Define "Reaching your potential"

[Architect]

INTP's commonly hear that we're not 'living up to our potential'. So, what does that mean? What is your potential, have you ever considered what it is exactly?

 

[QuickTwist]

My parents say "Nobody knows you potential QuickTwist."

 

[TheManBeyond]

hahahahahh ^

I will be very pleased when i record a song that's by first impression potentially comercial and then everybody confirms it. But it can't be a pop song, it has to be enneagram 4.
Usually i record something and say: "this sounds good, really cool" but after some time i realize that it was just an ilusion, it was just one perspective. Time puts everything in its place. When i defeat time i will be legend.

 

[TBerg]

I define it as the full cultivation of one's disposition, that is, the full expression of one's genotype. Whether humans appreciate your genetic expression is the hard question.

I recently realized that I use what I have of intellectual strength to effect what Dabrowski called negative disintegration, meaning that I use my intelligence not for altruistic purposes but for self-preservation. Looking back on my childhood, I can see that I did not have as much sympathy for others as I was worried about how my lack of care was interpreted by others. When I am able to open up to others about how I feel about my place in the world, it helps me to care more about others, because I start to feel genuine connections to others, but most people don't understand or don't care. My only chance at salvaging myself is cultivating empathy, but my detached attitude towards myself and others makes it difficult. The world feels like an emotional desert occasionally beset by torrents of childish rage.

 

[Bock]

Dominating your surroundings/enviroment, one way or another (through understanding/insight or just "force" etc). Most people prefer "tangible" results, which often is an issue for INTP:s...

 

[nearfantastica]

I've heard it a lot. Never really thought about.

I guess people's expectations of you, if you're relatively smart, are that you should become a lawyer or doctor or something. Anything less is "wasted potential". As for my view of my own potential... I really don't know. That's the sort of thing you flesh out over time, no?

INTPs aren't really an ambitious bunch anyway. We're content to be content. That's probably why people assume we're wasting potential. We don't usually aspire to anything grandiose.

 

[nanook]

for me it's defined as fearlessness. being undivided against myself. what that looks like is irrelevant. potential is when you are doing your best, everyone does their best, except not everyone is fully who they are, thus their best is only a fragment of their best potential. it's not just about unlearning to be less than you could be.

of course the word potential is an abstraction that works with time and possibilities and it falls apart if you insist on leaving abstract cognition and looking at mechanical details and present moment facts.

if you apply this criticism to my definition, then you have to say, you don't have the potential to accept yourself more, than you allready do.

 

[TimeAsylums]

Your new profile pic = your upper potential limit

 

[computerhxr]

Living up to other peoples expectations of your potential.

 

[StevenM]

Living up to other peoples expectations of your potential.

Bingo.

 

[idokaiho]

You can't reach your potential, the very notion is illogical. Unless you mean a potential of your past.

 

[Bock]

Living up to other peoples expectations of your potential.

That's obvious, the real question is how to define potential (when someone else applies it to you, this is what architect asks).

 

[manishboy]

I once had a dentist tell me, after she examined my teeth, that I had not lived up to my full genetic potential. I knew what she meant--I have a slightly off bite. But I've carried that wound since.

 

[The Grey Man]

I've always thought of "reaching your potential" as reaching the apex of what you can achieve with perfect motivation and no distractions. Where/what the apex is depends on who you ask.

 

[computerhxr]

That's obvious, the real question is how to define potential (when someone else applies it to you, this is what architect asks).

Everyone lives up to their potential. It's a system and it has friction or drag which is negative potential. There are inside and outside forces at play.

You can change your potential by changing your position, situation, or outlook on life. With a positive outlook you have more potential. You also may have the potential for destruction which I would consider part of the negative potential.

x = potential
y = negative potential = -x
z = x + y = x + (-x) = potential + (-potential) = 0

This is universal. Everyone has the same potential, but they must manifest their own destiny by choosing the path. Some people have a lot of negative potential to overcome, or are born with excess potential. It's all part of a larger potential system that encapsulates everything in existence. It's the ebbs and flows of life, where everything affects everything.

That's my view anyway...

 

[idokaiho]

Well, do we have any control in the first place? I often feel like I'm just an observer in a meat machine. In this sense you don't have to change anything and your potential will just naturally follow.



Your ultimate potential is death!

 

[TheManBeyond]

i'm working on learning all jutsus but i need more time

 

[EyeSeeCold]

INTP's commonly hear that we're not 'living up to our potential'. So, what does that mean?

That one could be in an unsuitable career or position in life based on a superficial & inaccurate appraisal of personality & skills due to lack of understanding...

What is your potential, have you ever considered what it is exactly?

Some create their potential, others seek it out. I'm the latter and I'm not sure if my compass is working correctly, but technology fascinates me and for some weird reason I enjoy working with the public.

 

[Mordecai]

I think "our potential" isn't necessarily anything specific, but rather refers to our capacity for knowledge, which some believe is wasted on seemingly useless information. In addition, this also is yet another way to say "You're lazy" to INTPs.

 

[Reluctantly]

I'll reach my potential when I'm doing interesting work, have lots of money, and live congruent to my self.

or WHEN I TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

either one works.

 

[JPS]

To me it means getting over a sort of baseline of spiritual inertia that we all have in some degree or another. It means considering one's existence and one's place in it, or lack thereof, and then making a meaningful decision on the basis of one's considerations.

In this society we are all given the option of simply vegetating away our lives, whether it be in the form of a screen to stare at or a political candidate to vote for or another vapid human relationship to indulge in. Things move too fast, and so we rarely have time to stop and think about what we're doing.

