Realizing your true potential

When you woke up this morning did you open your eyes and want to stay under the covers a little bit longer? 

Did your mind begin racing about “all the things” that you have to do at work before even pulling your eye mask off?  

Are you on day 12,775 of trying to figure out what your true potential is? 

I. FEEL. YOU. I’ve been there myself. 

Photo credit: Cottonbro at Pexels

You know, that feeling of trying to force an amoeba-shaped peg in a square hole day after day as a creative professional. I’d say that’s more appropriate for us, wouldn’t you? I can just imagine it now. You’re sitting through meetings about meetings daydreaming about building something far more exciting and fun. Maybe you’re cranking out the same creative work over and over every day wishing you could bring more to the table than just being an order taker. Maybe you’re still working at that day job, taking shit from a manager who’s been there twenty years and just loves to watch you squirm, all because you’re afraid to achieve your true potential and realize the life you were destined to live. 

Am I close? Are you starting to feel that anxiety build inside? I know I have been there. Life is hard. It’s especially been hard the last few years. We’ve all felt that anxiety in one form or another as we’ve been in a fight-or-flight-state for way too effing long. In the immortal words of Tim Robbins’ character Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption, “It’s time to get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’”. I think it’s about time to we get busy livin’, don't you think? Have you felt that way deep down? It’s time to make a change. It's time to enjoy our work and to live our lives fully while we can. Life is a tender, precious thing and is more delicate than we might have thought before March 2020.  

I’d like to share a little story with you. Spoiler alert: it’s sad but has a happy ending, I promise. I lost my dad to stage 4 cancer just before Thanksgiving in 2020. Needless to say, that was a rough holiday season. After his passing, I was at THE lowest point in life to date. I had been a caregiver for my dad for what ended up being three months after only packing for three weeks. We were just in the early stages of knowing what we were dealing with and, keep in mind, it was during a global pandemic where visiting hospitals and doctor’s offices was complicated with travel and quarantining. I was also going back to my childhood home in the south, a place I had left years prior seeking a better life as an artist because I felt like an outsider, and knew deep down that I was destined for more than I was finding there. After I got the news about my dad in the summer of 2020, I spent a few days getting things in order, said goodbye to my family, and nervously flew back to care for him with the knowledge that we also had so many unresolved issues between us.

Looking back, I’m so grateful for the time I did get to have with my parents as we went through such a horrific yet healing experience together. I will cherish that time forever. A repeat occurrence stands out when I think back to that time. Many nights while laying on a small blowup mattress on the floor at my parent’s house, so many memories from my childhood began to creep up, as well as the hopes and dreams I had for my life as a young, ambitious, creative spirit. As I lay there alone in the dark mentally and physically exhausted, I only had music to keep me company, as my partner and our two furry kids were thousands of miles away. Meanwhile, my dad lay dying downstairs with an unnervingly loud oxygen machine going day and night to help with his breathing, and my mom lay in bed realizing that she might not get to sleep with her partner ever again. Going through that, night after night for weeks to then inevitably lose my dad on that fateful day in early November was such a maturing experience. After months of grief and depression (and so many other emotions), I started to give myself the permission to live again — taking care of myself first and then shifting my focus to others. I did a lot of work breaking myself down and building myself back up, like the phoenix rising from its own ashes — I chose to get back to helping brands to realize their true potential as well as championing creatives like you. 

After returning to my family I began to process it all as well as what it meant for me in my life and career. As I said, I was at the lowest point in life. As Bruce Wayne's father reminds him in Batman Begins, "Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up." My childhood nanny, Omah, one of the most amazing, loving women I’ve ever met, used to always say, “If at first, you don’t succeed try, try, try again.” Now, I know she didn’t come up with that quote but it has stuck with me my entire life. I had already spent several years doing deep work with coaches and on my own in an attempt to figure out my purpose and true potential. Over the course of these last few years and such a maturing experience being a caregiver for Pops, I was finally able to get real about what was important in my unique life. Still to this day, I continue doing the work and asking the hard questions that so many of us don’t take the time to explore if even ask at all.

So, I ask you. Have you asked yourself the tough questions?

Are you a corporate creative who’s not tapping into your true potential and sitting through meeting after meeting talking about projects that don’t truly light you up?

Maybe you're a freelancer who's continuing to be an order taker or technician working in your business rather than working on it with a clear understanding of what you want to devote your days to and who you really want to serve? 

Perhaps, you already know who you want to serve, how, and even why, but you don’t feel like your brand is aligned with your true vision because you're scared that it won’t succeed for whatever reason? I lost count of all the reasons my inner critic (aka "Jimmy") has come up with reasons. Maybe you haven’t taken the time to really step back and define your brand identity and true potential yet?

Let’s not get to our deathbeds and feel regret for what could have been. Life is hard; so is business. And, they are both worth the effort. Most importantly, so are you. We only get one opportunity in this existence to appreciate all that it has to offer. Moreover, what you have to offer. My dad left this world with a lot of regrets that tormented him all the way up to the end. I don’t want that for myself or anyone else if I can help it. Let’s get busy livin’ or we inevitably end up gettin’ busy dyin’.

If this resonated with you, I’d love to know what you connected with most. Feel free to reply in the comments or DM me directly if you’d like to share privately. Keep being ärtful!