MOST Analysis

Mission Statement

Cultivating Potential carries a theme throughout that each module is “positivity-focused” and “strengths-based.” This first module will introduce the concept of such an approach and its opportunities for personal growth and increased potential.

This module then aims to empower the audience with a clear understanding of what human potential is and what factors can inhibit or elevate one’s actualized potential throughout life. As participants will begin to fully appreciate, every human has an incredible amount of untapped potential within them. Each person also experiences many events, circumstances, and conditioning that limit this expressed potential behind walls of insecurity or fear. Before long, many develop a propensity to settle for results and achievements far beneath what they genuinely want and are capable of attaining.

Fortunately, the forces limiting one’s innate ability begin to dissolve once a study of human potential begins. This in-depth study of human potential introduces many concepts and principles that will be developed fully during later modules. Core concepts for this workshop include self-efficacy, positive affect, happiness setpoint, eudemonic vs. hedonic happiness, overall life satisfaction, illness-wellness continuum, and personal responsibility for outcomes. With this foundation established, participants will chart a course forward that follows a holistic and comprehensive approach that addresses each element of positive psychology’s PERMA model. PERMA, an acronym for Positivity, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Achievement, addresses each avenue for personal growth and wellbeing.

By the end of this module, participants will be confident that they can tap into much more of their innate potential and have a clear vision for how this journey will be accomplished in the coming months. While this module is more about sharing concepts and laying a foundation for growth than it is about the application, participants will have a renewed spirit for growth and future possibilities that is itself an empowering outcome.

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Objectives

01. Define and examine the framework, process, and personal expectations of this course.
02. Understand the human potential model for performance and success.
02. Understand the role of self-efficacy in one’s ability to perform at their highest potential.
03. Improve personal productivity and sense of empowerment at work.
04. Identify opportunities to take greater levels of ownership and responsibility.
05. Identify appropriate responses to get desired results in the organization.
06. Develop a strengthened locus of control at work.
07. Improve each participants foundation for operating at higher levels of innate-potential.
08. Identify the line of division between the indirect and direct spheres of circumstances.
09. Foster a sense of connection with the fellow program participants.
10. Develop a skill for taking responsibility for difficult and troubling situations that arise.

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Strategies

01. Each participant is to set aside time to study the elements of the workshop content.
02. Participants to set aside time to meet as a team to discuss the elements of framing human potential.
03 List the key personnel that will participate in each of the modules.
04. Participant complete the exercises individually and then as a group.
05. Analyze existing responsibilities and consider them in the context of locus of control and direct/indirect sphere events.
06. Participants meet to discuss the overall performance of the organization and identify where there may be lost actualized potential.
07. Seek opportunities to exploit resources within your direct sphere and locus of control
08. Participants should meet to discuss future expectations of the organization once leveraging increased potential individually and as a group.
09. Develop an integration plan for including new commitments born of the Project Study exercise.
10. Determine the estimated time commitment for the participants for each module and analyze the current workload to determine feasibility.

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Tasks

01. Participants to read through the Preliminary Analysis for workshop and complete the
02. Participants to read through the entire workshop and make notes.
03. Schedule a meeting within the next 30 days for the participants to meet and discuss the workshop material.
04. Set a deadline within the next 30 days to take the self-assessment about human potential in your life along with the self-evaluation of self-efficacy.
05. Schedule a meeting in the next 30 days to complete the Responsibility Stems exercise with the group of Participants.
06. Set a deadline within the next 30 days to complete the locus of control analysis.
07. Set a deadline within the next 30 days to perform the analysis for creating or allowing outcomes.
08. Schedule a time in the next 30 days to complete the inventory of broken agreements.
09. Schedule a time in the next 30 days to complete the Project Study with a fellow participant and as a group or with your team.
10. Set a deadline in the next 30 to 60 days to review the results of the Project Study for dealing with difficult and troubling situations.

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Introduction

Appropriately named, the first phase of this program is Laying the Foundation for Unlimited Potential. This phase focuses on developing that foundation for Cultivating Potential. Paramount for this stage is the adoption of the human potential model for productivity and success. Throughout this phase, we delve into understanding the interrelationship between actualized potential, self-efficacy, affect, and mindset. With techniques to capitalize on phase one, participants will begin experiencing improvements in their performance, happiness, productivity, and joy.

The height of a building is limited by the strength of its foundation, so too is the height of one’s potential success and achievement in life. The first part of building that foundation for growth is believing that growth is possible and accepting that full ownership of one’s life is the surest path to reaching one’s full potential. This level of ownership requires each individual to accept complete responsibility for the outcomes in their life. For many, stress and a heartfelt desire to do well can force them into a reactionary or survival mindset where attention tends toward external threats beyond their control. This external focus is disempowering and promotes fears or feelings of being overwhelmed. Establishing a foundation for reaching one’s highest potential demands taking personal responsibility for one’s thoughts and behaviors. With this acceptance of responsibility comes increased self-esteem and a sense of control. Phase One is a significant step towards participants cultivating their full potential; this stage of the program instills that everything a person needs to achieve their ambitions is within their control. Their goals are attainable with their capacity to grow.

