My top tips for continuously fulfilling your potential

Seeing people progress, and more importantly the positive impact it can have on their personal and professional life, has always given me great pleasure. It’s one of the key reasons that gets me up and excited every day.

Potential is a moving bar, and fulfilling your potential is not something you will ever complete. Whether you are at the start of your journey, or many years in, in my experience the approach to continuously fulfilling your potential is the same.

1. Start by finding your passion - I started my career in the civil engineering sector and persevered for 3.5 years. I should have called time a lot earlier then I did, I guess on one hand it demonstrated my resilience! Don’t feel frightened to try new things, the more you try, the faster you will find what you love to do.
2. Join a movement you believe in - an organisation with a clear understanding of why they exist and where both the “why” and the values they live by, match yours.
3. Map a clear career path - whether you are looking to diversify, progress or travel within your career, this can be achieved at the place you call home.
4. Be transparent - if you are in the right place, but you are not progressing, then you need to be prepared to speak up, talk to people who can help you realise where you fit and how you can grow.
5. Take some risks - be happy to get some stuff wrong, none of us wants to be wrong on purpose, but sometimes the fastest way to develop is to make mistakes, regroup and try again, taking in what you learnt the last time.
6. Never stop learning - take feedback as a positive (even if it comes across negatively) it is an opportunity to learn something new. If you develop new skills and ways of working, it will help you get to the next set of development opportunities - again, you will never fulfill your potential or be the best you can be, there is always room for improvement.
7. Believe in yourself - so many successful people I know didn’t graduate from the top universities (also, many of them did). If you believe something will happen then it’s not a case of “if”, but when. Keep persevering when times are hard, you will get there if you believe (read my post re Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards - he is testament to that! https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6470403693450715136)

These founding principles are not always easy to stick to, but once you practise them each and every day for a sustained period of time they will become part of your daily life, and then, you will truly fulfil your potential.