#61 What it takes to pursue your potential

Rachel Denning (00:00.974)
Hey my friends, good evening. I'm in California. Came down for a conference down here.

I'm constantly learning, constantly growing, trying to be my best self. We're gonna actually talk about that right now. And so it's probably kind of echoing here and there's gonna be some noise, but I wanted to share these thoughts with you. I'm so excited, I was doing some reading, listening to a great book, reading a great book, having some incredible conversations on the flights and meeting with people. The conference hasn't even started yet and we're already just meeting and mentoring and then I had another awesome

coaching session today with just a fantastic high performer, husband, father, businessman, just rocking it. He wants to level up, right? He wants to level up every area of his life. He wants to take all his talents and skills and abilities and all his successes and his failures, take it all and level up so he can live at a higher level, right? Which is what we all want. And so tonight we're gonna talk about, we're gonna talk about

reaching your full potential. But that's like it's such an interesting subject because well number one what is it even like what is what is reaching your full potential and how do you actually do it and this is hard this is hard because you might be asking like well Greg have you reached your full potential and like no.

but I don't wanna have to wait till I'm 90 before I record this podcast episode. And I guess I wanna share what I'm learning about pursuing it. That's one thing I am doing. I am voraciously pursuing my potential. I'm going after it. And I'm gonna share that journey with you and what I'm learning in hopes that you will voraciously pursue yours as well. And what is potential? You've heard, perhaps heard,

Rachel Denning (02:00.367)
People ask, what's the potential of a seed? And at first thought, you're like, well, okay, the potential of a seed is what it can turn into, right? The potential of an apple seed, you might think is an apple tree, but it doesn't stop there, because that one tree will produce...

Apples and then hundreds of apples year after year and every one of those hundreds of apples has a few seeds in each one right and those seeds can have the potential to turn into more trees that produce hundreds of apples year after year after year. You see the potential there? It's actually astounding and your potential is also generational. That's a bit sobering isn't it?

Your potential is generational.

Whoa, that's sobering for me. Rachel, we talk about our grandkids and great grandkids all the time, even though our oldest is only 17 and not even ready for marriage. We are thinking generationally, and we're pursuing our potential, modeling it for our kids and doing everything in our power to help them pursue their potential. We're really setting things up generationally. So what does it take to pursue potential?

Like what's included? And what's interesting about this whole conversation and this topic, it's actually quite difficult, you guys. There's no simple answer and there's definitely no easy way. So let's just lay that out right now.

Rachel Denning (03:44.941)
in pursuing your potential, there's no easy way. There's no shortcut. There's no hacking this. There's no back door. You can't dabble here a little bit there and reach it. Let's establish that right now. Let's get really clear. This takes a lot of work for a long time. Now some of you might be discouraged by that.

you might be like, why even try? I want quick results, I want things to happen. If it doesn't seem like it's happening, if it takes a long time, if it's really hard, why even try? And I guess the question I have to ask you is one I love to ask people when I'm coaching them and when I'm meeting with them and speaking, I love to ask, what happens if you just stay the course that you're on? What happens?

if you don't reach for your potential.

And I want you to answer that. What happens, you guys, if you stay on the same course you're on without really pursuing your potential, without really leveling up your life? What happens?

And almost always the answer to that of is, you know what? That would be super disappointing. And...

Rachel Denning (05:12.973)
like there'd be a lot of regret and a lot of remorse. Because even if you're on a good path, and I hope you are, and you're listening to this, you're living good lives, you're great people, I'm sure you're on a good path, right? But the wonderful and exciting thing is even when we're on a good path or a great path, we can keep leveling up. That's the beauty and wonder of life is we can keep growing, we can keep improving. There's never a time when you're like, nope, I've reached the pinnacle of awesomeness, right? You can keep

going whatever height you achieve, there's more. Now that's not intimidating, that's not discouraging, that's exciting. That's fun, that's wonderful. That's great that we get to celebrate where we've come from, and please do that.

