Believe it or not, I was a pretty good athlete. Actually, I could still lace em up and light up any 9 year old in a game of 36 right now. Don’t mess with me. Specifically my high school and college years. I enjoyed basketball, golf, baseball and football but when we moved to Tennessee in 1990, I was introduced to tennis-and loved it. There was a guy in our church who’d played tennis since he was old enough to walk and he offered to take me out to play one Saturday afternoon. The local high school was behind our house complete with courts, and in his mind, a full serving of butt-whipping. He was a giant of a kid but awkward at best. What I mean by that is he was slow and cumbersome. I knew that I was a combination of speed, power and brains designed by God to change the world through my athletic prowess. I felt sorry for him really. He had no idea the pain I was about to inflict. My parents bought me a racket from Walmart and although the ‘W’ on the racket didn’t stand for ‘win’, I took that woman’s racket and prepared to dominate. Let me pause here for a minute and explain something: I’d never picked up a racket in my life up to this point. I’d never so much as even watched tennis much less played it. My confidence was rooted more my perception of him than my own ability. I had no reason to be so confident. His mom had groomed him to be a future tennis star and I was wearing jean shorts and a tank top. Not cut off jeans because that’s just too unnatural. These were Jordache shorts with really cool multi layer pockets. David versus Goliath was an understatement. We arrived at the court and begin to hit the ball around. It was at this moment reality set in. All of a sudden my arrogance was unveiled and my inexperience was exposed. This was going to get ugly. He hit shots by me, over me and even at me. I ran around so much, I had a 3rd degree denim burn on each thigh. Long story short, we played and he won. But that day, I realized I could play this game. I could actually be pretty good. I went on to try out for the middle school tennis team later that year and became the 1 seed. I’d never played until that Saturday but over the next few months, I’d become a natural! I could even serve the ball with a power unmeasurable for a 12 year old. It was glorious. I reached high school and unfortunately expected the same results by putting in the same effort which wasn’t much. And the results were drastically different. I was the 5-7 seed on them team and could occasionally sneak up and beat another teams 2-3 seed. You see, I was actually still pretty good. I was still a natural. So much so, that those memories birthed this article. Mrs. Irvin, my coach, said something to me that has haunted me to this day. It was after a match in which I actually won but barely. The opponent wasn’t all that good but took me to the last set. The day before I’d beaten one of the top players in the district and here I was struggling to beat a kid who looked like he’d rather be at science camp than a tennis court. (No offense to scientists.) She pulled me to the side, looked me in the eyes and said, “Jason, if you’ll just spend some time practicing, you could write your ticket to any college you want. You have great potential.” I know now what she was trying to tell me. But that day, I heard something totally different. I heard that I was good at something and had a free pass. I heard that I could be good enough to beat most of the people I played. I heard that there may be a couple of schools who’d give me a scholarship. But what she was saying was far greater than what I heard.
You see, that’s the problem with potential. It gives you a false sense of accomplishment. It makes you feel as if you’ve arrived at your destiny when you haven’t even began the journey. Potential is what you are before your purpose is found. Potential is powerless to change you. Potential is a detriment to who you were created to be. When you hear “you have potential” that only means there is a possibility that you COULD become something. It means someone recognizes a trait, skill or ability in you that COULD become POTENT if placed in the proper environment.
The root of potential is the word “potent.” Which means “extremely powerful, explosive.” The suffix ‘ial’ means “in relation to or characterized by”. In other words, potential is having the appearance of power. It’s almost explosive. It’s 3 feet from gold. It’s doing 8 reps when you know you could probably do 10. It’s 5 more minutes on the treadmill and not counting the walk to the car as exercise. Many of us have the potential to be amazing fathers, mothers, teachers, leaders, athletes and business owners but we quit just short of the prize. We give a good effort but not a great effort. Our presentation was one of the best but not OUR best. Then when we almost reach the goal someone does us the disservice and says, “Wow! You have so much potential! You could be amazing! You are one of the best at that!” And we become satisfied with second. We surrender to so-so. We are proud of our potential. We wear it like a badge of honor. We act like Marines but look like mall cops.
I’m challenging you, me, all of us to step out of potential and into potency. Being powerful rather than almost powerful. Shake off the the idea of what you could be and step into who you were made to be. Stop letting almost be the stumbling block to greater. Determine in your heart that you will never hear about your potential again.
To this day, I feel like Uncle Rico in the classic movie “Napoleon Dynamite”. (Minus the blue leisure suit and amazing mustache.) I often wonder what could’ve been. Had I just recognized the ability someone else saw in me, what could’ve happened. But I quickly snap back into who I am now and commit to making sure my kids are potent and not full of potential. I haven’t picked up a racket in over 10 years but if I did, I bet I’d be pretty good. No, Potentially great. See, I did it again.