Kinetic and potential

As a young boy, I was pure energy. 

ZinG!

Away I would tumble, role and ride. Oh how I loved to ride my bike.

My preferred energy type was kinetic.

The others, older ones, preferred my energy in another state. 

The others, older ones, were quite happy to remark about what wonderful potential I had.

The key words there are “potential” and “one day”, meaning, not their responsibility and not now. Apparently, at some later date, all of this ‘potential’ was supposed to somehow magically become something.

Potential energy with regard to gravity is explained simply as mass times gravity times height.

As such, my guess that having ‘potential’ somehow meant that I was either heavy or high. Back when they spoke of my potential, I was neither. 

What the hell was supposed to happen to all of this ‘potential’? 

I imagine that the point was to reach the highest place I could, find a groove and, like a marble in those noisey marble mazes my kids used to make, find a rut / route that someone else has built and follow where it ends. 

Potential energy is nice. It’s easy to control. Potential knows its place. Kinetic? That for many today still is considered chaotic. The formula for kinetic I know by heart. Kinetic energy is a half of the mass times the square of the velocity. Heavy doesn’t matter so long as you’re fast.

I was fast.

And a little out of control.

But I felt my best when I was moving.

Although, there have been many years where I have been in love with my own big, bright, shiny, heavy potential. It’s been a burden, and a gift. I was raised with stories about my undeveloped or unmet, or underdeveloped or underutilized potential. For a long time I hid behind the idea that I could do better someplace else. Potential always was some ill defined, mystery that shifted like sand dunes.  I was scattered. I lacked focus. I lacked something to measure myself against. 

Lately I’ve learned about goals.

Goals keep me moving. 

Goals help me continue with kinetic energy, rather than the inaction of dreaming and accumulating potential energy.

I have always hated being told that I ‘had so much potential’. All of that potential energy, turbo charged with the weight of expectations. Most of mine were the expectations I had for myself. Expectations that we put on ourselves can be the most painful.

And?

Without learning how to set goals I was roaming around with high expectations for myself and no way to see how I was measuring up. I didn’t have any way to evaluate and improve without having goals and a practice to work towards them daily

So

If you want to know more about goals, start writing them down. Write down everything that you want to do in the next 12 months. Make a list for yourself. You have 48 hours to complete this task.

Let me know how it goes.