Cultivating one's potential is another way of saying taking one's time, or, more fittingly, seizing it for one's own purposes. The time we have on this Earth is scarce, and I'd like to spend it deliberately, even if deliberacy means the abandonment of comfort and security.

 

[Pyropyro]

i'm working on learning all jutsus but i need more time

You already got rinnegan man. Just master Multiple Shadow Clone jutsu and you're all set.

 

[StevenM]

Some quick questions: (Yes, I'm answering questions with questions)

Do we even have more potential than we are aware of?

Does our potential have limits? Maybe it doesn't have limits?

 

[QuickTwist]

Some quick questions: (Yes, I'm answering questions with questions)

Do we even have more potential than we are aware of?

Does our potential have limits? Maybe it doesn't have limits?

Take all the limits that you think are out of the realm of possibility and replace them with the limits that humanity have set as a species and turn the notch up 2 dials.

Another way: Its like overclocking a processor. there are a lot of things you have to monitor and test, but eventually the end result is the same. You start with a stock value and it gets increased based on how attune you are to yourself and the world around you.

 

[computerhxr]

Some quick questions: (Yes, I'm answering questions with questions)

Do we even have more potential than we are aware of?

Does our potential have limits? Maybe it doesn't have limits?

Potential is subjective. How do you know that your potential doesn't take from others potential? Like rich people have a lot of money potential and they burden society with negative money potential. How do you know the potential is positive or negative? I think balance is optimal which was the point of the formula. Focusing on intellectual pursuits while ignoring other aspects of your life will only make the intellectual pursuit slower and less effective. Also, you're missing out on other "potentials" that you didn't even know that you had.

 

[ENTP lurker]

The Ne is the external potential function (socionics says this literally).
So develop your Ne. Let Ne-dom help you.

The problem with xNTPs is that Ti guides our potential to be internalized not in the Te kind of way where you just put yourself out there. So in terms of INTP become a theoretician that no one understands. Paul Dirac and bunch of mathematicians and you get the picture.



BTW
The way how to figure out difference between INTP and INFP is that INFP really appreciates that externally applied guided potential due to Te. To make an INFP happy do stuff for them by reading their blind spots, tells this ENTP to inferior Fe users.

 

[Bock]

Potential is simply expected value/progression based upon your qualities; how other people with similar attributes fare in life. Obviously no perciever is perfect nor does everybody have the same value framework, so a person that is seen as an intellectual, but does nothing tangible with this resource = wasted potential (according to that PLEB)

It can also just be a simple "get out there and show the world blabla" etc.

Due to the deterministic nature of the world, "potential" and similar are just very weak substitutes for actual insight in the chains of cause - effect. Percieved dissonance between where/who you are and where/who you "should" be in life. "Should be"... Problematic statement. Kinda like "deserve" and so on.

Pretty simple stuff, just spelling it out to see if i can find some flaws/incoherence.

 

[Gather_Wanderer]

How tall are you?

Stand on a structure that tall, and then don't fall off it.

 

[BrainVessel]

INTP's commonly hear that we're not 'living up to our potential'. So, what does that mean? What is your potential, have you ever considered what it is exactly?

Potential could be anything on any spectrum. I'm assuming you mean positive success or something of that nature.
I would hope that reaching one's potential would be impossible. It would be empowering to know of our own limitlessness.

 

[Deleted member 1424]

Adaire - The last survivor of humanity.

 

[Yellow]

I really don't know what "reaching your full potential". I always thought of it was some meaningless idiom that Js recite as they waggle their fingers. I did, however have an experience in 11th grade that gave me the only working definition I have for the general sentiment.

I went to an "alternative" school for the arts, and we had a kind of home-room teacher who was in charge of tracking our cumulative school progress. Twice each year we had parent-teacher conferences that we (the almost adult student) were supposed to conduct to explain our academic and creative progress to our parents. I suppose the teachers were there mostly to keep us honest and chime in when they felt like it. So I was explaining that I had done pretty well with an impressive B+ average, and he decided to interrupt. He went through course by course, section by section and asked me to explain why I got the grade I got. My explanations (I'm not one for excuses) were that I did most of the work, I followed most of the criteria, I studied for most of the test. Each time I said the words "most", "part", "some", etc, he wrote them down. In the end I think I had about 35 of them.

Then he and my mother had a very pleasant conversation in front of me about how much I could have accomplished if all of the "mosts" were "alls".

They didn't realize how lucky they were to get the "mosts".

 

[Ex-User (8886)]

Maybe only FJ says that. I didin't hear it from my NFs and SPs friends.

But to answer the question - it's your life, do what you want, the fact that you're intelligent doesn't mean that we ought to do anything

 

[Brontosaurie]

well the only times i've heard that is when my parents thought that just because i was "intelligent", any issues i had were fantasy illusions that they weren't obliged to deal with.

 

[ZenRaiden]

Reaching orgazm six times a day baby!

 

[Polaris]

I have never been told by anyone that I'm not living up to my potential.

Nobody ever noticed what I was doing as I was like a mouse for most of my upbringing. That sort of comment was usually directed at my older brother. I was even told that I should not aspire too high.

So I had to do the opposite, of course

So, what does that mean? What is your potential, have you ever considered what it is exactly?

I think it is a term people apply when they can see that someone is underestimating their abilities and/or not living up to currently popular expectations.

I have no idea what my 'potential' is. I do things and I don't do things and people attach value labels to them -- I usually pay little attention as I know where I'm going and what I'm doing and it's my own damn business.

That said, I'm in constant competition with myself -- just to see how far I can push it. It's a game I like to play....

 

[computerhxr]

Reaching orgazm six times a day baby!

Hahaha! Gives new meaning to "it's peanut butter jelly time!"