Don't get caught into the mindset like I have sometimes of it's always go, go, go, go. Where's the next peak? Where's the next summit? Where's the next thing? Like actually celebrate where you've come from. Celebrate what you've achieved. Enjoy every bit of it. But please don't sit back either and be like, I have arrived and I'm staying right here in my rocker and I'm not going anywhere else because the moment we stop.

The moment we stop growing, like somebody said to me tonight even, they said, you know, if you get ripe, you get rotten, but if you're green, you're growing, right? And we gotta be growing and improving. And if we don't, friends, the consequences...

are generational, they're gigantic for us, for our kids, for our grandkids, for the people we might have influenced. That's a sobering reality. And I'm not trying to put unneeded pressure on you, but I am trying to put a little pressure on you. I'm going to put a little fire into there to some urgency, right? And some haste to say, hey, let's pursue this with excitement, passion. I'm not trying to stress anybody out. I'm not trying to overwhelm anyone. Like none of this should

Rachel Denning (07:13.615)
overwhelming or stressful but we should feel a little pressure of like hey and this is the good pressure right this is positive pressure this says let's let's do this thing who could you become what could you achieve

What's possible for you if you really go after it? And I wanna give you some tools and resources here, because it often seems overwhelming if we don't know what to do about it. And we feel like we just have this massive obstacle, this huge challenge, and we literally have no idea how to achieve our goals. Like I recently had a coaching session with someone, and that was the thing, like hey look, I kinda have some goals, they're not real clear, but I just have no idea how to.

achieve them. And when you're in that spot, man that feels, they feel insurmountable, right? Like what's the point? I have no idea. And so I don't want you to worry about the how. I'm gonna give you some tools and resources. But you start working on the process.

Right? You start moving in that direction and you take a step in that direction every day. The how comes you guys trust. Trust me when I say that. I know it's hard to see that because you feel like you're stepping into the dark and I have many times. my goodness. Whenever I'm pursuing a big goal, that's how it feels. I feel like I'm stepping into the darkness and hoping my foot lands and then, you know, one foot lands like, okay, that was good. And then the next step still feels like it's in the darkness. When you're, when you're, when you're biting off big old bites, right? You're going after big things.

it feels intimidating. But as long as you continue the process, the system, the habits, the day in, the day out, man, awesome things happen.

Rachel Denning (08:59.981)
And my friends, the cost of not doing it is gigantic, like I said. And I've said this before, I really believe it. I think one of the greatest tragedies in the world, if not the greatest tragedy in the world, is when a human being fails to reach their full potential. And I've taught before that I think potential is like a gigantic ocean.

that's unexplored, a vast mountain range that's never been tapped for resources. That's human potential. For everybody. For you. You are so chuck full of awesome sauce. And I mean that. I literally do. You are so full of awesome sauce. And we gotta go after it. We gotta go after it. We gotta make things happen.

So how do we do it? Well, if you wanted to pursue a talent or a skill, what would you do?

Well then one, you're going to start learning about it. So if you're taking notes here, take notes, learn about it, study it. Whatever this thing is, study it. Like, and potential could be a lot of things, you guys, and it's going to look different for each of us. And it might be pursuing unique skill sets kind of independently that will end up fitting together as a beautiful mosaic, right? As a beautiful portrait or painting or puzzle piece. And so it might be independent skill sets when you're reaching

for your full potential, right? But it might be, it's gonna look different for everyone. It might be pursuing a musical talent or an art talent or a computer talent or a science talent or...

Rachel Denning (10:41.261)
People skills or physical fitness or some kind of influence or persuasion it might just be pursuing your own virtues and your character and your personality like it's all those things and it's it's unique to you But I want you to explore I want you to try things Try all kinds of things and search search inside and out look in your heart be like what is it that you feel called to do drawn to what desires you have?

