MAXIMIZE YOUR POTENTIAL

Joshua 14:12 “Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”

Do you feel today that God has a bigger purpose for you then you have yet attained, that there is actually something bigger than you that God wants to partner with you to pursue? Well, if you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep getting what you have always gotten and the only way to break the pattern is to change.

Consider the children of Israel, wandering in the wilderness, doing the same thing they had always done. In Egypt, they murmured and complained and things never changed even though the scenery did except for two, Joshua and Caleb, who lead a new generation to the promise land of God. I like Caleb, even more so as I get older. Caleb was not willing to sit back and rest on his accomplishments. He was ready to start out for a new adventure, he was ready for change.

As you study the scriptures, you will find certain characteristics in successful people, people like Caleb, people who have not stopped in their journey, but continue to expand their horizons, knowing there is something great in them that God is desiring to accomplish through them, committed people to personal growth.

If we are to be that type of person, we must be committed to personal growth. Spanish composer and cellist Pablo Casals was asked in the final years of his life this question by a reporter, "Mr. Casals, you are ninety-five years old and the greatest cellist that has ever lived. Why do you still practice six hours a day? Casals answers, "Because I think I’m making progress." People who reach their potential, not matter how young or old, are people who think in terms of improvement.

The only way to improve the quality of your life is to improve yourself. If you want to have better children, you must become a better person. If you want others to treat you more kindly, you must develop better people skills, and on and on it goes. There is no way to make other people improve, the only thing you truly have the ability to do is improve yourself. And the only way you will grow is if you choose to grow.

Growth is not automatic. Just because you grow older does not mean you continue to grow. Understand that the road to the next level is always uphill. Growth today will provide a better tomorrow. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Man’s mind once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." Growth today is an investment for tomorrow. Growth is your responsibility. When you were a child, your parents were responsible for you, even your growth and education, but guess what, you’re an adult, you bear the responsibility, and if you are not responsible, then growth will not happen.

Focus on self-development, not self-fulfillment. In the late 1960’s, people began to talk about "finding themselves", or in other words, they began a quest for their own self-fulfillment which is different from self-development. Self-development is the development of your potential so that you can attain the purpose for which you were created; it is drawing yourself toward your destiny. Rabbi Samuel Silver taught that "the greatest of all miracles is that we need not be tomorrow what we are today, but we can improve if we make use of the potential implanted in us by God."

Never stay satisfied with current accomplishments. Thinking you have arrived when you have accomplished a goal has the same effect as believing you know it all, and that takes away your desire to learn. Successful people don’t sit back, like Caleb; they are ready to begin a new journey, to go another round. This is not the time to settle into a comfort zone. We are to enjoy our success briefly, then move on to a new dimension and level of growth.

Be a continual learner. To do this, you will have to carve out time in your schedule for learning. Henry Ford said, "It’s been my observation that most successful people get ahead during the time other people waste." Read books, listen to instructional tapes, be a learner. Learning something new everyday is essential to being a continual learner. You must keep improving, not just for the sake of acquiring knowledge to replace what you forgot or what’s out of date, but to build on what you learned yesterday.

Develop a plan for growth. Earl Nightingale said, "If a person will spend one hour a day on the same subject for five years, that person will be an expert on that subject." Let me give you a suggestion on what you need to do. Identify 3-5 areas in your life which you desire to grow. Then look for useful material, books, magazines, audio tapes, videos, and incorporate them into your life plan. Exactly how you do it doesn’t matter, just do it every day.

George Eliot said, "It is never too late to be what you might have become." Be a Caleb