14 Ways to Unlock Your Potential And Live Your Best Life

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Do you feel like you could be so much more? Do you want to unlock your potential? That’s common for ambitious people and it’s also a sign that you can be so much more.

I know that you have a lot of potential, but you’re holding yourself back. You might not quite know what you want to do in life or how you can become the person you dream of being. So much human potential is wasted because people don’t take the time and make the effort to figure out how they can reach their goals.

But you are different. You came here to learn how you can unlock your potential.

The good news is that you absolutely can unlock your full potential. It’s going to take a lot of work though and it does require quite a lot of time, but you can do it.

Start by reading this blog post carefully and maybe even take some notes. Your future is important and it deserves your full attention.

And never forget that there’s nothing you can’t achieve if you set your mind to it.

1. What exactly you want to do

The most important question you need to answer is what exactly you want to do with your life. Who do you want to be? What do you want to achieve?

To become the best version of yourself, you need to look at the big picture and know what matters the most to you. What are your personal values? What are the non-negotiables in your life?

When you have a somewhat clear idea of what you want your future to look like, you need to set clear and specific goals that will help you get there. Think about what you want your normal daily life to look like. What kind of career path would be good for you and who are the people you want in your life?

2. What are your wildest dreams

To reach your highest potential, you have to be honest with yourself and you have to have the courage to say what you really want from life.

What are your craziest, wildest dreams?

Don’t care about what other people think. If you want the American dream or you want to be a successful business owner living in Bali, own that dream. Listen to your inner voice and take it seriously.

You’re not going to find the right path to your future if you hold yourself back and pretend to have smaller dreams than you really do.

3. What are your fears?

To unlock your potential, you need to know your fears. Everyone has them and they tend to be the same: fear of failure, fear of the unknown, feeling like you might miss out on something else important if you follow your dreams.

But to really unleash your potential, you need to step out of your comfort zone. You need to be ready to face your fears. And you know what? Many of them probably won’t even happen. The world isn’t as awful as you might think.

Usually every success story is pretty much the same: someone decided to do something, they worked hard and faced some problems and then one day, they made it big. The same applies to you. Don’t be afraid of the bumps in the road, you’ll get over them. And you have enough time to reach your goals.

4. What are you good at?

I know you are good at many things. But you need to know your strengths so that you can see your potential. You have unique gifts and you should be proud of them.

List the things you are good at. Be honest and not modest. You have already done a lot of things in your life and you have many skills already.

Working to become your dream self is always also a journey of self-discovery. It takes time to understand who you really are and who you want to be. But once you know what you are good at, you also know what you should improve.

5. What skills do you need

Once you have a clearer idea of what you want to do with your life and what your potential is, you need to ask yourself what you still need to learn.

To become your best self, you need to learn new skills. Perhaps you need to learn better time management or you need to improve your emotional intelligence. Or maybe right now you just need to focus on getting good grades. It all depends on who you are and what you want from your life.

Learning new skills can be overwhelming sometimes, but you should just focus on taking small steps forward. Take online courses, come up with small challenges for yourself, or ask for advice from other people.

6. Change your mindset and beliefs

Your mindset matters. It can easily be the main reason someone settles for a less fulfilling life instead of going after what they really want. Because a good mindset is such a powerful tool, you should actively work on it. Build a growth mindset and keep an open mind for new challenges and new ways to learn.

Make personal development a part of your daily life and know that you have true potential. You need to believe in yourself because you have the ability to make things happen and make those dreams of yours come true.

7. What are your timeframes?

Time flies when you are not looking and that’s why you need to be mindful of how you spend it. To set effective goals for yourself, you need to know what exactly you want to achieve and when. What can you do in the next month? By when should you have achieved the goal? What is a realistic timeframe for accomplishing your next goals?

Plan out all of your goals and write down every step you think you need to take. Always be as clear as you can. What is the next step? How much time do you need for each task? How far do you think the finish line is?

8. Stop wasting your time

If you want to get things done and reach your fullest potential, you have to stop wasting your time and learn to be efficient. Good time management is one of the most important things you can learn. It’s way too easy to constantly be “on a break” or decide to do things “when you have more time”.

But you have enough time already. I recommend you practice discipline and actively build good habits that help you to stick to your goals. Hard work is important if you have big dreams, but so is making time for it.

