Reaching My Full Potential

A good friend of mine once told me that I have so much potential and that it pained her to see me squander it.  For some reason, I was reminded of this comment tonight.  I wasn’t doing anything more than simply going for a walk and stopping into a local bar for a refreshment, when my friend’s comment came back to haunt me.

It is not like I am a failure, but in many areas I have not lived up to my potential.  I can cite fear, laziness, conflicting commitments, stubbornness or just plain stupidity for reasons that I have not lived to my full potential.  In the end, my failure to reach my full potential really just lays within myself or more specifically my mind and its willingness to push myself to a place that is beyond my current comfort zone.

I have on occasions reached my full potential in narrowly focused areas.  It would be better though if I could free my mind to allow myself to hit my potential in a much broader spectrum.  I need to let/force/cajole myself to do the things that I know I want to do deep down inside.  I only have one life to live and if I don’t make the most of it, then I am going to fail no one but myself.  I will not have made a mark on this world worthy enough of remembering.  Actually, it is not even about having done things worth memorializing, it is about going to my own grave satisfied that I lived a life worth living.  One that is not full of regrets, remorse and could have should have and would haves.

So what am I to do to allow myself to reach my full potential?  I do not want to get caught up in a philosophical discussion, nor do I want to seek out therapy to find out what is holding me back.  All of that takes too much time to do and by the time I got anywhere, I would have already lost a bunch of time to accomplish those things I wish I could be accomplishing.

So I am asking you dear readers…  What have you done to set yourself free to reach your goals, dreams and desires?  Which magic elixir did you take that transformed you into the person you wanted to be?  What are the first steps you took to free yourself from things that unnecessarily encumbered you?  Lastly, if you were able to do any of these things, was it worth it at the end?