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We recognize that the world is rapidly changing, both in terms of broad, global patterns that drive business and in terms of the more immediate space that surrounds our daily lives. The options available to us to meet our needs and pursue our goals are evolving swiftly and often unpredictably, mirroring the exponential pace of development in the underlying technologies. In some ways, this enriches and empowers us more than ever before; in other ways, the trend can be disconcerting. This is one of the 21st century’s paradoxes: The world changes quickly, but our basic human needs do not. We are struggling to keep up with the world we have created and continue to create in some fundamental ways. It’s a period of high—and rising—stress.

We can already sense the tension: the sense of limitless options (for some) and the awareness of limited time (for most); the feeling of having just missed something and the fear of missing more; the thrill of seeing a 3D-printed car and the unease of wondering which jobs will remain for us in the age of intelligent machines; the hyper-connection and loss of connection; the expectation of on-demand everything and the appeal of slow, bespoke, handmade.

One of the most significant changes we are witnessing is the shortening of time spans, which is owing in large part to exponential technology advancements combined with the immediate dissemination of ideas and information across a linked world. What used to take decades now takes years; what used to take years now takes months; months to weeks, etc. This transition is upsetting traditional firms and business models in the institutional context, but it has also spawned a new set of enterprises and business models that are better suited to the faster (and growing) pace.

This transformation is also affecting us as individuals. An education for our parents lasted a career. It could now last 5–10 years. With the rapid rate of change, the ability to “know” a fixed store of knowledge is becoming less relevant and legitimate, while other qualities such as creativity, empathy, and the ability to understand context are becoming more vital. Our pupils will be required to take lifetime learning seriously and upgrade their abilities on a regular basis. They will very certainly change fields of study and employment several times during their lifetimes. We, too, will need to develop new habits and competencies that are tailored to the times, just as institutions.

People have turned to certain old, and very old, practices in the face of the challenges of a new, modern environment. There is a rising movement built around mindfulness, meditation, gratitude, and digital detox—all as antidotes to increased stress, as seen by events like the Wisdom 2.0 conference. The wellness industry is booming, with increasing demand for existing methods as well as the development of new practices and fresh takes on old ones. Yoga has never been required to perform so many tasks for so many people. According to a recent survey, the number of people practicing yoga in the United States has surged by about 80% since 2012, with practitioners paying more than $16 billion on training each year.

Meanwhile, spending on meditation-related products and services was slightly under $1 billion in 2015, excluding mindfulness apps. In the United States, the workplace wellness sector is worth more than $40 billion. Health and wellness, well-being, mental health, professional development, career advancement, and even community service intersect as the borders between various sectors and portions of our lives blur in the drive to understand ourselves holistically and so govern our lives.

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Individual pliability in an unpredictably changing world

When we try to build new habits around our work and life, balance, notably work-life balance, frequently appears to be the aim, however difficult. We’re told that our lives, including our working lives, will be long—longer than previous generations’ — and that we’ll need to maintain our bodies, minds, and relationships throughout that time. We use balance to accomplish this. Is balance, however, the sole or even the best goal? When we are unhappy, we tend to notice large imbalances and believe that restoring equilibrium is the solution. However, in terms of our professions and objectives, as well as the ways we evaluate ourselves and find meaning, development or impact may be just as important as balance for many of us.

What is the goal if balance isn’t the goal? Personal practices for times of exponential change tend to be divided into two camps: those who speed up and those who slow down, not so much at odds as detached, each camp blind to the relevance of the other. On one hand, there are techniques for increasing speed: doing more, getting more, improving, growing quicker, and stronger. The answers are out there, digital tools put them all within reach, and the only question is, what’s stopping you? In this camp, we identify passions, get into a flow state, and hack everything, Tim Ferriss style; the only question is, what’s stopping you? Mindfulness, meditation, and digital detox are examples of practices for slowing down. If you can tune out the noise long enough to listen, you’ll find the answers.

Both camps are reacting to the mounting pressures that we are all experiencing these days. The urge to succeed, to be relevant and competitive in a quicker world where safety nets and social contracts are in short supply, is the purpose of the first. The second purpose is to reduce and recover from the actual demands of living in an always-on, fast-paced, competitive society. Each aim, which appears to be incompatible, points to alternative practices.

This scenario is worsened by the fact that for certain talents’ useful lives are shortening, and it’s difficult to foresee which abilities an organization will require next. Any task that can be standardized and made routine is likely to be automated, and fast-growing AI (artificial or augmented intelligence) will intrude on even “judgment” tasks. What will be left is the subject of a separate report, but many people believe there will still be several ways for humans to augment machines and for machines to augment humans. Resourcefulness, flexibility, and persistence, as well as curiosity, empathy, and creativity, will be important characteristics for future demands. The ability to learn new skills, contexts, and applications, as well as the flexibility to use skills and tools in novel ways and the creativity to create new knowledge, will be critical.

