Aware of your potential?

Are you aware of your own potential?

Well are you?

Some of us are totally unaware that we 'could do better' – others of us are too tired to even think about our untapped potential

The thing is, seriously, what a waste!

What it boils down to, is that we are all nearly always capable of achieving much, much more than we currently are – in pretty much all areas of our lives – whether as a baker, a designer or a CEO – we are simply oblivious to our strengths

So we stay, comfortably uncomfortable in our own ‘one day I will’ – but never do

Often this is because we don’t have the time or courage to shine a light into the blind-spots of our lives by reflecting on what we really want, and who can really help us do that. We do not Welcome Feedback  

From our experience this is because we believe to welcome feedback in the most important areas of our lives will be like opening Pandora’s box. The potential for discomfort and disruption on learning about where we truly are in a particular area of our life from another’s perspective – either good or bad - is too much to take on – Carl Rogers had an interesting perspective on this,

"The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change"

For most of us, it’s easy to continue with being unaware of where we currently are, doing what we have always done – and thus we remain stuck with what we know

We stick with inertia. We stick with normal – we stick with stuck

At Progressfull™ we are really curious about the disconnection between how especially in the sporting arena feedback is welcomed with voracity, and an almost visceral passion, yet in every other walk of life, human beings seem to hold back and recoil from any assessment, observation and critique of their approach – preferring to remain unaware of new perspectives – perspectives which could unlock new skills, improved approaches, our own potential

We are also curious that a lot of us passionately believe and truly understand that in order for our children to be any good at anything, to learn and develop – great feedback from a great teacher/coach/tutor – is the thing which really counts

In fact, we believe it so much that we give up years’ worth of Saturdays to get our kids into a team with a great football coach, or we drive them miles for the best tennis tuition. We even move house to get them into the best schools

Yet when it comes to ourselves – we do the opposite – we run in the opposite direction, with our eyes and ears firmly shut - avoiding or dreading feedback, believing it will be too unnerving or exposing, or simply dismissing it – we are wilfully blind, we are blindsided to our blind spots. Even though we know that feedback is essential for any kind of development – both for our kids and for ourselves - go figure!

This is because receiving feedback sits at the junction of two conflicting human desires - we want to learn and grow, but we also want to be accepted just as we are right now

What to do then?

To help you shine a light on your potential, to help you unlock your vision of who and what you want to be in your life – we created an Upskill (our name for a course/masterclass) called Welcoming Feedback

Welcoming Feedback enables you to embrace, usher in, even roll out the red carpet for different perspectives and assessments on what you can do to fulfil your potential and make progress in your everyday life – at home, at work, in your whole life

Welcoming Feedback is all about us seeking and sharing the gift of feedback. It’s the best way to test and calibrate our self-perception and it’s a great way to help and support others by calling out positives and encouraging course corrections. Welcoming Feedback is about mastering the skills required to receive feedback well, drive our own learning and as a result unlock our potential. It’s about how to recognise and manage our resistance, how to engage in feedback conversations with confidence and curiosity, and even when the feedback seems wrong, how to find insight that might help us grow

We've picked the best insights, frameworks and tools from behavioural psychology, neuroscience and philosophy to create the models and content in Welcoming Feedback, enabling you to embrace, usher in, roll out the red carpet for diverse perspectives and feedback conversations with confidence and curiosity

So open your eyes, take a deep breath, jump in and release your true potential!

You can discover more about Welcoming Feedback here