Reaching your full potential

[PhotonGuy]

It has been mentioned on this forum that a person can reach their full potential in their style and that they will never reach certain levels no matter how much they put into it. Once they get to a certain level they hit a permanent plateau. Im not so sure about that.

 

[Kickboxer101]

Nah I reckon that's about right. Everyone's different but no one can ever be perfect, no one in any style has all the answers and no flaws it's simply not possible. A quote I heard somewhere once "there's no such thing as being the best ever, there's only being the best you can ever be "

 

[Touch Of Death]

It has been mentioned on this forum that a person can reach their full potential in their style and that they will never reach certain levels no matter how much they put into it. Once they get to a certain level they hit a permanent plateau. Im not so sure about that.

No worries; people tend to promote themselves, in their head, to some lofty levels.

 

[Ironbear24]

It has been mentioned on this forum that a person can reach their full potential in their style and that they will never reach certain levels no matter how much they put into it. Once they get to a certain level they hit a permanent plateau. Im not so sure about that.

I think that's a bunch of bull as well and is an excuse to sell yourself short. I have plateaud many times in the gym for example, and after failing many times to lift heavier I eventually do. I feel martial arts is similar and if you keep challenging yourself you will get better and better.

 

[drop bear]

It is a tricky concept that one. And has to do with courting loss.

Quite often being the best is the worst thing for your progression.

 

[Ironbear24]

It is a tricky concept that one. And has to do with courting loss.

Quite often being the best is the worst thing for your progression.

Losing and failure are a part of self development because that means you are being challenged, overcoming challenge is what causes growth. Loss shoul be expected and not break anyone's character. The only time it should be a massive concern is if the person is always losing.

 

[Buka]

Have to keep working. Or not. It's your choice, and the best thing in life a person can have is a choice.

 

[PhotonGuy]

Of course nobody can be perfect but I don't particularly believe that you will reach a point where you will never get any better no matter what.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Of course nobody can be perfect but I don't particularly believe that you will reach a point where you will never get any better no matter what.

You may reach a point where you will never get better based on your goals in your youth, example, you may come to a time when you can no longer kick above your head, or you are not as fast as you were and you simple cannot get faster no matter how hard you try, age and injury can do that to you,. But that does not mean you cannot get better. You actually can get a whole hell of a lot better, but you find you are working on other things, other aspects and from a different point of view.

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life. - Muhammad Ali

My training at 30 was focused on speed, strength and flexibility, my training in my 50s is not, but my understanding of the arts I train is getting better as I age than it was, or could have been, in my 30s

 

[Bill Mattocks]

It has been mentioned on this forum that a person can reach their full potential in their style and that they will never reach certain levels no matter how much they put into it. Once they get to a certain level they hit a permanent plateau. Im not so sure about that.

Potential is a funny thing. It's individual, to begin with. Your potential is not my potential, and mine is not another person's.

Potential can also refer to multiple characteristics. As Xue Sheng said, and I agree, goals often change. I think it is well and good that they do change. As Buka said, it's a choice, and it's good to have choices.

Theoretically, potential is unreachable - that is part of the definition of the word. So one cannot actually 'reach' their potential.

I will never reach my potential in martial arts training, but I continue to train. That's perfectly OK with me.

 

[Jujutsuka]

That might be true to some extent that you never reach your absolute full potential, but you can come pretty darn close. I remember when I was only a 155-pounder in high school, but could still deadlift 300 pounds and kick a 200-pound man so hard that he would do all but cough up a lung.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

That might be true to some extent that you never reach your absolute full potential, but you can come pretty darn close. I remember when I was only a 155-pounder in high school, but could still deadlift 300 pounds and kick a 200-pound man so hard that he would do all but cough up a lung.

Indeed. I nearly coughed up a lung just now.

 

[Kickboxer101]

That might be true to some extent that you never reach your absolute full potential, but you can come pretty darn close. I remember when I was only a 155-pounder in high school, but could still deadlift 300 pounds and kick a 200-pound man so hard that he would do all but cough up a lung.

Well to be fair size of the man you kick doesn't matter

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Well to be fair size of the man you kick doesn't matter

Oh, it might.

 

[Tez3]

That might be true to some extent that you never reach your absolute full potential, but you can come pretty darn close. I remember when I was only a 155-pounder in high school, but could still deadlift 300 pounds and kick a 200-pound man so hard that he would do all but cough up a lung.

Wow, I'm impressed........ but then I'm easily impressed.

 

[PhotonGuy]

Theoretically, potential is unreachable - that is part of the definition of the word. So one cannot actually 'reach' their potential.

I will never reach my potential in martial arts training, but I continue to train. That's perfectly OK with me.

Well of course if you've got infinite potential you never will reach it.

 

[yak sao]

Potential is also fluid.
Whatever potential you may have had as a teenager is not going to be the same as the potential you have as a 50 year old.
But even within your physical limitations, there is still room for growth

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Well of course if you've got infinite potential you never will reach it.

No, I mean the literal definition of 'potential' is the 'ability' for something to happen. Once it happens, it is no longer potential.

A high-voltage electrical line is potentially dangerous. Once it shocks the crap out of you, it's not potentially dangerous, it's dangerous. No potential about it.

So you cannot, in literal terms, reach your potential, no matter what that limit might be. Once you attain what was your potential, it's not potential anymore, it's real.

 

[PhotonGuy]

No, I mean the literal definition of 'potential' is the 'ability' for something to happen. Once it happens, it is no longer potential.

A high-voltage electrical line is potentially dangerous. Once it shocks the crap out of you, it's not potentially dangerous, it's dangerous. No potential about it.

So you cannot, in literal terms, reach your potential, no matter what that limit might be. Once you attain what was your potential, it's not potential anymore, it's real.

I see, good point.

But once you do attain what was your potential, there are new potentials to work towards.

 

[Ironbear24]

Sounds like all of us aside from bill have been confusing potential with limits.