Among the stickiest places for dealing with potential has been numbers – and particularly financial numbers.  Money has been a highly-charged topic for many of us.  As a culture, we’ve often been more open about our romantic lives than our financial lives.

It’s likely that a key reason for historic difficulty in relating with financial potential is that our culture teaches us that we are to be measured by our financial achievements.  If we’re earning under our potential, the tendency for many has been to experience that as some sort of failure as a person rather than simply a measure of relative performance.

What is your relationship to your financial potential?  Is it easier to explore your potential for financial mastery at work rather than in your own personal balance sheet?  Have you been among those persons who ignores your financial potential altogether? What is the optimal relationship to that potential for you?

What’s your potential?  Are you living up to it?  How do you know when you are or you aren’t?  What can you do about it . . . either way? Do you use your potential only as a means of motivating you, or have you used it in the past as a way of punishing yourself when you’ve focused on not living up to it? Is your perception of your potential a moving target that has mirage-like qualities?

Potential means “the inherent capacity for coming into being.” Potential from an engineering perspective roughly means the capacity – or the ability – of a structure to bear a specific load.

For human beings, our potential is probably less a fixed number than a range of possibilities that can be impacted – positively or negatively – by a tremendous range of variables.

How much do you access or consult the idea of your potential with the intention of being motivated and inspired by it?  Less pleasantly, how frequently have you consulted your potential – and the difference between where you are and where you could be – as a means of beating yourself up?  What is the optimal relationship to potential?

In Zen Buddhism, there is the concept of beginner’s mind. This is a state of openness and receptivity as if one were just beginning – no matter how long you might have actually engaged in a particular activity or faced a specific situation.  There is less analysis and judgment about whether or not something is working.  Thus, there is more presence and attention. Less distraction, more focus.

Imagine the possibilities of approaching your career, your romantic interests, your financial position, your dreams, your life –  all from the perspective that you are just beginning. Why? A beginner has, by definition, no preconceived notions about how something should be done; therefore, she or he has a very open mind.

Where in your life would having beginner’s mind be most useful to you? What assumptions and limitations might have to fall away if you approached everything as if for the first time? Have you ever done this before? If so, how did it work for you?

The word “promises” is a word that is more often used in our culture than “oath.” An oath is a powerful promise typically made in the presence of a Diety. Thus, an oath has the added consideration of the inclusion of a higher power as and when conceived by the person making the oath.

How do you regard promise-making? All humans have broken their promises from time to time because, up to the present moment, we have not been perfect. Are there any promises that you have made that rise to the level of being oaths? What key promises / oaths have you broken?

Do you make many promises, or do you shy away from them? Do you make oaths at all? If so, when?

Try to regard this topic with an open mind and no negative judgment toward yourself. The rewards are rich.

Self-talk often takes the form of what our egos identify as our needs. Deepak Chopra says:

“If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. These are the three things that the ego is doing all the time. It’s very important to be aware of them every time they come up.”

Pause for a moment and think about the implications of a life free of the need to control, to be approved of and to judge. Try just one day to monitor your internal dialogue to determine if you can shift your self-talk each time those dynamics occur.

Inevitably, our week’s conversation about perfection turns to imperfection. Dr. Wayne Dyer said, “To sit in judgment of those things which you perceive to be wrong or imperfect is to be one more person who is part of judgment, evil or imperfection.”

If one’s core belief is that *all* is perfect – on at least what might be called a “cosmic” level – then Dyer’s comment would be true. He is equating negative judgment itself with imperfection. Kind of like the pot calling the kettle black if one adjudges something to be imperfect, but is then made imperfect by the judgment.

Have you ever judged something imperfect and, therefore, wrong or flawed or even evil? How do we humans maintain the paradox that everything is “perfect,” yet clearly cruelty and suffering exist in the world? How can those things be “perfect”?

Getting insight about how to expand personal productivity needn’t be complicated. Each of us is surrounded by people who can give us valuable feedback.

Asking “How can I be more productive” may feel risky because you may fear that you’re opening yourself up to criticism . . . . . and that you may be hurt.

Conversely, depending on YOUR attitude, you may find that receiving frank, constructive feedback feels useful and, well, “productive.” Be in a mindset that you won’t take anything that is said to you personally, that you’ll only hear the positive intent, and you’ll refrain from judging or shaming yourself or others.

Everyone can improve, and our business colleagues, friends, family members, customers – almost everyone who knows us – can provide intelligence for us that we may have been unable or unwilling to see.

Be particularly curious as you solicit the opinions of those whom you perceive have less power than you – children, students, employees, vendors and the like. Assure them that their feedback can be frank as long as it’s constructive.

And then listen without interrupting. Ask for clarification if desired. Don’t defend. This is a learning exercise. Take the information and assess its value. Experiment with it and utilize it to grow.

Most of all, have fun! The payoff promises to be significantly enhanced productivity and results.

Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.