I think God gives us desires. I really do. I think God gives us desires that then lead to the path that he wants us to pursue. So search that out, study it, whatever you pick, just study it like crazy, read books about it, watch videos about it, go to seminars and trainings about it, buy courses about it, just learn about that thing. And then, so we're gonna pick something simple like music or art, right, or sports. Because in pursuing human potential, we're gonna follow the same path.

patterns at work, right? So you start learning about it. You need to practice every day. Like commit to make this a part of your life and it's not for a few weeks or a few months or a few years. It's for your life. It's to master it. Now you don't, you're not married to it. If you do it for 10 years and you say you want to change, great. If you do it for one, well, I was going to say, even if you do it for one year, you're like, no, it's not this, it's something else. That's great. Don't be afraid to shift and change. Try things. Life's a big experiment. What I'm saying is commit.

to lifelong learning and growth and development and practice. Commit to lifelong practice that for the rest of your life you're gonna practice something. That's awesome, that's wonderful, right? And some days it's gonna be super enjoyable and some days it'll just be you're just doing it because you need to do it, right? You've committed. And that's okay, but commit. I think sometimes we get this idea in our heads that at some point we'll get to do nothing. Right, it's just this kind of dreamy idea that,

at some point in my life I'll have the chance to do nothing. And you know what? Maybe you need that for a couple days or a week. But after a week you're gonna start going crazy. You're gonna fall apart and you're gonna die inside if you're not working on something. So make it a worthy, a worthy meaningful thing. Something that's really fulfilling to you. You feel like you're cultivating you from the inside out and from the outside in. Like you're cultivating who you are, right?

Rachel Denning (13:10.895)
And so just set in your mindset. I'm really trying to set up some mindset and some framework for thinking here. I really want to share these ideas of how to think about this. And the way to think about it is I'm going to practice these things for the rest of my life. That's what I'm going to do. It's going to be part of my moral journey that I love and that is awesome and exciting. I'm going to practice getting better for the rest of my life. I'm going to practice a skill set. Right? And so you're going to pursue these things.

And yes, some of it has to be hard. Like just that's the nature of the element. If you want to get really great at something, you got to practice hard. Right, if you want to be a world -class pianist, your little 15 minutes a day of twinkle twinkle like won't cut it. At some point, we have to put in the strenuous practice, the deliberate practice. I'm going to do another podcast on a book I recently finished called Talent is Overrated. That's phenomenal. You guys should read it.

And you get in there and says, and I've read all kinds of books about this. It's coming up again and again and again around deliberate practice, about the path of mastery. That's another excellent book there, Mastery. And the idea is look, get serious about it. And commit to it and stick to it for years. So yes, it's going to take thousands of hours. Not this set 10 ,000 hour we keep hearing about. It's thousands of hours.

thousands and thousands of hours. It's just, there it is, it's thousands of hours. The more hours you spend on it, the sooner you get there. The less, the longer it takes. But mastery and potential and growth and awesomeness just takes thousands of hours. Now people might complain and be, and even in your head you might be like, come on, that's gonna take me years. Like, that'll happen eight years from now. I can't wait that long.

And to that I always love to ask the question like, well...

Rachel Denning (15:11.693)
you know what's going to happen in eight years if you don't do it and what's going to happen if you do. The years are going to pass my friends, they are flying by. I don't know about you man, they seem to get going faster. The years are flying by and they will pass whether you practice or not. Okay, eight years are going to pass. The next eight years are going to come and go. They're going to fly by faster than you think and you're going to look back and be like, whoa, that was eight years ago I listened to that podcast episode. And my question is,

you is, they're going to pass anyways, so whether you practice or not, they'll pass. When those eight years show up, when that date shows up eight years from now, where do you want to be? Hopefully you want to have practiced, so you get there and you're like, yes, yes, holy cow, I'm way closer to my potential. I really have done something with myself. This feels fantastic. I can see the results of my life. I can see the influence and

other people's lives around me. Like this is awesome. So commit this is a lifelong journey to reaching for potential. You're going to practice. You're going to make practice a priority. Write that down. Make practice a priority. And you're practicing on your thing. I love to ask people.