The techniques of slowing down and speeding up might be considered as complementing rather than incompatible if we aim for long-term performance. Slowing down has been proven to boost creativity, perseverance, and empathy. Curiosity is sparked, new resources are discovered, and we are exposed to new ideas and circumstances that may be relevant to our own domain or ambitions. Both are necessary for the type of learning that we predict will become increasingly relevant in the workplace: creating new information (insights, strategies, approaches) rather than integrating current knowledge pools.

In a system meant to be flexible and responsive, speeding up and slowing down together produce what we call “individual elasticity”: flexibility and responsiveness. Individual elasticity is based on Joshua Cooper Ramo’s concept of “resilience,” which is described as the ability to become stronger, not only survive or bounce back, as a result of system pressures. Our individual elasticity—our robust, flexible, responsive system—is the result of fostering both the ability to slow down and the ability to hurry up. In Chinese yin-yang philosophy, “opposite or opposed forces are actually complementary, interwoven, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give origin to each other as they interrelate to one another,” there are echoes of this concept. Furthermore, developing the ability to cycle between slowing down and speeding up over weeks and months—as well as throughout the course of a day or an hour—requires a set of practices tailored to the cadence and rhythm that each individual requires.

Focusing on speeding forward without allowing time or space to calm down and evaluate might lead to burnout or the pursuit of a topic or professional path that is no longer viable. Slowing down and becoming grounded can be beneficial and restorative, but without focus, direction, and exploration, they can become stagnant. Growth and discovery, as well as rest, provide nourishment for our thoughts, spirits, and bodies. The effect on unlocking potential is higher when both sides are acknowledged to be complementary and pursued deliberately to encourage each other.

While different life and career stages may necessitate the use of some practices over others at any one moment, it is critical for people to be able to slow down and speed up, as well as to build a variety of speeding-up and slowing-down practices to draw on throughout their lives.

Ambitious professionals frequently devote a significant amount of time to planning tactics that will aid them in achieving greater levels of success. They aspire to a more prestigious job title, more pay, and accountability for larger revenues, profits, and employee numbers. Family, friends, and co-workers all have an impact on their conceptions of success.

Despite their efforts and accomplishments, many people eventually discover that they lack a true sense of professional pleasure and fulfillment. A surprising proportion of accomplished CEOs have reported significant dissatisfaction with their careers. They reflected on their past accomplishments and wished that they had pursued a different career path altogether.

Consider the case of a highly accomplished research analyst at a prominent securities firm who sought assistance because he was dissatisfied with his professional advancement. This was especially amusing because he was well-known, well-respected (he was ranked first in his industry sector), and well-paid. He claimed that he was tired of his job after ten years, disliked his boss, and thought he had no prospects for advancement. Most importantly, he had always aspired to be an investment manager, but he had begun his career as an analyst and had never seriously reconsidered his route. He was entrapped. He was afraid of losing his status and didn’t want to disappoint anyone, but he also didn’t want to keep doing what he was doing.

As he spoke, he wondered if he’d been so focused on achieving certain goals and impressing others that he’d lost sight of what he truly valued. He enjoyed analyzing equities and evaluating management teams, but he also desired to be in charge of making actual investment decisions and then being held accountable for the outcomes. He was advised to take action and inquire about a job change with a variety of investment businesses (including his current employer). Following this, he was offered and accepted a portfolio manager position in his present firm’s asset management division. He discovered that his firm’s leaders wanted to keep him regardless of his job title, and that they were startled to learn that he wanted to work in investment banking. He’s since developed into a fantastic investment manager, and while he wishes he’d taken a step back and reconsidered his profession years ago, he’s glad he did so while there was still time.

This program is designed to assist you in examining the issue, “Am I attaining my potential?” if you are having comparable sentiments of frustration or even regret about the course of your work. This is not the same as asking, “How do I get to the top?” or “How do I succeed in my job?” Rather, it’s about examining how you define success in your heart of hearts and then charting a course to get there.

“Am I living up to my full potential?” is not the same as “How do I get to the top?”

To do so, you must take a step back and reevaluate your career, beginning with the realization that it is your obligation to manage it. Too many people believe they are victims in their jobs when they actually have a lot of control. To reclaim control, you must examine your actions in three areas: knowing yourself, excelling at important jobs, and displaying character and leadership.

Take your own path.

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Reaching your full potential necessitates reflection and proactive practices, but it all begins with a simple…

Getting to Know Yourself

Taking charge of your career begins with a thorough assessment of your present abilities and performance. Can you list two or three of your greatest strengths and two or three of your most major flaws? While most people can list their strengths, they often have trouble identifying key flaws. This activity necessitates in-depth thinking and, nearly invariably, the participation of those who will give you the truth. Unfortunately, you can’t always rely on your supervisor to appropriately judge your abilities or to be willing to confront you with your shortcomings. It’s up to you to take charge of this process by seeking coaching, asking for very specific feedback, and being open to input from a wide range of people at different levels within your company. Because you will meet new obstacles and demands as your career grows, getting feedback should be a continuous activity.

