Potential

​I read something about potential yesterday and it got me considering it.
So often in the past when I have thought of potential I have thought of the one that seemed to have talent galore in so many things.
One of my best friends as a kid was someone who’s dad was a professor and mum was a doctor.  He was so good at so much.  He would be the winner in things academic and sporting.  We were on go carts and he said to me I have just realized why this sort of concrete is better than that.  Fair dinkum I was just glad to be on concrete.
Or the brothers I saw years later.  One was a natural and one was a plodder.  I admit my heart was always with the plodder.  His bro had potential to burn, while he made the best of what he had.
I remember hearing a person say they were sick of hearing of potential.  What they wanted to hear about was realized potential.
Thankfully it does not always happen, but so often it is the plodder that reaches their potential while the natural squanders theirs.
A couple of things occurred to me yesterday.  Probably the most impactful for me is that having potential is not just the dominion of someone who has multiple talents.  It is also the dominion of the person who may have limited potential or one thing they are a natural at.  What matters for both is realizing or making the most of what is available.
Even more importantly I saw that potential is not just talking about achieving life goals, but it is achieving the goals of the day.  And that it is never too late to go for potential.  It is one thing to bemoan lost opportunities, but to me it is another to give up and miss opportunities that come my way now.
I regularly say that a lot of a little makes a lot.  So no matter if I am eight or eighty achieving helps me realize my potential.  My past is past, and I cannot change it.  But I can achieve my potential today.  If I blow it (which sometimes I do) I will start again tomorrow.