Potential is such a crazy phenomenon. The force based on a prospective future. Not only can you not see it but it may or may not happen. I’m not referring to potential as in physics. I’m talking about the potential we see in people and ideas. It’s wild because we can’t accurately measure this, there are so many factors. Including one’s bias.
For instance, you believe in a business venture and have ideas for it but when pitched to an investor, they may see it as having little potential. They could be right, depending on their experience in that industry or in businesses in general. Regardless the business might still work out. That may mean that potential is a paradox. The entrepreneur believes it will be successful, the investor predicts it will be a failure. The idea is both dead and alive until we check after some time. Time is the hand that reveals the potential’s state.
Now take this idea, potential, and relate it to a child or young adult. Unlike a business idea, there really isn’t an investor or person who can accurately predict a kid's future. In a sense, their potential/future is both a failure and a success. The only way we can know is through time. What’s the point of all this? Well, this applies to people of all ages. Your full potential will always be an unknown. This means you always have the power to determine the future. At the same time you don’t, you’re powerless against the vast number of variables in life. Seems hopeless right? Not quite. Just as the entrepreneur believes in his idea, you need to believe in your success, whatever success means for you. But at the same time be conscious of the investor's prediction of failure. There is nothing you can do about that, or detractors, or failures in life but there is something that can be done about your belief.
As far as it pertains to one’s future, potential in a sense isn’t real, yet. It hasn’t happened. There’s no point in worrying about it. Your best bet would be to focus on working towards your success and look at the lives of the people who are where you want to be in the future. Even at that, there’s no telling what the future might hold.
Like most paradoxes, your best bet would be to use a metric to check to know what you are dealing with. That is, use a given measurement to determine one true value. Sadly for potential the chief metric would be time. To determine your potential at a given moment you need to use time, that is set timed goals and check in to see if they have been achieved. Every goal achieved is by definition raising your potential. You are actively predicting the future. Potential only becomes real when you check it.
Have you checked your potential? Are you where your younger self wanted to be in life right now? If not, that’s fine. You’re still full of potential, then again you might not be. Given the time your potential is truly up to you.