In a Harvard Business Review essay, Robert Steven Kaplan, president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said that he recently visited with a division head of a prominent professional services organization. Despite the fact that he’d been a rising star for several years, he believed he’d reached a plateau. He had no idea why his direct reports and CEO were no longer engaged and enthusiastic in their dealings with him. He was able to explicitly identify his strengths during their conversations, but when Robert inquired about his faults, he offered him generic answers like “Maybe I’m too impatient” and “I need to raise my profile.” When Robert pressed him about his boss’s remarks, he hesitated to name even one specific flaw. Robert tasked him with the following task: At least five co-workers and subordinates should be interviewed.

He returned with many “surprises” a few weeks later. He’d heard, for example, that despite being detail-oriented and decisive, he micromanaged, acted in a dictatorial manner, and didn’t listen. With these new insights, he sought coaching, began working on his shortcomings, and began asking input from his co-workers and subordinates on a regular basis. A year later, he claimed that these continued efforts had increased his effectiveness, and he was once again confident and hopeful about his profession.

This type of initiative involves patience, humility, and a willingness to tackle flaws, concerns, and blind spots that many of us would like to overlook. But It’s always impressive when people demonstrate the ability to adjust and grow once they realize their flaws as well as their virtues.

It’s not easy to persuade others to admit where you’re failing, especially if they’re your subordinates. It has to be done in one-on-one interactions, and if your employees see you acting on their comments, they’ll be more willing to offer advise since they know you respect their perspective. Your subordinates and co-workers will also feel invested in your and your unit’s success, making them more inclined to appreciate working with you.

Your next difficulty is to figure out what you genuinely enjoy doing once you’ve figured out your talents and shortcomings. What is your ideal occupation? How closely does it resemble what you’re doing now? Many people either don’t know what they want to accomplish with their lives or are so focused on what their peers think that they end up in the incorrect field. An MBA student recently approached a career coach for guidance on whether to work for a hedge fund, private equity firm, or investment bank. When asked if he was interested in financial markets, he promptly replied that he was not. He had no idea what the main responsibilities of each of those occupations would be. When asked what he would do with $10 million, though, his response was unmistakable: he would seek a career in the music industry. He was a concert musician who adored the music industry. He decided he needed to reevaluate his options after realizing how much he had been influenced by his peers’ inclination toward the lucrative financial services industry.

The popular wisdom regarding the attractiveness of various occupations is continually changing. Medical and legal careers were regarded as financially profitable and socially desirable twenty-five years ago. Today, a number of doctors and lawyers are dissatisfied with their careers and recognize that they may have made professional decisions based on the opinions of their peers and popular opinion rather than whether or not they would enjoy the work. Hedge funds and private equity are trendy sectors right now, but those who enter them without a strong passion for the job at hand may find themselves beginning again after a few years. You will have the strength to overcome personal disappointments, overcome adversity, face and resolve your weaknesses, and work the long hours required to realize your full potential if you love what you do.

Performing Well in Critical Situations

If you don’t excel in the jobs that are critical to your chosen business, it will be quite difficult for you to succeed. That may seem obvious, yet many CEOs fail to recognize the three most important tasks that contribute to career or business success. Conducting cutting-edge research, being published, and acquiring funds are likely to be the three keys for a medical researcher. Recruiting, maintaining, and training great salespeople, as well as customer segmentation and client relationship management, may be critical duties if you manage a large sales staff. If you’re considering a new career, you should first determine what will help you succeed in the new role, and then consider whether you love those important responsibilities. Identifying key activities in your current employment might help you decide how to spend your time and grow your talents.

This link is occasionally lost sight of by promising leaders. A new division head of a large industrial corporation recently stated that he was having difficulty increasing sales and earnings. He grumbled that he didn’t have enough hours in the day since he was spending too much time extinguishing fires. When asked to name the three major drivers of his company’s success, he admitted that he didn’t know. He spent the next few weeks interviewing employees and customers, and he came to the conclusion that the key to his company’s success was cultivating close relationships with each of his top 25 customers’ purchasing managers, putting the right people in key sales and manufacturing leadership positions, and staying on the cutting edge of product innovation. In addition, he recognized that his division was underperforming in all three areas.

He then cleared his calendar, forced himself to delegate duties that were less critical to his performance, and concentrated on lifting the bar in each of these areas. He reported six months later that he had replaced several executives, including the sales manager and the head of product development, and that he had formed an executive committee that met weekly to discuss crucial business issues. He also stated that he had been far more diligent in aligning his priorities (and those of his leadership team) with the company’s main success factors. Sales and earnings began to rise, and he felt secure in his ability to continue on his upward career path.

Demonstrating Character and Leadership

Character and leadership, while apparently amorphous, often create the difference between good and great performance. The degree to which you put the interests of your company and co-workers ahead of your own is one indicator of character. Excellent leaders are willing to go above and beyond for others, regardless of what it means to them. They are mentors and coaches. They adopt the mindset of a business owner and consider what they would do if they were in charge of all decisions. They’re willing to offer a recommendation that will benefit the corporation as a whole, even if it will hurt their own unit. They have the fortitude to believe that their actions will be rewarded in the long run, even if they are not in their own best interests in the short term.

