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 a...

One of the truths we’ve come to understand at Progressfull, is that we can all benefit from choosing to see things a little differently

As humans, one of the biggest mistakes we make is forgetting everyone doesn’t think like we do. We assume what we are thinking is what everyone else is thinking

Not true

Look around and you will see this clearly is not the case in reality

The truth is people are different. We think differently, want different things, and fortunately have different ideas. The way we process and share our ideas is often different from one another. This can be frustrating if we allow it to be, but with intentionality it can also be the secret sauce which unlocks our potential. Increasing our insight unlocks our potential

We limit ourselves when we limit our perspective to our own ideas and current capabilities

So, if we recognise the need for different perspectives, how do we actually gain them?

Welcoming feedback helps us broaden our perspective and broadening our...

One of the truths we’ve come to understand at Progressfull, is that we can all benefit from choosing to see things a little differently

Human performance expert Stefan Falk, highlights that “sinking into boredom” is a downside of having an "autopilot" mind-set. When we deal with the everyday, familiar tasks and activities our brain conserves energy by moving to “autopilot” mode. When we are in this mode not only is it easier to sink into boredom, we also miss what’s new, what’s different and what’s noteworthy in the daily and familiar

Most of us have lives that are embedded in the familiar daily and weekly routines and rhythms. As a result our brain's autopilot can be restricting our perspectives and the opportunities for growth that are all around us

Even when facing the most tedious tasks, ones we have completed a thousand times over, we can cultivate a sense of curiosity and build our perspective by tuning-in to the small things that make the context or the task different. This m...

So here’s a thing, ask over 1 billion people on the planet what they were doing on Sunday 18th December 2022 and most likely they will say 'watching the World Cup final’. Nothing enchants so many of us at the exact same point in time, so much as watching the World Cup

What's more, do you know what are the all-time most watched single-network television broadcasts in the US? According to Nielsen, of the 32 most-watched broadcasts, 30 are Super Bowls

In Feb 2022 over 101 million people watched the Superbowl, in the US alone, including 75% of 18-34 year olds. What’s more, in 1969 an estimated 652 million people watched the live broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing (approx. 1/5 of the world's population at the time)

There are lots of reasons why we gather together to watch great achievements, to feel a sense of belonging, to feel the awe and excitement of another’s accomplishments and to feel inspired at the potential we have as humans

We are awestruck by the speed of the game, the ...

Have you ever wondered, I mean really wondered – without your baggage, just with curiosity – how much potential you actually have? How high you can actually soar?

The thing is, a lot of us have a very limited perspective on what we can achieve, what our capabilities are … ‘I can’t dance, I can’t do detail, I can’t focus, I am rubbish with numbers’. Jo has an expression she uses all the time, "Get rid of the nonsense in your head, it’s a lie! Delete it. It is a waste of your energy. Instead focus on what is true”

In reality we are all much more capable than we think we are – the thing is, discovering our potential does require courage – it doesn’t just happen. A quote we really love from the Nobel prize winning poet TS Eliot is, "only those who will risk going far, can possibly find out how far one can go”

So what’s the risk? Why does fulfilling our potential require courage?

Well – it’s about feedback…

Having either coached or facilitated over 14,000 plus global senior executi...

Shut your laptop, sigh a deep sigh of relief – time to unplug 

Time to plunge into a pool, walk barefoot, read that best seller, discover new places & experiences and quite simply refresh and recharge with a well-deserved break 

Then, once we have snoozed, slept, gazed at the pool, danced, swum, read, trekked ….we often start to plan… 

A lot of us use our vacation time to not only refresh and recharge but also gain new perspectives on our lives – we lie back on our sun loungers, or sip our morning coffee, gazing at a new vista - and we start to plan our next steps … 

We create private, internal visons for who we want to be, how we want to live and what we want to achieve – at work, at home, in our whole life

The thing is, whilst we create these visions and make our plans, we often miss adding in a magic ingredient ...

One of, if not the most important, keys to create our futures, achieve our goals, unlock our potential in any area of our lives – is feedback. Yet we often miss out...

I have lived pretty much all my life with my own narrow perspective of my own potential  

– until I realised that actually – I had an opportunity to change my perspective, to start taking the first small steps forwards towards unlocking my potential. Put simply - to make progress instead of staying stuck 

So I did. And guess what – I am even more shocked now – by how much untapped potential not only I have, but that, in fact, we all have – if we would simply learn to ‘Welcome Feedback’ 

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 coder, a chef or a CEO –  we simply lack a different perspective, a different skill-set, a different take on what we can do 

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

We often lack perspective on our own potential because we feel we don’t have the time or courage to shine a light into the bli...

The presenter stood stock still – smiling at the faces in front of them. They were poised, calm and ready to move people, like they had never moved them before. 2 weeks earlier this would never have happened - they would not have agreed to present, they would have sat, judging and jealous in the audience

The presenter knew the audience were feeling low, knew they were off their game, knew they had lost belief in what they were doing and why. So the presenter gave it all they had. And all they had was a lot more than even they knew they were capable of giving

The audience sat up straighter. And their eyes shone brighter. Maybe they could do it after all, maybe there were different perspectives, different ways of doing things, which they had not been aware of. And they believed - just a little bit more - in what they were doing

So they gave a bit more than they had been giving

And everyone surprised themselves just a little bit – by being more capable than they thought they were

Her...

It’s the time of year when it is normal for a lot of us to feel a bit disillusioned, a bit lost and a bit stuck 

It’s a tough feeling

We are stuck in the gap between the deep understanding and New Year’s optimism of our own and life’s potential and the hard drudge of the first months of the year

We know we are capable of more. More fun, more achievements, living life more the way we want to live it – hence why we so confidently and purposefully made our New Year’s resolutions

Yet, once the fresh sparkle of hope and optimism of the first few weeks has worn off and the harder slog of embedding our new habits kicks in, we notice procrastination also sneaking in. We are starting to put things off, stay a bit longer in bed rather than go for that run, we are breaking our promises to ourselves and so we feel disillusioned and stuck. What’s worse, we are then beating ourselves up, seeing this as evidence that we are not worth the effort improvement takes

A quick glance through news and s...

Do you have a secret ? A unique private vision for your life - yet are wilfully blind to your own potential?

We find this shocking, and frankly heart-breakingly wasteful

Many of us create private, internal visons for who we want to be, how we want to live and what we want to achieve – at work, at home, in our whole life, yet choose, sometimes consciously but mostly not, to remain unseeing in situations where in order to achieve our vision. We could know, and should know, but don’t know. Because we believe it makes us feel better not to know

And so our unique vision for what a great life would look like fades into ‘normal’, into ‘fine’ into ‘I’m good, thanks’ – and a weak smile. We know we could learn new skills at work, but don’t. We know we could improve our communication skills to benefit all our relationships, especially those with our loved ones. But don’t. We know to be happier, better people - we could let go of internal baggage. But don’t. We know we could learn new skills in...