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Issue 2 > Living up to your potential is bs.

Living up to your potential is bs.

Penelope Trunk with 'You're not living up to your potential: so what?'

The idea that we somehow have a certain amount of potential that we must live up to is a complete crock. People who say they are not living up to their potential do not understand what living means.

Life is very hard. We each probably have some fundamental goals, even if we don't think of them consciously. First of all, getting up in the morning is very hard. It is fundamentally an act of optimism. Because surely you have already realized that most days are not full of happiness. They are full, but with something else.

Yet we still get out of bed every day, thinking that the day is going to be good. That's a big deal. A huge leap of faith. I spend a lot of time wondering why more of us don't kill ourselves, and I never come up with a great answer.

The next big goals we have are the spiritual kind: Be good, be kind, treat people with respect. You probably don't write these on your to-do list, but now that you read them, surely you are thinking to yourself, 'Oh yeah, I want to remember to do that.'

So already, life is very full. For example, I just took the red-eye home from San Francisco. But if you live in a little town like Madison, Wisconsin, there is, really, no red-eye. There is only half a red-eye to Chicago, a traumatic awakening at 5am, and then an 8am flight to Wisconsin. By the time I get to my gate, treating people with respect takes pretty much everything that is left of my potential.

Living up to your potential is not crossing-off everything on your to-do list on time, under budget. Or canonizing your ideas in a book deal. Really, no one cares. You are not on this earth to do that. Trust me. No one is. You are on this earth to be kind. That is your only potential.

And then you have to earn a living.

It's no coincidence that everyone who is walking around bitching that they are not living up to their potential is talking about how they should be more successful at work. Because 'living up to potential' is really just code for 'not being recognized as the talented genius that I am'.

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