Thursday, January 29, 2009

A Solemn Thought --> A Winning Solution

"Reaching your full potential" means being the very best person you can be, right? Is it just me, or does that sound like a terrifying concept? How can you push yourself to work towards an ideal that may never come? Even worse, what if you already reached that point of "full potential," but weren't able to notice because it simply wasn't good enough? Instead of fillling the mold you carved for yourself, you merely painted the surface, creating only a mediocre representation of your dreams and aspirations. Maybe the phrase is just a timeless source of motivation that inspires us to continue working diligently, rather than get hung up on our shortcomings. If the latter is true, what real reason do we have to justify our actions? What is the point in working for something so unattainable?

Taking a page out of any guy's handbook, I'd say, do it for the chase. In the spirit of competition, there is nothing sweeter than beating an opponent to something that you both want. When the circumstances are fair, winning basically means one thing: You are better than your opponents. You possess greater skill, intellect, character, etc. In that fleeting moment of victory, you may not be the best that you personally want to be, but you are the best at whatever it is you competed for. Even if your efforts don't result in a full-on victory, there is something so thrilling about going after the things you can't have. In the end, it's a partial-win-partial-win situation.

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