Being a leader also entails being willing to speak up, even if your point of view is unpopular. Even those who secretly carry major reservations nod in agreement when CEOs make ideas. In actuality, most CEOs crave differing viewpoints so that they can make better decisions. While emerging leaders must use excellent judgment when it comes to the tone and timing of their dissent, they must also be conscious that playing it safe when they should be articulating their heartfelt ideas might lead to a plateau.

One CEO expressed his dissatisfaction with a recent significant hire. His top three reports had all had interviews with numerous job candidates and expressed no serious reservations about the ultimate selection. After the new employee had begun to struggle, it was revealed that two of the three senior managers had privately expressed serious reservations, but had judged that the CEO’s decision had been made and that speaking out would be irresponsible. The CEO was incensed. He acknowledged his own role in the disaster (and promised to do more to foster dissent), but he downgraded his assessment of the two executives who failed to communicate their opinions. Otherwise confident executives frequently overestimate the career danger of speaking up while significantly underestimating the risk of being silent.

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Many people’s careers have stalled by playing it safe.

Emerging leaders who push themselves out of genuine concern for the company’s best interests are admired by the majority of excellent CEOs. Doing the right thing is a rewarding experience in and of itself, both personally and professionally. Of course, this strategy necessitates a reasonable level of trust in the outcome of the case. Rarely do you see people jeopardize their careers by speaking up and voicing a well-thought-out opposing viewpoint (even when it was unpopular). Many bitter and perplexed people, on the other hand, have stagnated their careers by playing it safe.

There will be ups and downs in any lucrative profession, as well as bad days, weeks, and months. Everyone will experience setbacks and demoralizing circumstances. When one of these stumbling blocks appears, some people quit their ambitions. They lose their bearings and, as a result, undercut their own performance—a wound made all the more agonizing by the fact that it is self-inflicted. This program’s courses are designed to help you avoid self-inflicted wounds. Nobody can stop you from realizing your full potential; the challenge is for you to determine your dream, develop the skills needed to get there, and demonstrate character and leadership. Then you must have the confidence to reassess, make modifications, and pursue a path that reflects who you truly are on a regular basis.

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Executive Summary

Chapter 1: An Introduction to Cultivating Human Potential

The Oxford Language dictionary defines potential as “latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness.” Intrinsic to the discussion of human potential is a proposition that harnessing these latent characteristics provides the path to a happier, more fulfilling, and more successful life. During the coming 12 months, participants will discover the true nature of human potential, the implications for failing to develop one’s latent characteristics, and processes for actualizing more of our innate potential to the realization of the many positive benefits that await.

If you were drawn to this course on Cultivating Potential, it is likely that you have felt at some point or another that you were living beneath your full potential. This feeling of lack may present most in your personal life, your family life, your professional life, or a combination of many areas. Anyone who has endured the sinking feelings of “I am meant for more,” or “life should be more than this,” can attest, that when we feel deficient in one area of our life, it affects the rest. Ultimately, a lack of meeting our potential in any area of our life will limit how well we perform and what we have to contribute to our professional endeavors. As our professional life suffers, so too will everything else.

If you are in a leadership role, maybe you were attracted to Cultivating Potential because you sense that your employees or team are failing to realize their potential and you are looking for ways to help them unlock their latent skills and abilities. Like the adage about putting your own oxygen mask on first so you can then provide assistance to others, this program will take a similar approach. The best way to encourage and empower others to be their best versions is to model that growth and empowered behavior. And, while going through this program which will bring about a cultivation of your true human potential, you will find many ways to introduce the concepts and applications to the rest of your organization. Each exercise you will complete during the coming months can be easily adapted and shared with others in your charge.

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Chapter 2: The Human Potential Model for Performance

“Potential” is multi-dimensional, and just because you are excelling in one area of your potential, it doesn’t mean you are living a healthy, well-balanced and fulfilling life. The goal of Cultivating Potential is to help you rise in all areas, but specifically where you feel you are struggling, as a lack of potential in one area will drag all other areas down.

Many traditional programs designed to help maximize potential are derived from the principles of traditional psychology; they focus on a “disease model” which aims to reduce symptoms and defects along a treatment paradigm to help people “return to neutral” without needing external stimuli. A disease-model approach too often disempowers individuals by focusing the attention on what is not working well and what is wrong with them. This not only limits growth potential, it sets a baseline for life-satisfaction, happiness, and fulfillment that falls far below their true potential.

The principles of positive psychology and science of human flourishing can unleash that untapped potential by operating along a full wellness paradigm. This helps people discover what is right with them, what strengths they possess, and leverage what is working well so they can re-discover their whole and perfect selves. A positivity-focused, strengths-based program helps those seeking a successful long-term recovery to move far north of neutral and experience high-level wellness and a life of Thriving.