What's the one skill or multiple skills? What's the skill set that you could practice over the next few years and develop in such a way that it guarantees your success? What skill sets could you practice every day that would guarantee your success and fulfillment? Like that's a big, powerful question. And if you can get that dialed in and make it your priority that you work on it every day or at a minimum every week,

then you just become unstoppable, my friends. Whoa, that's exciting. I love thinking about this. You become unstoppable. Okay, so the next step, look, you're studying about it, you're committed to it, you have the right mindset, you're in for the long game, right? Because you want long -lasting results, you want something that's gonna really matter and make a difference, you wanna get to the end of your life and look back and be like, yeah, I did that thing. And you're gonna commit to practice.

Rachel Denning (17:32.847)
and some of the practice will necessarily be difficult practice because you're straining to grow, right? You're struggling strain. If it doesn't challenge us, it doesn't change us, friends. And then you got to get a coach.

And what's interesting, like a lot of people don't, they don't think through this enough. Like it seems so obvious to us. It seems so obvious when we're doing like sports or when we're doing, you know, music or whatever. Sorry, I'm in a hotel. I just got interrupted. But when we're doing those things, we know like, yeah, get a coach.

Right? We know that. And like we don't even hesitate. Like yeah, if you're going to do music, you've got to get a music teacher. If you're going to play sports, you've got to get a coach. Like nobody even questions that. That's the next process in pursuing mastery and growth.

We have to learn to train our thinking to be the same way with life. If I want to reach my life potential, right, if I want to reach my growth as a human being, I got to get a coach. I got to get somebody who has been studying voraciously, has figured out a lot of these things kind of ahead of the game for me, that's, you know, spent their life paying a price in this and that actually also

has a skill set in teaching it to others who not only has been able to do it themselves but have been able to help others do it, right? There is so much power in that because the coaching makes it personal to you, to your situation, your circumstances. It's individualized if it's done really well and not all coaches are created equal, my friends. Just big heads up on that. But if it's done well and done effectively,

Rachel Denning (19:36.111)
It's customized to you and it's, and it will ideally will be holistic. So it's going to be every part of your life because you don't want to, if you're going after your potential. And this is what we talked about in my coaching session today with my client. Like if, if you have all this pressure, right, you've got all this, these demands made on you from being a spouse, being a parent, being a friend, a neighbor, a child, a church member, a team member, an employee or an employee.

employer or a business owner or a leader. I mean, you have all these roles and all these, all these demands on you and all these responsibilities and all these people counting on you, which is all, that's all a great thing. You guys, I hope, I hope we all get opportunities like that. It's a great thing to have people counting on you, but because of that, man, you've got to be on your game. You got to have the energy to show up day after day instead of feeling, feeling like you're literally dragging yourself.

through the day. Some of us feel like we're trapped in quicksand just clawing our way through the day, day after day, right? And there's tools and strategies and resources and principles and practices to help us have tons of energy. You can be like the Energizer Bunny, right? I've got enough energy to power a small city and I just renew it constantly so I can go, so I can show up, right? And you've got to have courage.

and you gotta learn how to influence and lead others. And you gotta have your own clarity. Right, and then you gotta have...

great health and you got to have your emotions in check that you know you're mastering them and not letting them master you and your mindset and your brain you're exercising your mind and your education and your spirituality and your social you're gonna be social superstar it's all these things right and and i know this podcast it might be feeling pretty overwhelming to a lot of you and seem like okay this is a lot this is so much but but it's exciting it's fun it's like this is one of those big challenges

Rachel Denning (21:42.479)
you take on and be like, yeah, I'm in this for the long game. It doesn't have to happen tomorrow or next week or next month or even next year. Like, I'm setting up the process and I'm gonna take steps every day. I'm taking steps. We are moving forward towards potential. That's where we're going. We're going towards potential.

