What’s Your Potential?

Unfulfilled potential isn’t something to fear. It’s something to honor because we’re in the midst of a journey filled with good and bad, easy and hard.

There’s a line in the movie The Circle that has stuck with me since I watched it last year. It’s during the interview scene, where Emma Watson’s character is asked what her fears are. She answers, “Unfulfilled potential.”

What, what?

Those two words solidified everything I had been feeling, and at times still feel. What if we don’t meet the outrageous, thrilling, and scary goals we set? Or what if our goals aren’t big enough?

In a culture where we’re surrounded by people doing great things, it’s easy to feel like you’re not measuring up. When artists younger than you are just as known as writers a decade older, it’s easy to feel like you’re never doing enough and that you’re going to fall into a pile of the potential yet to be filled.

I’m on the tail end of a time of immense doubt where I tried to gain clarity on what my future looks like. When everything you’ve been working towards isn’t what you think, is it making too big of a deal out of the hard parts of any job, or is it a sign for something new?