"But You Have So Much Potential!"

Ha! Wasn't that the worst growing up? Those slimy 6 words that made you feel a whole 6 inches tall.  Some random grown up with their disapproving eyes wagging a finger in your disinterested face. "Oh honey, ...but you have so much potential!"  It always seemed to me like a more polite approach to saying you currently have absolutely nothing going for you...

Fast forward a couple of decades and I find myself staring down my own nose, catching my p.o.v...a wagging finger...pointed at some young buck. "Oh. but they have soooo much potential!"

Funny how we come full circle.  But in this case it's a bit of an "ah-ha!" moment. Where you want to go back and hug those people who believed in you and took a moment to pour into you. Believeing you could achieve greatness...but one small catch. You must believe it yourself. And we can't make you.

I have found that my strength in this this situation is also my curse. Sometimes I meet a certain someone and something just clicks inside of me. I can see a future for this person unlike they can even imagine themselves. This feeling deep down that they were created for more than just an average life.  My heart swells and I get all kinds of excited about the "potential!"

Sometimes you hit a homerun and can feel like you may have had an impact on someone's life and it is thrilling!  Maybe, just maybe, you made a difference in their future. Helping them see themselves in the most beautiful light no matter their circumstances. Propeling them forward, believing in themselves.  It is nothing short of incredible to see someone learn to see themselves as a person of value.

However, unfortunately, it feels like more times than not I end up sad and disappointed at their lack of desire to believe. To do a little hard work and create a better life, learn to be proud and love themselves. At times it feels like my own loss.

So, I've learned the best thing you can do for such people is to continue to love them. Accept them for exactly for who they are ...but never give up on them. You never know when their heart may soften. And who knows, it may take just that one more time of showing interest that they finally begin to believe that maybe there is a hint of truth in all your crazy talk!