Each person has a certain level of potential for happiness, success, fulfillment, and contribution in their life. One’s actualized potential – how much of their true potential they are currently living into – is a function of their self-efficacy and positive affect (S.E. + P.A.). New skills, positive experiences, and recent wins tend to raise one’s level of self-efficacy and positive affect which, in turn, inspires them to take on greater challenges, try more things, and live into their higher potential. Failures, setbacks, traumatic events or negative environments erode one’s self-efficacy and positive affect which ultimately diminish the level of potential they will live into.

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Chapter 3: Factors that promote or limit human potential

Many factors can determine whether you live up to your potential. Fear, shame, bad role models (mentors, leaders that are modeling poor habits and behaviors) can all limit your career growth. Pop Culture, community and learned behaviors also come into play without you maybe realizing. Non nurturing Environments, shame (I am bad/not enough), fear and overwhelm (feeling of not being in control), guilt (what I did was bad, I didn’t do enough) and resentments (stolen energy and distracted responsibility, lack of compassion, a parasitic emotion) will all negatively impact your growth.

Human potential is promoted by opposites of the above, and also – taking risk and succeeding, or taking risk and surviving; reflecting on past wins and successes: and having support and accountability.

What Determines a Person’s Potential?

A person’s potential is determined by several factors: Physical Security, Emotional Security, Environment and Mindset.

Physical Security

Our basic physical needs must be satisfied before we can even attempt to reach our full potential. Our days must be spent fulfilling fundamental needs such as those for food, drink, and shelter if we are to exist.

Consider this: the individual who has the potential to become the greatest computer programmer ever could be living with a nomadic tribe in Sub-Saharan Africa right now. However, because they must spend their days tending to these fundamental physical necessities, their full potential will remain unrealized.

Emotional Security

Humans are sociable creatures that do not thrive in isolation. Forming close ties with people has been found to be quite beneficial to our mental health in studies. These relationships begin to form in early childhood; babies rely on this bond with a parent or carer to meet their requirements, and if the bond is broken for any reason, it can have long-term psychological implications.

Environment

Another crucial component that influences your ability to reach your maximum potential is your environment.

In the same way as the computer programmer in the preceding example, you could have the potential to be the greatest composer since Beethoven, but if you didn’t have access to music or grew up in a home that didn’t respect that skill set, you’re unlikely to reach your full potential. Furthermore, if you didn’t encounter others taking on risks, attempting to grow, and striving to reach their own true potential, then you wouldn’t have those positive-growth behaviors to model yourself.

Mindset

We don’t have to worry about acquiring enough food, drink, or shelter for the most part. Our bodily as well as emotional requirements have been addressed (to a large extent anyway). And any limitations imposed by our environment are minor (especially with the availability of the internet).

So, for the most part, our thinking is the key factor preventing us from realizing our maximum potential. The story we carry around in our heads is our attitude. It begins to develop in childhood and can last the rest of our lives.

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Chapter 4: 100% Responsibility – Taking Ownership

Poker was played in almost every bar across the west as the American frontier was being established. Players took turns dealing the cards because they were wary of each other cheating. A distinctive marker was handed to each dealer to place on the table in front of them. It was usually a knife with a buckhorn handle. Someone who didn’t want the duty of dealing the cards would pass it on to the next player, hence the expression “passing the buck.”

You know how big of a problem this can be in the job if you’ve ever worked with or managed someone who was indecisive and careless about their work, passing off their obligations to others. Taking responsibility for your work helps to avoid these problems by demonstrating to others that you can be trusted, even when the job is difficult. Everything goes more smoothly if everyone on your team does their job, no matter how tiny, and accepts responsibility for the results they create. Your role as the company’s CEO is to serve as a coach. Rather than throwing folks under the bus, you should invite them to ride alongside you.

Why Should I Take Ownership?

Employees that only do the bare minimum are a drain on the workplace’s energy. Those who always seek to blame their lack of success on someone else’s mistake is also a burden. It’s your role as a leader to motivate those in your charge and those around you to seek responsibility and acceptance of outcomes, good or bad. Make them more conscientious about their work, empower them, and keep their minds tuned to seeking solutions and opportunities instead of roadblock or excuses. In essence, you must teach them how to take responsibility.

Employees are personally invested in a company’s success when they believe they are contributing to its overall success. Because of the nature of your work or title, you may feel greater ownership in your company than other employees. As a leader, the best way to inspire others to take responsibility is to demonstrate the behavior yourself. An office full of people who are proud of the work on which they put their names is a productive and rewarding environment for everyone.

Is it Really That Important?

One of the unusual aspects of being a business owner or entrepreneur is that you are your own first employee. Leaders at every level also feel this to a degree if their position is vital for the organization’s success. Every day, you represent your firm in two ways: as a boss and as a worker. Your standards are the only ones that matter in the end – the standards you have for yourself and those in your charge. That is why it is critical to take ownership of everything you do and every piece of the company you can influence. You’re accepting responsibility for your work, the work of the employees you lead, and every other part of the business. Taking ownership is, at its core, about accepting responsibility and taking the initiative to lead. You’ve already invested in yourself professionally or as an entrepreneur. As an investor, anything less than the finest from you or your team is unacceptable. People will put forth more effort for recognition and opportunity than for anything else. In this Course Manual, you will find out how to take ownership of your creation and inspire your team to do the same.

