order to ensure that you maximize your potential, you need to set a standard of living for yourself. When creating your standard of living, you need to be brutally honest and paint in vivid detail how you wish to live your life. Once your standard of living is set. all that’s left to do is live by. In life, we are measured by all the choices we make, so before you make a decision, you should ask yourself by performing this action, am I living beneath my standard of living?

If you’re reading this and you feel like it applies to you, then hurry and make the changes now. Because if you set a low standard of living for yourself, you will not be able to maximize your potential and in the end your legacy will be lost.