9. Surround yourself with powerful people

Having the right people around you matters. I’ve seen over and over again how people who have a lot of connections find opportunities much more easily than people who only hang out with the same old friends all the time. Getting to know new people is always a good thing, especially if they have experience in something you are interested in.

Start making new friends and new acquaintances and don’t be afraid to reach out to someone who seems to be a little out of your league. If you want to unlock your potential, you need to reach higher.

One good thing you can do is to get a mentor. A good mentor will help you with your goals and plans and share their valuable expertise with you. Finding the right mentor might not be easy but once you find them, you’ll make progress fast!

10. Learn from inspiring people

It’s good to know a lot of people in real life, but you can of course also learn from people you have never even met. If there are any inspiring or successful people you admire, make sure to read their books, listen to their podcasts, or watch videos of them on Youtube.

I’m not just talking about famous people here: perhaps someone interesting who you have been following on Instagram has a podcast you could start listening to?

I like to start my mornings by listening to motivational speeches on Youtube. Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement speeh is one of my favorites. If you want to start your days motivated, look for motivational speakers on Youtube or listen to interviews of the leading experts in your field. It only takes a little bit of time, but can give you exactly the motivation you need.

11. Constantly push yourself, try harder, try new things

To reach your full potential and become the best version of yourself, you need to constantly push yourself. You need to try new things and set new challenges for yourself.

The faster you can reach the next level, the better. Often making the little changes in your life you know you should make actually isn’t even that hard. You just need to do it.

And if something really is hard, simply focus on taking tiny baby steps forward. The important thing is that you don’t give up. If you just keep going, you could be in a much better place a year or two later.

12. Look for things that are holding you back

To become better, you need to know what is holding you back. Sometimes it’s a lack of certain skills, sometimes it’s a lack of determination and sometimes it’s simply a lack of money. Whatever the problem is, you need to fix it.

Reaching your ultimate potential is about continuous learning and being honest with yourself. What is it that is holding you back? Should you go to sleep earlier, ask for a promotion, or set clearer short-term goals that help you reach your bigger goals?

If you have a burning desire to make your dreams a reality, you need to make it easier for yourself to make constant progress. Having an effective set of daily habits that help you focus on your goals makes a difference.

13. Remember that time is everything

Again, time really matters. I already talked about the importance of learning to be efficient, but most of the time people spend time on things that really don’t matter at all. Like social media.

To spend your time better, the first step you of course need to take is to stop procrastinating. It’s a massive problem. But it’s not enough. You also need to come up with ways to free up time for the things that really matter.

If you for example want to work on your book for three hours a day, you need to find those three hours somewhere. Perhaps you could work fewer hours or meal prep on Sundays to free up time for writing? Maybe you could vacuum less often or combine your Pilates and TV watching?

As you start looking for ways to save time on a daily basis, you’ll notice that you actually have much more time than you thought.

14. Don’t be afraid to do the dirty work

One common mistake that people make, is to think that certain things are beneath them. But sometimes to get better and to get forward, you need to be willing to do things that are uncool or “low-level”. You need to be ready to do the work and pay your dues. Don’t worry, this won’t last forever and it will pay off.

You also need to stop caring about the opinions of others or how fabulous their life looks compared to yours. When you give your best effort and have the courage to step out of your comfort zone, good things will happen. An internship that you don’t want to do might easily lead to a positive outcome: perhaps you’ll get a job offer right away or later on a recruiter is impressed by that addition in your resume.

And always keep in mind that even a small amount of progress is still progress.

Final thoughts on unlocking your potential

Unlocking your potential is not easy, but it can be the best thing you do for yourself. You have so much untapped potential, you shouldn’t let small fears hold you back. Start changing your life today. Set the right habits for yourself that you know will help you. Set clear goals that you can work on. Make sure that your daily routine benefits both your goals and your own well-being.

And you never know, your life could be completely different a year from now, let alone ten years from now. Great things can happen at the most unexpected times if you just dare to try and see what you are capable of.

One great book that can help you is Atomic Habits by James Clear. I like to revisit it sometimes, it’s both useful and motivational.

Did this post encourage you to unleash your potential? What do you want to be? Comment down below, I’d love to know!

And if you want to learn how you can stay focused on your goals, I’ve got you covered!