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Chapter 5: Internalizing Locus of Control

Internalizing LOC: Part of this is accepting 100% responsibility, looking at what you can control and looking at how you can control or influence the outcomes.

Anxiety, some believe, is an emotional response we experience when we feel like we are out of control – or do not personally control something that will fulfill a need we have. We all have basic needs as humans: (think Maslow’s Hierarchy if you are familiar with it) connection, acceptance, security of body, family, career, health, food, etc. When the determining factor to whether or not we will have this need fulfilled is something we do not directly control, that is when we feel anxiety.

For example, when we have financial needs and we don’t know whether we will earn enough money to support our needs, lose our job, the economy will crash, these are often thought of as outcomes that will be determined by someone/people other than us. When we have a loved one that is sick and we don’t know if they will get better, and we feel that we cannot affect the outcome, that’s when we feel anxiety the most.

Anxiety is a parasitic emotion that drains our creative and productive energy. It creates a perpetual stress state in which we experience inhibited cognitive function, reduced creativity, and it fuels a perspective that sees other things also out of our control. This downward spiral is a huge thief of our potential.

What we focus on not only persists but often expands. When we ruminate over things outside out locus of control, these thoughts and emotions will persist. When we shift our mindset and perspective and focus instead on things we can and do control, no matter how small, this helps to discharge the anxious energy and free our greatest cognitive faculties to emerge. With this, our ability to engage and lean into our higher potential is also freed.

Locus of control – who or what is in control of the outcome that is experienced

External Locus of control – something beyond what we can control or influence will be the determining factor in our outcome (health, success, happiness, fulfillment, potential). Resulting emotions are fear, overwhelm, anxiety, frustration, loss of hope.

Internal Locus of Control – the fulfillment of a need or desire is going to be influenced or determined by something that you have direct control over. Internalized locus of control – i.e. taking responsibility – results in decreased stress, increased sense of hope and excitement, enthusiasm, higher cognitive function (improved immune response), improved innovation and creativity.

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Chapter 6: Equation for Responsibility: Event, Response, Outcome

The Success Formula: Event + Response = Outcome

The recipe for success can be applied to almost any scenario in your life. A specific event (E) combined with your response to that specific situation (R) leads in an outcome in this formula (O).

It’s easy to go through life believing that events or external circumstances determine our outcomes and success. Things happen, and you have no control over the outcome. You have no control over your success. E is the same as O. Right?

It turns out that you do, in fact, have a voice in your own success. While you may not be able to control every event that occurs in your life, you do have a say in how things unfold. Your participation in the outcome stems from your reaction to an occurrence. E + R equals O.

Event (Can’t Control) + Response (Can Control) = Outcome (Can Directly Influence)

Let’s be honest. You can’t have complete control over every event that happens, and you might not be able to easily create any outcome you desire, but we would all be surprised by how much more control we have over outcomes than we normally believe. This concept is introduced as an equation to illustrate the control we do have over outcomes. Like a numerical equation, you can manipulate inputs on the left side to get what you want on the right side. If the (E)vent that life gives you is a 2, and you are used to (R)esponding with a 3, your (O)utcome will be a 5. If you would rather have an outcome of 8, you can change your response to a 6. If external circumstances change and life now gives you a 1 instead of a 2, you can accept the new outcome or you can change your response and regain the outcome that you want.

As you will discover in the course manual, this concept is distilled down to a simple equation to make it easier to conceptualized. Regardless of the simplicity, this is not a concept to trivialize or minimize the far-reaching impact it can influence in every outcome you wish to experience
Weather, traffic, and other people’s choices are just a few of the factors that are beyond your control. Nonetheless, these are the elements that wind up bearing the brunt of the blame and serving as justifications for where you end up.

The truth is that in every given situation, the only thing you have control over is your reaction to the events and circumstances you face. And how you respond is a determining factor in the outcome you create. You might not be able to control a global pandemic, for example. However, you always have control over how you react to current circumstances and which opportunities you pursue, how you deal with the stress, and which roadblocks you allow to hold you back.

Master Your Mindset

Your personal thoughts and actions might determine whether you stay stuck in your current situation or make significant advances in your life. When you realize that how you react to an unpredictable situation is the key to achieving your goals, a few things will happen in your life:

• You take control of your life and take on greater responsibilities.
• You don’t wait for things to happen to you; you create them.
• You stop making excuses and start looking for answers.
• You’re more willing to try new, unusual, and uncomfortable things.
• You are no longer blaming others for your predicament.
• You understand that things will not always go as planned.
• You stop attempting to be flawless or expecting life to be perfect.

If you find that you’re not happy with the results you’re getting (in the gym, at home, at work, in life), then ask yourself:

• What outcome do I want to create?
• What do I have control of in this situation?
• What’s my response to what I can’t control?
• What response gets me closer my outcome?
• What choices do I have?
• What change can I make?