And if we'll do those things, get the coaching, and then set up systems with the coach, set up systems for accountability, for tracking and measuring so we know where we're making progress and where we're not making progress, and we'll continue to learn, continue to grow, continue to level up, and continue that deliberate practice, then you get in this growth and you get in this momentum, right? And momentum changes things. Because you get going and then you can keep...

going it's actually it's so much easier like Emerson said that which we persist in doing becomes easier not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our ability to do has increased I love that and then we get better and better at it and stronger and stronger and man then we start we always feel like we're flying

And yes, we're still making mistakes, and we're fumbling, and we're failing, and we feel uncomfortable regularly because we're stretching to new heights. We're trying new things, and then whenever there's newness, it's uncomfortable. You feel awkward, you make mistakes, but you're trying and growing.

And you're pushing it. And you guys, I hope you'll join me. Will you please join me? Join me in this journey. The path to potential. Right? We all need hats or t -shirts or something. It says I'm on my path to potential, my personal potential. Join this quest for greatness. And let's go after it.

Rachel Denning (23:41.549)
with vigor and excitement and let's share this message. In fact, share this podcast. Share the podcast, take a screenshot of it, tag us, share it. Let's get this out there and let's encourage, let's set the example, model for others around us, people we're observing, for kids. Let's just model that life, what is life? Life is a journey, a big adventure in pursuing potential. That's what it is.

Like we're here to learn, we're here to grow. In my mind that's what life is for. We are here to enjoy this awesome journey of growing and reaching, just voraciously pursuing our potential. And there's so much fulfillment and joy and meaning in that and how sweet life is, how fulfilling life is, how impactful life is, how gratifying life is. I love being alive when we're pursuing potential.

And the opposite is when we're not pursuing it. We feel like we're dying inside We feel like we're stagnating like we're just merely existing or drifting They're floating along not going anywhere when we could be going after it. So my friends, let's go after it. Remember those things It's not gonna be easy. So does anybody tell you it's gonna be easy or quick? Nope

not the case friends. It is a long journey. We're in for a long game because we want long results. We want something that's going to last. And so we're in. We're willing to do the work. We're committed. We're going to go after it every day. We're going to make practice a priority. We're going to get coaches and training and we're going to do it. And if you want help, like again, I keep offering this and I'm going to keep offering it because I love you guys and this is what I live for and this is what I do. And seeking my potential and my mission and purpose is literally to help

Others help you reach for yours. So if I can help let me know you go to Gregdenning .com Extraordinary family life or World School Academy for the adventures like whatever whatever it looks like for our monthly coaching for 20 day challenges for One -on -one coaching or family coaching group coaching for the trips were gone, which I'm so stoked you guys our couples trip to Thailand in February over Valentine's. It's gonna be awesome But whatever it is, however, I can help

Rachel Denning (26:03.631)
Let me know. Shoot me messages. Shoot me questions. Like genuinely I'm here to help you reach for your potential and share what I've learned in that journey. So let's go out. Let's make it happen. Let's reach for potential and watch. Watch what an impact we can make because we're always radiating friends. We are always, we can't not. We can't not.

radiate what we're doing and who we are. So at every moment of our lives, we are constantly radiating who we are at the moment. And so by pursuing our potential, we're going to radiate growth, we're going to radiate improvement. And then as we change and reach closer to our potential, we were actually better. And so now we're radiating better light and warmth and love and improvement. It's awesome. It's so incredible. It's so impactful. So remember my friends, awesome is always an option. Reach upward.

Rachel Denning (27:00.749)
Hey everybody, thanks so much for listening to this episode. I hope you got a lot of value out of it and found some things that you can apply to your life right away. Hey, I'm being totally sincere when I say I live to help you live your extraordinary life. So I hope you'll reach out to me if you have any questions or let me know how I can help you in any important area of your life. And in fact, you know, this, this podcast is brought to you by the school of awesome sauce monthly coaching program. Take advantage of that. Get in there. If it's the,

best way to get a breakthrough to the next level so you can level up your health, your spirituality, your emotions, your mind, your relationships, your finances, business, every part of your life. Just get in there where you have a coach and a mentor, you have a supportive community to make things happen. So jump in there, take advantage of this, try it out, get in there with us and level up your life. See you on the inside. Reach upward.