8 Things You Wouldn’t Say If You Were Reaching Your Full Potential

Life as a twenty-something is a constant struggle. It’s not just about handling all of your newfound responsibilities. You also have to face some hard internal questions, like if you’re challenging yourself enough, or if you’re feeling fulfilled. Being in your twenties is about slowly becoming the person you’ve always wanted to be, and you can’t do that if you’re not reaching your full potential. Here are 8 things you wouldn’t be saying if you were reaching your full potential.

1. I’ll do it eventually. Usually when this is said, whatever you’re planning on doing never gets done. It’s tempting to procrastinate, and to tell yourself you’ll do it tomorrow or next week. But most of the time, life gets in the way. If you keep pushing it off, you’re avoiding something that you know you should be doing now.

2. I don’t have the energy for anything besides work right now. Whether it’s the opportunity to take an awesome cooking class or the chance to join a book club, you keep turning it down. There are so many things presenting themselves to you that will allow you to improve yourself and add more variety to your life, but you keep saying no. The truth is, you’re always going to be tired. Work is always going to take up a lot of energy. But you can’t let that be your excuse for everything. Or you’re never going to get anywhere.

3. They just have a different background than I do. If you’re comparing yourself to someone you consider very successful, you can’t contribute everything to their background. Sure, they may have had a leg up or had some help along the way. But people who are successful are the ones who are going out and chasing after that success. They’re working hard and putting themselves out there. If you’re just sitting back and blaming your circumstances for the fact that you’re not successful, you’re not going to have much luck in life. 

4. If I had done things differently, I’d be in a much better place right now. Living in the past is never going to allow you to become the best person you can be. Maybe you made some mistakes in the past. Maybe you didn’t try hard enough. It doesn’t matter. What matters is where you’re going to go from here. What matters is how you decide to take on the future. So stop whining about what could have been, and start being proactive. 

5. It’s too late now. I need to just accept things the way they are. It’s never too late for anything. You’re still so young. You’ve barely lived your life! Never stop trying just because you think it’s too late. If you want to reach your full potential, you can’t take no for an answer. You have to just keep chugging along, step by step. 

6. I’m tired of waiting for my success. You’re not going to become the CEO of a company or a world-famous author overnight. Success doesn’t happen in the blink of an eye. In fact, it happens so slowly that sometimes you don’t even realize it’s happening. Just keep showing up every day and putting all your effort into what you’re doing, whatever it is that you do. Because if you’re just sitting there waiting for things to happen to you, you’re going to be very disappointed.

7. It’s just not going to happen for me. It doesn’t matter what “it” is. If you have a defeated attitude about it, you’ve already lost. Of course it’s not going to happen for you if you tell yourself that. Our thoughts really do become our actions, so if you’re walking through the world every day telling yourself that trying is pointless and nothing good will ever come out of working hard, you’re going to fulfill your own prophecy. 

8. I don’t want to fail. Nobody wants to fail. Failure is terrifying. But the people who end up accomplishing their goals are the ones who were willing to fail. Success didn’t just come to them. They went after it and they probably failed over and over and over before they experienced even the tiniest sliver of success. If you want to be great and use your talents and amount to something, you have to be willing to experience failure. It’s going to come either way. You might as well face it head on.