Then, let go of the things you can’t control. Take responsibility for your responses. (The word, responsibility is, after all, derived from the words response and ability – or, more directly, an ability to choose one’s response.) Take action on your choices. And make a meaningful change to your mindset and to your life.

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Chapter 7: The Indirect Sphere

One way to envision the world as we experience it is as though it is comprised of three concentric spheres. You might picture these three spheres as concentric bubbles.

The largest sphere, which I think of as the Indirect Sphere, encompasses everything that happens in the world, good or bad, that does not directly affect us. This might include things such as news of an occurrence a thousand miles away or word of a tragedy happening overseas. Perhaps a classmate from high school, whom you haven’t spoken to in years, recently got married or lost a job. Maybe a well-known celebrity you like lost a child.

We hear about these things often, and though they don’t affect us directly, they can have an impact on us—if we allow them to. If we ponder or ruminate over these indirect occurrences, they can affect our mood, our concentration, and ultimately, the actions we take, which will have a direct effect on the results we experience

The Indirect Sphere

The Indirect Sphere is the largest, outermost Sphere. This Sphere is comprised of everything that happens in the world that is beyond our control and has no direct influence over us. Hence, the “Indirect” label. These are the events and circumstances that affect us indirectly, at best.

Consider the news of a celebrity divorce. Perhaps it is someone you like, a person whose movies you have always enjoyed or whose concerts you have attended. Maybe seeing pictures of them with their family has made you smile in the past. But this is not someone you personally know or interact with in any way. His or her divorce does not directly affect you.

That said, it does have the power to have an effect over you—if you allow it to. How invested you become in this news is completely up to you. If you spend hours poring over gossip magazines and searching for clues behind the celebrity splits, you are devoting valuable time and energy to an event that has nothing to do with you, diverting that time and energy from the things you can control. Before long, this rumination over the upsetting news will begin to affect your emotional state which will affect the way you respond to things that do directly impact you.

An easy way to determine if something directly or indirectly affects us is by asking whether or not we need to respond to it. If a riot occurs a few thousand miles away, and you don’t know anyone involved, there is nothing you have to do (physically or emotionally) to respond to that event.

If, on the other hand, the hot water heater in your house springs a leak, there is no way you can choose to not let that affect you. You have to do something in response.

Now, is it normal to have an emotional response to something tragic happening in the world, even if it doesn’t directly affect you? Absolutely. And, in fact, there can be a lot of benefits from choosing to respond to certain events that speak to you emotionally, either through donating your time or funds. But the point is, you have a choice when it comes to how you respond to events and circumstances in the Indirect Sphere. You don’t have to respond to any of it.

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Chapter 8: The Direct Sphere

The Direct Sphere is comprised of all the events and circumstances in life that directly affect us—the ones that force us to respond or react in some way. Events in this Sphere may include losing your wallet, the bad weather that occurs on your day off, or the harsh words your boss spoke to you. Each of the events or circumstances within the Direct Sphere elicits some form of reaction.

Let’s say your distant neighbor loses his job. You can recognize this as a terrible and unfortunate event, but it is not one that directly affects you or your family. It is an Indirect Sphere event. You may respond, but you don’t have to.

If you lose your job, on the other hand, that would be a Direct Sphere event. You have to respond in some way; if you don’t, you and your family will soon go hungry and wind up on the streets. Still, how you respond is up to you. You have a choice whether this Direct Sphere event will spark a downward spiral of emotional turmoil or elicit constructive action on your part.

With Indirect Sphere events, you choose whether you react or respond.

With Direct Sphere events, you choose how you will react or respond.

Both Indirect and Direct Sphere events and circumstances can be seen in a positive or negative light. There are some universal principles you will discover in the course material that will help you identify the positive side of every event you face.

During this course, you will learn to adopt an empowering and liberating process for success and resilience that stems from this concept of life’s spheres. In essence, once an event is brought to your attention, filter that event in your mind to decipher whether it directly affects you or not. Then, discard Indirect Sphere events from your thoughts and turn your focus back to the Direct Sphere items on your plate.

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Chapter 9: The Action Sphere

The Action Sphere

The last sphere of this three-sphere metaphor is the “Action Sphere.” This Sphere encompasses everything in the world we can affect ourselves. The Action Sphere can extend both directly and indirectly beyond you to all the people and things you control or influence with your actions and words.

In the section about E+R=O, we begin to get a sense for what we can control in this Action Sphere. If we pull back to see everything we may indirectly affect with our actions, we see how far our Action Sphere – our influence and impact on the world – really extends.

Let’s say you decide to volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters. You take a “Little” – the youth assigned to you for mentorship – under your wings and commit to spending time with him or her once a week. You introduce your Little to experiences they never would have had otherwise and provide encouragement and sound advice they aren’t getting at home. As a result of your guidance and mentorship, your Little blossoms in school and decides to pursue a college degree. Ultimately, he or she rises above the circumstances of his or her home life and goes on to live a productive and happy e